{"id":1601,"date":"2015-04-23T16:35:20","date_gmt":"2015-04-23T16:35:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/?p=1601"},"modified":"2015-04-23T16:35:20","modified_gmt":"2015-04-23T16:35:20","slug":"the-science-bill-with-the-bit-thats-very-bad-for-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/2015\/04\/23\/the-science-bill-with-the-bit-thats-very-bad-for-science\/","title":{"rendered":"The Science Bill With the Bit That\u2019s Very Bad for Science"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"boat\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Roger Pielke, Jr. quoted in Wired<\/a> article on science and politics.<\/em><\/p>\n

Wired<\/strong><\/em><\/a>
\nApril 23, 2015<\/p>\n

At a federal <\/span>level, scientific research dollars tend to flow with the political tides. For example, when Congress is dominated by Democrats, money pours into climate change research, and just as quickly sloshes over to fossil fuel research when the Republicans 1<\/a><\/sup> take over. But the influence of politics on science extends beyond the motion of money. Bills funding scientific research can include sneaky rules that undermine science as an institution.<\/p>\n

Which is exactly what happened April 22\u00a0in the House of Representatives\u2019 Committee for Science, Space, and Technology, which spent the day\u00a0proposing (Democrats) and shooting down (Republicans) amendments to a bill that\u00a0will play a major role in determining which\u00a0science gets done over the next year or more (because, money). Not because it\u2019s been passed\u2014the bill still needs to survive voting by the complete 435 member House, then the Senate, and then President Obama before it becomes law\u2014but because it\u2019s an important curtain-raiser for some twisted strategies for dealing with science.<\/p>\n

The bill in question is the America COMPETES Act<\/a> (or, if you\u2019re a fan of tortured acronyms: the America C<\/strong>reating O<\/strong>pportunities to M<\/strong>eaningfully P<\/strong>romote E<\/strong>xcellence in T<\/strong>echnology, E<\/strong>ducation, and S<\/strong>cience Act), which doles out research dollars to several science-based federal agencies. Originally penned in 2007 in an effort to revitalize America\u2019s international standing in STEM fields, the act continues to direct a huge amount of money to the research branches\u00a0of the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.<\/p>\n

This reauthorization, penned by the new committee chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX), shifts money to the expected places,\u00a0away from the social sciences and non-fossil fuel-related geosciences, and into things like engineering, nuclear energy, computer science, and fossil fuel development. If you\u2019d like a play by play of how much money went where, check out this analysis by ScienceInsider<\/a>. But if you\u2019re interested in the way science will be\u00a0viewed, treated, and controlled by the committee\u2019s newly elected majority, stick around as we explore two items that could undermine scientists\u2019 ability to govern their own research goals. Read more …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Roger Pielke, Jr. quoted in Wired article on science and politics. Wired April 23, 2015 At a federal level, scientific research dollars tend to flow with the political tides. For example, when Congress is dominated by Democrats, money pours into … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-10-31 20:29:15","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1601"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1601\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1606,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1601\/revisions\/1606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}