Jim McGovern on Republican science-bashing
“I get it, you don’t like science...And you don’t like science that interferes with the interests of your corporate clients. But we need science to protect public health and the environment.”
- Jim McGovern, as quoted in Salon
This past week, the US House of Representatives passed a bill called HR 1422, which places checks on who can be part of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Environmental Protection Agency. McGovern, a Democrat representing the state of Massachusetts, addressed the quote above to his colleague Chris Stewart, the Republican from Utah who sponsored HR 1422.
According to the magazine, this bill will restrict the participation of academic scientists who have specialist knowledge on the topics under discussion, on the grounds that their peer-reviewed research is somehow a conflict of interest. At the same time, it would allow experts with corporate ties to weigh in on issues that affect those industries - but one wonders how that could possibly be considered less biased.
There was a time, many years ago, when the Republican party was a good friend of the scientific endeavor. It does seem those days are long gone.
You can read the entire piece here.