NAS Endorses Secret Science Reform Act

Glenn Ricketts

Is a tax-supported federal regulatory agency – such as the Environmental Protection Agency – subject to public oversight?   Is EPA obliged to make public the scientific data on which its regulatory policies are based?  For NAS, the answer to both questions is unequivocally affirmative.  President Peter Wood recently joined a group of academics and scientists to sign a letter endorsing the Secret Science Reform Act, just approved this week by the House Committee on Space, Science and Technology

According to committee chairman and co-sponsor Lamar Smith (R. Texas), the bill is necessary because the EPA’s “regulatory process is both hidden and flawed.  It hides the data and then handpicks the scientists to review it.  Unfortunately, the EPA continues to resist basic accountability.”  At issue are the specific data cited by EPA in support of controversial greenhouse regulations, data which Smith and the bill’s supporters charge that the agency refuses to divulge.

Not everyone favored this appeal to transparency and accountability.  Ranking member Eddie Bernice Johnson (D. Texas) denounced the bill as “anti-science and anti-health,” and accused to the committee’s majority of harassing the agency.  Several major organizations lined up with Johnson, including the Union of Concerned Scientists and the American Lung Association.

But NAS, where we’ve frequently made use of public information laws, has long favored public accountability for public agencies.  That’s not to say that disclosure should be unrestricted, but the data requested from EPA fall well within the bounds of proper public scrutiny.  Taxpayers are entitled to know how their money is being used.

  • Share

Most Commented

October 29, 2024

1.

The Looming Irrelevance of Middle East Study Centers

Today’s Middle Eastern Studies Centers are facing a crisis due to the winds of change in the Middle East and their own ideological echo chamber....

November 19, 2024

2.

Lee Zeldin Should Reform EPA Science Policy

NAS welcomes the nomination of Congressmen Lee Zeldin to lead the Environmental Protection Agency....

November 20, 2024

3.

NAS Welcomes Administrator McMahon's Nomination to Serve as Education Secretary

With McMahon, the new administration has a chance to drastically slim down and depoliticize the Education Department....

Most Read

May 15, 2015

1.

Where Did We Get the Idea That Only White People Can Be Racist?

A look at the double standard that has arisen regarding racism, illustrated recently by the reaction to a black professor's biased comments on Twitter....

October 12, 2010

2.

Ask a Scholar: What is the True Definition of Latino?

What does it mean to be Latino? Are only Latin American people Latino, or does the term apply to anyone whose language derived from Latin?...

May 26, 2010

3.

10 Reasons Not to Go to College

A sampling of arguments for the idea that college may not be for everyone....