Executive Session

Floor Speech

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Mr. PETERS. Madam President, I rise today to express my concern about the nomination of Congressman Jim Bridenstine to be the NASA Administrator. I will oppose his confirmation when the Senate votes this afternoon.

While the nomination is problematic due to Congressman Bridenstine's lack of relevant qualifications and the importance of this position to our Nation, I am deeply concerned about this nomination because it is further evidence of a much deeper problem. I am concerned that this administration does not respect science--especially science in government institutions.

So now let's look at the data.

The Office of Science and Technology Policy, or OSTP, has four positions requiring political appointment, including the Director, who also serves as the President's Chief Science Adviser. The President has made zero--zero--nominations to OSTP and has now taken significantly longer than any other modern President to name a science adviser.

Let's look at how the President's delay compares to past administrations on both sides of the aisle. Presidents Kennedy, Nixon, and Clinton all named a science adviser before they even took office. Presidents Reagan, Carter, and George H.W. Bush all named their science adviser within 4 months of taking office. President George W. Bush waited the longest, but he still chose to pick a physicist to fill the role by June of his first year in the Presidency.

When it comes to prioritizing science in the executive branch, President Trump is not normal. You could say this administration is an outlier or an anomaly. This is the same President who flirted with anti-vaccine conspiracy theories as a candidate and regularly suggested that climate change is a hoax. I am not saying that his lack of a science adviser is causing the President's ill-informed views, but I am saying there is, indeed, a very clear correlation.

It is not just the top science positions that are empty or filled by unqualified nominees either. A talk radio host and a political science professor was nominated to be the Chief Scientist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Political science may be interesting to all of us here in the Senate, but it doesn't have much to do with agricultural science.

Of the 43 nominations the administration has actually made to science-related positions, almost 60 percent do not have advanced degrees in science or health-related fields.

A White House that does not respect science will hold our Nation back. We have historically been a leader in science, and it has unleashed trillions of dollars of economic growth and created millions of jobs. Investment in research and development has been the seed corn for growth in our country and for its economy.

This administration's blatant disregard for science risks ceding that leadership to our competitors, like China, who are making unprecedented commitments in this area.

I do not believe that the Chinese Government is pouring money into scientific research just out of intellectual curiosity; it is because they know it will be the biggest driver of competitiveness and economic growth in the 21st century.

In addition to strong funding for basic research, we need smart, qualified individuals providing leadership across the American scientific enterprise to make sure this money is being well-spent. We need qualified leaders and scientific experts at OSTP, at NOAA, at NSF, at NIH, and we need them at NASA.

NASA has upward of 18,000 employees, 80,000 contractors, and a budget of $20 billion. NASA also is in charge of keeping our astronauts safe and inspiring a generation of young minds as we face a significant shortage of STEM professionals.

NASA's research, science, and technology missions need a champion who understands and promotes nuances of the work being done by scientists on their team. In short, NASA needs an Administrator who will be driven by science and not by politics.

Looking at all of the data--from NASA to OSTP to the USDA--I can't help but reach the conclusion that this administration does not prioritize science, and this needs to change.

I urge my colleagues to vote against Mr. Bridenstine's confirmation today.

I also urge the administration to wake up, make science a priority in the White House and across the executive branch, and start nominating respected scientists to the remaining vacant positions.

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