EPA Science Advisory Board Reform Act of 2013

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. HARRIS. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Utah for allowing me to speak on this bill on the floor. As the body may know, the gentleman from Utah succeeded me as chairman of that committee. We had numerous hearings about the EPA Science Advisory Board. So I am glad that one of the results of those years of hearings was H.R. 1422, and I rise to support it.

Mr. Speaker, I hope America is watching. The opponents of this bill clearly and simply believe that people who work for the government know best.

We have heard 60 percent of the Science Advisory Board works for the government. They received millions and millions of dollars in grants from the EPA. They work for the government. The other side wants America to believe that because they work for the government they know better.

Mr. Speaker, I did science, and I had an academic appointment. You know, the joke was that people who can, do, and people who can't, teach; that people who don't really know how to do something end up in an academic institution and end up teaching. I have got to tell you, there was some truth to that.

What this bill does, it says that the Scientific Advisory Board ought to be made up of more than just academics because that is really who makes up the board now. It actually ought to be made up of people who are in the field.

Mr. Speaker, let me tell you, you know that some of the corporations who are affected by the EPA hire the best scientists they can because they have to deal with the EPA, and those scientific minds, in fact, work in the private sector. They don't work for government.

What is wrong with a balanced approach? The gentleman from California said we should be unbiased, unfettered, and transparent. That is what the Science Advisory Board ought to be.

How can you be unbiased if you come up with the wrong conclusion, the Science Advisory Board? You are biting the hand that feeds you. Because 60 percent of those scientists derive their grants from the EPA.

There is no way they can be unbiased.

The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Latham). The time of the gentleman has expired.

Mr. STEWART. I yield the gentleman an additional 30 seconds.

Mr. HARRIS. Mr. Speaker, they are neither unbiased nor unfettered. We know fully and truly, as the gentleman from Texas said, because of the revelations of Mr. Gruber, that transparency is not a major objective of the administration. And I am afraid that has filtered down to the EPA.

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 1422 makes sense. The best advice is from a balanced group of advisers. It is unbalanced at the EPA now. This bill will provide some balance. I encourage the body to pass H.R. 1422.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source