Political Quotes

“This is the final amendment to the bill, which will not kill the bill or send it back to committee. If adopted, the bill will immediately proceed to final passage, as amended. Mr. Speaker, let's make this simple. The fundamental role of the Environmental Protection Agency is to protect our Nation's environment and to ensure that we have healthy communities for children and families across the country. The Science Advisory Board is the body that ensures that EPA uses the best scientific research available to protect the environment and public health. To support this mission, we in Congress should be working together to ensure that the best and brightest scientists are on this Board. Instead, today's bill would muddy the waters when they should be crystal clear. Mr. Speaker, the underlying bill moves EPA away from scientific integrity and weakens the independence of the Science Advisory Board. First, the bill requires that all scientific and technical points be balanced among members of the Board. What does the term ``balanced'' mean? Politicians should not be mandating scientific results. Science should be determined by the experts--scientists and scientific researchers--not by those of us in this Chamber. Second, the bill imposes a nonscience-based hiring quota for Advisory Board members based on employment by a State, local, or tribal government without regard to scientific expertise.…”