Panel votes to create "super scientist" position at EPA

A House Science Committee panel voted Thursday to create a new super-scientist position in the Environmental Protection Agency to make sure that the best scientific knowledge and judgment undergirds agency decisions.

"This legislation is based on recommendations made to Congress in a National Research Council report and on numerous other studies calling for strengthening science at the EPA," said Subcommittee Chairman Vernon Ehlers, R-Mich., who co-sponsored the bill along with the ranking Democrat, James Barcia, D-Mich.

Approved by voice vote with no dissent, the bill (H.R. 64) would create a new position, deputy administrator of EPA for science and technology, "who shall coordinate and oversee the science and technology activities of the agency and ensure that agency decisions are informed by the results of appropriate and relevant research, development and demonstrations."

The President would appoint the new deputy, who would be subject to Senate confirmation, with a requirement that he or she have "an outstanding science and technology background." There have been complaints that the agency does not have an outstanding scientist directing research to help determine the scientific justification for rules that are intended to protect public health and that can cost industries huge amounts of money.

The bill would also require the naming of an assistant administrator for research and development, who would also have the title of chief scientist, and serve for a term of five years.

Ehlers released a list of groups supporting the bill including, among others, the American Chemical Society, the Business Roundtable, the National Association of Manufacturers, the Health Physics Society, the Entomological Society and the New York University School of Medicine.

Before the subcommittee voted on the bill, it adopted an Ehlers substitute by voice vote. Ehlers said it clarified the role and duties of the new deputy administrator, reduced the assistant administrator's term from six years to five, and dropped a paragraph outlining "the sense of Congress" on how the Office of Research and Development should operate.

Barcia said the bill "will ensure that science plays a proper role at the EPA." He said it will help ensure that the agency does not "unduly impede" activities that do not harm the environment.

"That depends on who you appoint," said a member of the audience as the session ended.