What you can do

  • The Hand in Hand Benefit for Hurricane Relief has an active donations page to help victims of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. A list of Houston-area charities is also available here, and preliminary information for helping Irma victims here.
  • Indivisible has posted a list of actions you can take to defend the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

Trump and Congress reach temporary spending deal; appropriations continue in Congress

Ahead of the October 1 deadline to fund the federal government in FY18, President Trump and Congress agreed to a deal to extend spending for three months, raise the debt ceiling, and provide emergency hurricane relief funding. Trump signed the measure on Friday, September 8. The deal averts a government shutdown and gives Congress until December to finalize FY18 spending.

In the meantime, appropriations activity continues, behind schedule, in the House and Senate. Last week, the Senate Appropriations Committee marked up its FY18 appropriations bills on State and Foreign Operations and Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education. Under the latter bill, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) would see a $2 billion (6%) increase, in contrast with the 22% cut proposed by Trump. The House of Representatives is continuing work on a "megabus" spending package (H.R. 3354), which would combine eight separate appropriations bills.

EPA head: it's "insensitive" to talk about climate change during storms; others disagree

In a recent interview, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt claimed that it is "insensitive" to talk about climate change as the U.S. faces deadly storms. As Miami stared down a Category 4 storm, Republican mayor Tomas Regalado disagreed, telling the Miami Herald on September 8, "This is the time to talk about climate change. This is the time that the President and the EPA. and whoever makes decisions needs to talk about climate change. If this isn't climate change, I don't know what is. This is a truly, truly poster child for what is to come." His comments were echoed by Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL), who called out both the Trump administration and Florida Governor Rick Scott for discouraging employees from even mentioning climate change. Said Nelson, "It's denying reality. You can call it politics or whatever, but the Earth is getting hotter. This storm is another reminder of what we're going to have to deal with in the future."

The administration is increasingly at odds with congressional Republicans on climate change. In March, 17 House Republicans voted for a resolution to address human-caused climate change. On September 7, Senators Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Susan Collins (R-ME) voted with Democrats to provide $10 million in funding for the United Nations climate agency, which is responsible for international programs such as the Paris Agreement.

Exploding Texas chemical plant had no EPA inspections for 14 years

Flooding from Hurricane Harvey cut power to the Arkema Corp. chemical plant in Crosby, Texas, resulting in explosions from overheated stored chemicals. On September 6, representatives of Arkema and the EPA told Bloomberg BNA that the plant had not received an EPA risk management inspection since 2003, though its most recent plan (2014) described risks of hurricanes and power outages. On September 8, the EPA ordered Arkema to provide a timeline of the problem, and to respond to questions about their safety practices within 10 days.

There are currently only about 30 available inspectors for 12,500 facilities in the EPA risk management program; last week, Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) warned EPA administrator Scott Pruitt that it could take up to 35 years to inspect each of these sites only once. Meanwhile, the Trump administration continues to reduce the EPA workforce via voluntary buyouts, early retirement, and a hiring freeze, while Texas law still permits chemical companies to keep their inventories secret.

House approves autonomous vehicle bill in a bipartisan vote

On September 6, the House passed the SELF DRIVE Act, intended to fast-track the development of autonomous vehicles. The bill (H.R. 3388) places the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in charge of regulating self-driving car safety, and calls on the Department of Transportation to update safety standards. (At present, the NHTSA has no director, the Trump administration has yet to put forward a nominee, and Trump's own self-driving car policy council disintegrated in August.) The legislation would place responsibility of regulation at the federal rather than state level, a move largely welcomed by state and local officials. The bill now moves to the Senate, which is currently debating its own bill.

Proposed America COMPETES amendment would reauthorize ARPA-E

Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX), ranking member of the House Science Space, and Technology Committee, introduced a bill on September 6 to amend the America COMPETES act by reauthorizing the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), which translates basic research into new energy technologies. President Trump's budget request earlier this year proposed eliminating ARPA-E, and was supported by the House, but a Senate counterproposal included an 8% increase that would set aside $330 million for the agency. Rep. Johnson's amendment would explicitly support ARPA-E, and its role in strategic energy development, with increased appropriations every year through FY22.

Quick takes

  • Business and technology leaders urge Trump to support DACA.
  • Hurricanes aren't killing as many Americans as in the past -- thanks to NOAA and meteorological research. Here's how budget cuts may impact the researchers that protect us from hurricanes.

Have comments or something to add? Contact the RISE Stronger Science & Technology Policy Working Group at [email protected].

Want to learn more? Check us out online at risestronger.org/groups/rise-science-technology, and sign up for the RISE S&T Newsletter at tinyletter.com/rise-science-tech.