Senate Republicans Vote to Eliminate ISP Privacy Rules

On Thursday, March 23, the Senate voted along party lines to eliminate Obama-era privacy rules meant to protect Americans from invasive surveillance by internet service providers (ISPs), such as Comcast and Time-Warner. Republicans voted to apply the Congressional Review Act to eliminate FCC rules that required meaningful notice and opt-in consent from consumers before sharing or selling their data. These rules had also created stricter requirements for cyber security and notification in the event of a data breach. The Senate's action would take these types of privacy related issues out of the hands of the FCC, requiring congressional action to reinstate them in the future. This vote is a blow to consumer privacy and demonstrates how Republicans have aligned themselves with business interests over consumers. As privacy comes under attack from all quarters, lawmakers should be strengthening our rights, not weakening them. The House is expected to vote on the measure soon.

Mixed News for Space Science

On Tuesday, March 21st, Donald Trump signed into law the NASA Transition Authorization Act. (Such bills are passed periodically to authorize the activities of various agencies; NASA's last authorization was in 2010.) The bill reaffirms NASA's commitment to the International Space Station (ISS) through 2024, among other items, but it has raised significant concerns. Earth science (included in the 2010 authorization bill) is not mentioned in this version, which is especially concerning since the president's FY2018 budget proposed huge cuts to NASA Earth science. The bill also removes sections on NASA's collaboration with NOAA. Republicans have often targeted NASA studies of Earth science and climate change; however, Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) noted, "Those programs provide the space-based measurements to help scientists understand the Earth's systems and changing climate to predict space weather events, which can have devastating impacts on our terrestrial infrastructure." The bill also has provisions that are highly favorable to private companies. It restates dedication to providing government funds to private sector companies to develop space transportation vehicles, and NASA must now prioritize American launch vehicles (including from private companies) over foreign ones. It also allows the NASA Administrator to indemnify private suppliers from financial liability for an accident.

On Wednesday, March 22, the House Subcommittee on Space held a hearing on "The ISS after 2024: Options and Impacts". Lawmakers and experts discussed whether NASA's spending on the ISS should be decreased to focus its efforts on missions to Mars and the moon. Subcommittee Chair Rep. Brian Babin (R-TX) stated, "The longer we operate the ISS, the longer it will take to get to Mars." However, withdrawing from the ISS would jeopardize years of research into highly relevant areas, such as edible space crops, antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and the effects of prolonged space travel on human health (i.e. the type of research needed to get a human to Mars). The ISS has also fostered diplomacy between the U.S. and Russia, which is important to maintain.

Congressional Hearings on Basic Research, Cybersecurity, and Climate Science

On Tuesday, the House Subcommittee on Research and Technology held a hearing on the "National Science Foundation Part II: Future Opportunities and Challenges for Science". Subcommittee chair Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-VA) expressed strong support for the mission of the NSF. Witnesses and Democratic members of the subcommittee expressed support for the Geosciences Directorate and the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences Directorate, which have been the subject of Republican attacks.

On Wednesday, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation held a hearing on "The Promises and Perils of Emerging Technologies for Cybersecurity". The next day, committee chair Sen. John Thune (R-SD) and Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO) sent letters to the Secretary of Transportation and the Secretary of Commerce, urging them to make cybersecurity a priority.

This week, on Wednesday, March 29, at 10 am EDT, the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology will hold a hearing on "Climate Science: Assumptions, Policy Implications, and the Scientific Method". This hearing comes as Republicans work to unravel the Obama administration's gains on fighting global climate change. With a Republican majority in Congress, three witnesses are chosen by Republicans and one by the Democrats. The three Republican witnesses are Judith Curry (believes natural forces are primary driver of climate change), John Christy (does not see global warming as a threat), and Roger Pielke, Jr. (self-described "climate heretic"). The Democrats chose Michael Mann, who agrees with the scientific consensus on anthropogenic climate change. For more information on how hearings in the House are conducted see here.

A hearing by the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology on "Prioritizing Basic Research at the Department of Energy", originally scheduled for Tuesday, March 28, has been postponed.

Trump Fills a Tech Post

As we noted last week, The Trump Administration has been slow to fill key science and technology posts. Related to this, Trump still has not named a Chief Technology Officer. Earlier in March, Trump named Michael Kratsios, an associate of Trump-supporter Peter Thiel, as his deputy chief technology officer. Trump has now named Matt Lira, who has advised Republicans on digital matters, as special assistant to the president for innovation policy and initiatives.

Trump and Republican Climate Skeptics on Offense

On Thursday and Friday, March 23-24, the conservative Heartland Institute held its 12th annual International Conference on Climate Change, which provided a forum for global warming denialists, including many Republican lawmakers, to express their anti-scientific views and rally behind eliminating the ability of the EPA to regulate greenhouse gases. Disturbingly, House Science Committee chair Lamar Smith (R–TX) "acknowledged that the committee is now a tool to advance his political agenda rather than a forum to examine important issues facing the U.S. research community", in the words of Jeffrey Mervis of Science magazine.

This week, on Tuesday, March 28, President Trump is expected to sign an executive order that will dismantle many of the Obama administration's efforts to address climate change. This broad assault on climate change measures is expected to remove requirements that agencies take climate change and its economic costs into account in their rulemaking, require EPA to review and revise or rescind rules regulating greenhouse emissions from power plants, require agencies to alleviate burdens on domestic energy production, and lift a moratorium on the sale of new coal leases on federal land, among other actions.

Anti-EPA "HONEST Act" Scheduled for House Consideration

The Honest and Open New EPA Science Treatment (HONEST) Act has been placed on the House calendar and may come up for a vote this coming week. As we noted last week, this legislation would prevent the EPA from proposing, finalizing, or disseminating any guidance or regulation unless all of the underlying technical data is publicly available and reproducible--a standard that is crafted to sound reasonable but is designed to place an undue burden on scientists and EPA to slow down the regulatory process.

What You Can Do

  • The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs is considering the Regulatory Accountability Act, which would prevent federal agencies from being able to uphold essential public protections. The Union of Concerned Scientists is asking you to Tweet your Senator to protect science-based safeguards.
  • The House of Representatives is expected to vote soon to apply the Congressional Review Act to eliminate FCC rules that require ISPs to provide meaningful notice to and receive opt-in consent from consumers before sharing or selling their data. The Senate passed this measure last week. Contact your representative (look up contact info here or call 202-224-3121) and ask them to vote no to weakening consumer privacy.
  • The House of Representatives is also expected to vote soon on the anti-EPA "HONEST Act" (described above). Contact your representative, and ask them to vote no to weakening the regulatory ability of the EPA.
  • Send a postcard to the EPA and join the #OurEPA campaign. Follow on Twitter @Our_EPA. The purpose of the campaign is to share your story. Let the EPA know we want their science to keep moving forward, not backwards. Postcards should be sent to EPA regional offices by April 1. See the full campaign details and regional office addresses here.
  • 314 Action is targeting three Republican members of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology in the 2018 midterm elections: Steve Knight (R-CA-25), Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA-48), and chair Lamar Smith (R-TX-21). If you live in any of these districts, you should attend town halls, call, and Tweet your representatives. You can watch their remarks here (click on a past hearing for the video). Use that information at your town halls. A full list of House Science Committee members is here, and their Twitter accounts here.
  • The next congressional recess will be April 10-21, when members of Congress will return to their districts across the country and hold town halls, listening sessions, and other events. Plan in advance to show up and speak up at a town hall. Find a list of town halls here.

- Science & Technology Policy Working Group, RISE Stronger

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