More Than 18 Every Day

The following is from Congressman Rush Holt's newsletter:


As I have written to you previously, before today is out, if it is like every other day, at least 18 more veterans will have taken their own lives. In each of the past two years, I have obtained $40 million for military suicide prevention and outreach. Rep. Jon Runyan, a New Jersey Republican, has been a partner in this endeavor.

On Tuesday, at a press conference at the World War II Memorial in Trenton, we urged continued action to prevent military and veteran suicide. Ninety-seven of our colleagues in the U.S. House have joined us on a letter urging continuation of the $40 million again this year.


At the press conference, we spoke about the Vets4Warriors program, which connects veterans to peer counselors. Linda Bean, the mother of Sgt. Coleman S. Bean, who took his own life after returning from service in Iraq, spoke movingly about the need for greater outreach.

Veterans who are struggling with the emotional, physical, family or career consequences of their service can call 1-855-VET-TALK (1-855-838-8255), 24 hours a day. The call is free, and all counselors are veterans.

Not Just Air Traffic Controllers

Following debate soaked in hypocrisy last week, Congress voted to excuse air traffic controllers from the across-the-board spending cuts known as the sequester.

The legislation was presented by the authors of the sequester. I wonder what government services they next will decide are invaluable and irreplaceable.

Curiosity, Hope, and Fidelity to Facts

This week I attended an assembly of the National Academy of Sciences where President Obama, recognizing the 150th anniversary of the Academy, said, “What is so necessary for us to continue our scientific advance and to maintain our cutting-edge… is restless curiosity and boundless hope, but also a fidelity to facts and truth, and a willingness to follow where the evidence leads.” I appreciate having a President who has such a good understanding of the nature of science.

Meanwhile on Capitol Hill, Members of Congress were showing fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of science. Chairman Smith of the Science Committee proposed that no project of the National Science Foundation be approved unless the Director certifies in advance that it will enhance the U.S. economy or security in some specific, identifiable way. Presidential Science Advisor John Holdren responded that funded research should be measured by the time-tested process of peer review, not official certification.

Sincerely,

Rush Holt
Member of Congress

Say it Aint So Bob: Menendez Blocks Obama’s Scientists Over Unrelated, ‘Deeply Offensive’ Cuba Policies

From Think Progress's Wonk Room -

Obama’s climate scientists are collateral damage in an unrelated fight over Cuba policy with Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ). Menendez is responsible for an anonymous hold on the nominations of Dr. John Holdren and Dr. Jane Lubchenco, both world-renowned experts on climate change and the physical sciences. Holdren and Lubchenco “sailed through” their confirmation hearing on February 12. But as the Washington Post’s Juliet Eilperin reports, Menendez has anonymously blocked their full Senate confirmation “as leverage to get Senate leaders’ attention for a matter related to Cuba rather than questioning the nominees’ credentials.” Menendez, a Cuban American, took to the Senate floor last night “to deliver a withering denunciation” of proposed changes to U.S.-Cuban relations included in the budget omnibus:

We should evaluate how to encourage the regime to allow a legitimate opening – not in terms of cell phones and hotel rooms that Cubans can’t afford, but in terms of the right to organize, the right to think and speak what they believe. However, what we are doing with this Omnibus bill, Mr. President, is far from evaluation, and the process by which these changes have been forced upon this body is so deeply offensive to me, and so deeply undemocratic, that it puts the Omnibus appropriations package in jeopardy, in spite of all the other tremendously important funding that this bill would provide.

Menendez points to a memo prepared by the staff of Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN) as recommending a policy change that Menendez worries could “rescue the regime by improving its economic fortunes,” namely giving Cuba “financial credit to purchase agricultural products from the U.S.”

These picks have in fact languished for months, having been put forward by President Obama on December 20. Lubchenco’s nomination to be administrator of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) has been stalled in part by the turmoil over finding a Secretary of Commerce, whose department includes NOAA. NOAA career staff are gamely working to draft a spending plan for the $830 million in the recently passed recovery act, and energy adviser Carol Browner is managing climate policy from the White House with a skeleton staff. But the Office of Science and Technology Policy is a key White House office, and its director Holdren is meant to be the top science adviser to the president. The “wise counsel” of Holdren and Lubchenco is irreplaceable, especially given the scope of the challenges our nation faces.

Menendez spokesman Afshin Mohamadi declined to comment on the putatively anonymous hold. “He takes a back seat to no one on the environment,” Mohamadi discussed by telephone, saying the senator’s “record best reflects his feelings on the urgency of combatting climate change.” When asked if Sen. Menendez hopes to have climate legislation on President Obama’s desk before the end of 2009, Mohamadi explained that Sen. Menendez believes it “would be helpful to have it in place going into the December international climate change conference in Copenhagen.”

Each day that Dr. Holdren and Dr. Lubchenco have to sit on the sidelines makes that goal more unlikely.