Washington, D.C. — Congress has twice rejected the Trump administration’s proposals to cut funding for climate science, but the administration’s latest budget proposal and ongoing efforts to interfere in this area show it’s time to do more, according to a new column from the Center for American Progress.
“The Trump administration has shown time and again that it can’t be trusted to oversee the federal government’s critical scientific data,” said Kristina Costa, a senior fellow at CAP and co-author of the column. “It’s now up to Congress to take the lead in holding the administration accountable and restoring the integrity of federal climate science.”
While Congress has used the appropriations process to reverse many of the White House’s proposed budget cuts to the federal climate apparatus, the Trump administration has stepped up its efforts to interfere with both the scientists and the science itself, the column finds. It recommends that Congress take the following steps:
- Include language in upcoming appropriations bills explicitly directing the Trump administration to release the U.S. Global Change Research Program’s “Our Changing Planet” reports for fiscal years 2017, 2018, and 2019.
- Investigate the causes behind the delay CAP has identified in the public release of some congressional budget justification documents in order to determine whether there was a deliberate attempt to withhold information from the public ahead of scheduled budget hearings.
- Pass legislation or include report language in upcoming appropriations bills clarifying that agencies should include climate projections through 2100 in all federally supported research.
- Demand the administration provide records documenting how it arrived at the one-third threshold for eliminating federal advisory committees in its executive order amendment to the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA).
Read the column: “Congress Must Do More to Counter Trump Administration’s Assault on Climate Science” by Bianca Majumder and Kristina Costa
For more information on this topic or to talk to an expert, please contact Sam Hananel at [email protected] or 202.478.6327.