[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 120 (Monday, July 17, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4012-S4013]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                  Protecting the Scientific Community

  Mr. President, this Senator came here to talk about another thing 
that is equally disturbing because there is a blatant, coordinated 
effort by some elected officials to muzzle the scientific community. 
When you start muzzling scientists, you don't come up with the facts, 
and you don't come up with the truth. What is being presented as facts 
doesn't really match the truth, and certainly the rhetoric doesn't 
match what is happening.
  For example, just last month in the State of Florida, the Florida 
Legislature passed, and the Governor signed into law, a bill that 
allows any resident of the State--regardless of whether they have a 
student in school--any resident can challenge what is being taught in 
the public schools. So if a single resident objects to a certain 
subject that students are being taught

[[Page S4013]]

having to do with science, a subject such as what is happening in the 
climate and the changes; the fact that the Sun's rays come in and 
reflect off the Earth and go back--reflect out and radiate the heat 
back into space--but when you start putting what are known as 
greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide and methane, up there, they 
suddenly act as a ceiling, a greenhouse gas ceiling having a greenhouse 
effect, trapping the heat and causing the Earth to heat up. Two-thirds 
of the Earth is covered with water. Most of that heat is absorbed in 
the oceans. What happens to water when it is heated? It expands. That 
is a fact. Sea level rise in South Florida is a fact. It is a 
measurement over the last 40 years. The seas have risen 8 inches in 
South Florida. That is a fact, but if there are some who object to that 
climate science, then under this new law just signed by the Governor, 
they are going to be able to object to that subject being taught in our 
public schools. A single hearing officer will determine--Lord only 
knows whom that officer is appointed by--that single person will 
determine, under the new law, if the objection is justified. They can 
force a local public school to remove the subject from its curriculum.
  Does that sound a little bit strange? Does that sound a little bit 
scary? It seems like this is the most brazen attack on science we have 
seen in a long time. It is a blatant attempt to cover up the truth. 
Instead of accepting the fact that the seas are rising and what is 
going to be a very real threat--and already is to a coastline like 
Florida's--they want to literally rip the subject right out of our 
children's textbooks, while at the same time silencing the teachers and 
the scientists. I don't think we can sit back and allow our public 
schools to become political battlegrounds, and we shouldn't allow 
politicians to silence our teachers and scientists just because they 
don't happen to like that part of the science.
  While this bill was just enacted in Florida, it may be one of the 
most egregious examples of hiding the truth. Unfortunately, I am sad to 
report, it is not the only one. In fact, in 2015, Florida's Governor 
went so far as to reportedly ban State officials from even using the 
term ``climate change'' in their reports. Doesn't that sound like 
muzzling? Yet the effect of sea level rise is still painfully evident 
in South Florida. What about the water washing over the curbs on Miami 
Beach at the seasonal high tide? What about the water that is coming 
over the streets in the Las Olas section of Fort Lauderdale at the 
seasonal high tide?

  In just a month, the new head of the U.S. Environmental Protection 
Agency fired several members of the Board of Scientific Counselors--the 
very people responsible for overseeing the Agency's science and 
research programs. These were scientists at the top of their fields 
working on behalf of the American people, and suddenly, in one fell 
swoop, the new head of the EPA fired them all and wants to replace them 
with--you guessed it--industry representatives, scientists from the 
very industries that the EPA is supposed to monitor and oversee. If 
this is not what completes the picture of putting the fox in charge of 
the henhouse, I don't know what is.
  The henhouse is not just climate science, but it includes basic 
research in all fields, including healthcare--NIH. By the way, thank 
goodness we have a head of NIH who is a guy who broke the code on the 
human genome, Dr. Collins. It includes the fields of astronomy--how 
about NASA--and it includes the origin of the universe--quantum physics 
in multiple agencies.
  This disturbing trend of hiding the truth if it doesn't match their 
rhetoric is a trend that is spreading across all levels of government. 
If information can't be removed from the public domain altogether, then 
guess what they try to do: They try to discredit it.
  For example, look at what has been done now in an effort to pass this 
disastrous Republican healthcare bill. Instead of--as I have just made 
comments preparatory to this science subject--trying to work together 
on a bipartisan bill aimed at improving our Nation's healthcare system, 
some on the other side of the aisle have resorted to attacking whom? 
Attacking the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office after it said 
that the bill will take healthcare coverage away from tens of millions 
of people.
  The nonpartisan CBO is just that; it is nonpartisan. It is 
responsible for estimating the costs and effects of nearly every bill 
that Congress considers. Yet suddenly, when the conclusions of CBO 
don't match the rhetoric coming from one side, they turn their attacks 
on the scientists and the mathematicians who release the findings.
  Listen to these quotes:
  ``I have a lot of questions about the accuracy of the CBO,'' one of 
our Republican colleagues said here in the Senate.
  CBO's time has ``come and gone,'' the White House Budget Director 
said earlier this year.
  ``We disagree strenuously with the report,'' HHS Secretary Price 
said. ``The CBO report's coverage numbers defy logic.''
  ``If you're looking at the CBO for accuracy, you're looking in the 
wrong place,'' said the Press Secretary at the White House.
  If that is not enough, just last week, the White House itself 
released a video saying that the CBO's score of the Republican 
healthcare bill is based on ``faulty assumptions and bad math.''
  It is clear what is going on. This administration's war on science is 
not a myth. It is not fake news. If you want to know an 
administration's true priorities, you need to look no further than 
their budget, and if you look at the President's most recent budget 
request, you will see dramatic cuts to some of our most important 
scientific agencies. This Senator has seen that in the jurisdiction of 
the Commerce Committee--in the NOAA programs and in the NASA programs.
  The President's budget calls for more than a 30-percent cut to EPA. 
It calls for the firing of nearly one-quarter of its staff and the 
elimination of all funding for programs aimed at fighting climate 
change. Climate change isn't just about Florida nor is it a coastal 
State problem; it is a problem of the entire country. The extreme 
weather events caused by climate change affect us all. Droughts become 
more frequent, floods become more severe, and major storms like 
hurricanes and tornadoes become stronger and even more deadly.
  The scientists at NOAA, the National Weather Service, NASA, and most 
of the other agencies, including our military, who study climate change 
aren't trying to create a mythical problem that doesn't exist. They are 
trying to solve real-life problems that affect all of us and that 
affect them in the carrying out of their duties.
  They work at Federal agencies across the country with one goal in 
mind--to make credible, valid data publicly available for researchers, 
academic institutions, and businesses that use the information to 
better understand things.
  I see the leader is here to speak. I will conclude with just a couple 
of thoughts.
  These scientists know that we can't just stick our heads in the sand. 
Science doesn't work like that. Facts are facts. And the fact is that 
the Earth is heating up, and there is a reason for that, which I 
explained. If we don't do something about it, the communities that are 
already affected in my State are going to be communities all over the 
world. These are not alternative facts.
  Yet, instead of helping these scientists do their work, some 
political leaders are using their positions to hide this information 
and to make it unavailable. We ought to be speaking out against it, and 
that is what this Senator is trying to do.
  I have filed legislation to protect scientists' rights to speak 
publicly about their research--not to let them be muzzled--and to 
ensure that all agencies maintain their scientific integrity.
  I hope we can stop this nonsense of hiding the truth. Let's stop this 
war on science. Let's accept facts as they are and then debate the 
issues, the policy. The American people deserve an open and honest 
government that works for them, not a government that distorts the 
truth to match its rhetoric.
  I thank the Senate for indulging me, and I thank the leader for 
listening patiently.
  I yield the floor.