June, 08 2009, 03:03pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Elliott Negin,Media Director,enegin@ucsusa.org
EPW Hearing Tomorrow on Science at EPA
WASHINGTON
On
Tuesday, Francesca Grifo, program director of the Scientific Integrity
Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), will urge Congress
to take steps to protect federal scientists and their work from
political interference.
Over
the past eight years, Grifo and her staff played a lead role in blowing
the whistle on the Bush administration's manipulation and suppression
of federal science. More than 15,000 scientists signed a UCS petition
denouncing the administration's actions.
The
joint hearing, held by the Senate Environment and Public Works
Committee and its Subcommittee on Oversight, will examine "Scientific
Integrity and Transparency Reforms at the Environmental Protection
Agency." EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson will testify earlier in the
day.
"We
urge Administrator Jackson to go beyond reversing bad policies from the
previous administration and set a higher bar for the agency," Grifo, a
biologist, will tell the lawmakers. "She should take concrete steps to
secure the credibility of future EPA decisions...." Grifo will outline
a number of steps the agency and Congress should take to safeguard
scientific integrity, including ones that would improve transparency
and minimize conflicts of interest.
Grifo's full testimony will available the morning of the hearing. UCS's Web site
has summaries of UCS surveys of EPA scientists, examples of political
interference at the agency, and UCS's recommendations to protect
scientists and their work.
WHO
Panel 1: Lisa Jackson, EPA administrator
Panel 2: John Stephenson, natural resources and environment director, Government Accountability Office
Panel
3: Francesca Grifo, Scientific Integrity Program director, Union of
Concerned Scientists; Kenneth Green, resident scholar, American
Enterprise Institute;
Lynn Goldman, professor and principal investigator, John Hopkins National Children's Study Center
WHEN
Tuesday, June 9, 2009 at 9:30 a.m. EDT
WHERE
EPW Hearing Room, 406 Dirksen. A live Webcast will be available on the EPW Web site.
The Union of Concerned Scientists is the leading science-based nonprofit working for a healthy environment and a safer world. UCS combines independent scientific research and citizen action to develop innovative, practical solutions and to secure responsible changes in government policy, corporate practices, and consumer choices.
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