One hopes that Senator Mikulski will save us again from politicization of science

"What, me worry?" Flake

I quote from the Consortium of Social Science Associations Washington Update (May 14, 2012      Volume 31, Issue 9):

On May 10, the House of Representatives, by a vote of 247-163, passed the FY 2013 Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS) Appropriations bill.   Among the 36 successful amendments added to the bill, the House voted to prohibit the National Science Foundation from spending funds "to carry out the functions of the political science program." In addition, the House passed amendments to make the American Community Survey (ACS) voluntary and then to eliminate it altogether. 

Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) offered the amendment regarding NSF's political science program. A day earlier he had offered an unsuccessful amendment to reduce overall NSF spending by $1.2 billion, taking the funding back to FY 2008 levels. The new amendment, which did not seek to reduce NSF's budget, succeeded on a roll-call vote of 218-208. Five Democrats joined 213 Republicans in favor, while 27 Republicans voted with 181 Democrats to keep the program. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA), Chair of the CJS Appropriations Subcommittee, voted with the majority.........

Flake then found some grants with which he could mock the program. Setting himself up as a one-man merit review panel, Flake decided he didn't like a grant to Mark Borusk of Dartmouth for $700,000 to in Flake's words "develop a new model for international climate change analysis." Borusk is developing an Agent Based Modeling approach, (to study real-time interactions and decisions), that affect the outcome and implementation of international climate agreements. He will examine the "complex interplay of stakeholders at multiple levels who have limited ability to make optimal decisions and have differing beliefs, power, and incentive structures."
Another grant Flake didn't like was $600,000 awarded to Lanny Martin of Rice University "to try to figure out if policymakers actually do what citizens want them to do." What Martin's project will examine is the impact of public opinion in multiparty parliamentary democracies where incentives encourage government parties to tailor policy to the wishes of narrow constituencies, whose policy views may or may not accord with those of the majority of voters.   Martin seeks to study, what effect, if any, does public opinion have on democratic governance in these countries?   If public sentiment changes direction, he asks, will the actions of elected officials follow? 

Flake got an MA from Brigham Young University in 1987, which seems to be his background in social science. Currently he is  U.S. Representative for Arizona's 6th congressional district, serving since 2001, but he is running for the Senate this year.

Clearly he does not want serious analysis of the responsiveness of our representatives to the needs of the nation nor of the way decisions are being made (or not made) to slow climate change.