Henry Waxman
From Science Besieged
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Henry Arnold Waxman is a Democratic US Representative from California. He was first elected to the house in 1974, where he is the Ranking Minority Member of the Government Reform Committee. He served as a member of the California state assembly from 1969-1974. He is a lawyer with a J.D. degree from the University of California, Los Angeles, which he received in 1961.
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Advocacy
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Views
This excerpt is from remarks Waxman made[1] to the National Academies of Sciences' Committee on Ensuring the Best Science & Technology Presidential and Federal Advisory Committee Appointments, August 2004.
I was first elected to Congress in 1974 - just two years after the passage of the Federal Advisory Committee Act. The Act rested upon a key premise: the best scientific advice is essential to the development of the most effective policies for the public.
For nearly 30 years, this premise was widely accepted by both Democratic and Republican Administrations. But it is not the rule in Washington anymore.
The present Administration has a disturbing pattern of treating advisory committee appointments as politics by any other means. Nationally renowned experts have been dropped from panels without explanation, or after flunking ideological litmus tests. New advisors have been hand picked by political appointees despite having scant scientific credentials. The Administration has even asserted political control for the first time over which scientists are permitted to advise the World Health Organization.
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Notes
- ^ Richard M. Jones, "Rep. Henry Waxman's Views on S&T Advisors in Policy Making", FYI: The American Institute of Physics Bulletin of Science Policy News, 2004:108, 9 August 2004.
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Sources
- Henry Waxman congressional home page.
- "Waxman, Henry Arnold, (1939- )", entry in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
- Committee on Government Reform Minority Office.
