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Communicating science on Capitol Hill: a case for embedded ecologists
Author(s) -
Pouyat Richard V.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
frontiers in ecology and the environment
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.918
H-Index - 164
eISSN - 1540-9309
pISSN - 1540-9295
DOI - 10.1890/1540-9295(2007)5[104:csocha]2.0.co;2
Subject(s) - content (measure theory) , computer science , data science , ecology , biology , mathematics , mathematical analysis
I n the December 1998 issue of the Ecological Society of America's newsletter, I wrote about how, as a Congressional Science Fellow, I was disturbed to find that not a single ecologist had been invited to testify at a US Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee hearing on the Endangered Species Recovery Act of 1997. The Endangered Species Act (ESA) was at that time – and still is – a contentious political issue. There was more to that story. After the hearing took place, I attended a " mark up " of the bill (my first) in the EPW Committee. What made this day even more out of the ordinary was that my boss, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY), was unable to attend the meeting. I would be serving as his " proxy ". The ESA is considered by the environmental community to be the pillar of environmental legislation in the US. Efforts to reauthorize the bill had been stalled in the Senate since 1992. The committee was debating the bill's many compromises, hammered out by moderates from both sides of the aisle. Several amendments were proposed; one that guaranteed adequate funding to implement the reautho-rized Act was, in my opinion, critical to its workability. After debate, the funding amendment was defeated. Now came the time for the committee to vote on the entire bill. With the amendment to guarantee funding for the ESA defeated, my recommendation to the Senator was simple – I thought that he should vote " no ". This, of course, meant that as the Senator's proxy I had to vote " no ". What happened after that was probably the most unnerving episode of my brief congressional career. The Committee Chairman, Senator John Chafee (R-RI), decided not to accept my proxy vote (his prerogative) and said that he would like to discuss the bill with Senator Moynihan personally before the vote would be accepted. Fuelled by an overdose of adrenaline, I made the long run back to the office only to find my Legislative Director (LD) talking to the Senator on the telephone. To my horror, Senator Chafee had already talked to Senator Moynihan, who decided to change his vote. This story had, for me, unexpected lessons. My LD explained that Senators Moynihan and Chafee were old friends and had tremendous respect for each other, regardless of party affiliations. More than likely, the bill …