He snuck it into a temporary budget bill. University science programs to be gutted. Absolutely vile.

A measure limiting National Science Foundation funding for political science research projects passed the U.S. Senate on Wednesday, quietly dealing a blow to the government agency.

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) submitted a series of amendments to the Continuing Appropriations Act of 2013, the Senate bill to keep the government running past March 27. One of those amendments would prohibit the NSF from funding political science research unless a project is certified as “promoting national security or the
economic interests of the United States.”

“Studies of presidential executive power and Americans’ attitudes toward the Senate filibuster hold little promise to save an American’s life from a threatening condition or to advance America’s competitiveness in the world,” Coburn wrote in a letter to NSF director Subra Suresh last week explaining his proposal.

Coburn’s NSF amendment was approved by the Senate during a voice vote on Wednesday afternoon.

Via HuffPo

Via Defense News

Report shows Republicans voted in favor of stripping environmental laws to help the oil and gas industry.

“Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Henry A. Waxman and Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Ed Markey released a new report that provides an updated analysis of the anti-environment record of the House of Representatives in the 112th Congress. In 2011 and in the first half of 2012, the Republican-controlled House voted 247 times to dismantle environmental and public health protections.

The report, prepared by the Democratic staff of the Energy and Commerce Committee, found that the House averaged one anti-environmental vote for every day the House was in session in 2011 and in the first half of 2012.  Nearly one in five of the 1,100 legislative roll call votes thus far this Congress – 19% – were votes to undermine environmental protection.

The report also found that the oil and gas industry has been the largest beneficiary of this anti-environment record in the House.  The House has voted 109 times on legislation that would enrich the oil and gas industry.  This includes 45 votes to weaken environmental, public health, and safety requirements applicable to the oil industry, 38 votes to prevent deployment of clean energy alternatives, and 12 votes to expedite review of the Keystone XL pipeline.

• The full report is available here.

• A comprehensive list of all anti-environment votes in the 112th Congress is available here. 

• A list of all votes related to the oil and gas industry is available online here.

How on earth did I miss this one??

The United States has ended a 30-year tax subsidy for corn-based ethanol that cost taxpayers $6 billion annually, and ended a tariff on imported Brazilian ethanol.

Congress adjourned for the year on Friday, failing to extend the tax break that’s drawn a wide variety of critics on Capitol Hill, including Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. Critics also have included environmentalists, frozen food producers, ranchers and others.

The policies have helped shift millions of tons of corn from feedlots, dinner tables and other products into gas tanks.

Environmental group Friends of the Earth praised the move.

“The end of this giant subsidy for dirty corn ethanol is a win for taxpayers, the environment and people struggling to put food on their tables,” biofuels policy campaigner Michal Rosenoer said Friday.

The subsidy has provided the oil and agribusiness industries with 45 cents per gallon of ethanol blended into gasoline. By some estimates, Congress has awarded $45 billion in subsidies to the ethanol industry since 1980.

More at Detroit News

Looks like a fantastic app.

Designed for Congressional staff and Members, but useful for everybody - search all bills in the current session of Congress, annotate as you read, do your homework (endorsing and opposing statements from advocacy orgs, summary statistics on voter sentiment, read letters from constituents). Good to see technology and Big Data being leveraged to make that bastion of slow progress (the federal government) a little more efficient.

Sanders and Boozman are the chairman and ranking member, respectively, of the Senate Green Jobs and New Economy Subcommittee. They were joined in introducing the solar legislation by Sen. Jeff Bingaman, the chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

“This legislation will make it more affordable for families and businesses to install solar, by helping communities reduce the costs associated with solar energy permitting,” Sanders said. 

On May 26th, Senators Daniel Inouye (D-HI), Mark Begich (D-AK), and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) introduced the “Trash Free Seas Act” (S. 1119) to reauthorize the Marine Debris Research, Prevention and Reduction Act (MDRPRA). The MDRPRA’s term of authorization expired at the end of 2010. The bill has been referred to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. The full text is available online at: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-112s1119is/pdf/BILLS-112s1119is.pdf.
Stop scrolling for 15 seconds and email your Senator to support the bill, here. “Dear Senator , I voted for you. Support the Trash Free Seas Act. Sincerely, ___.” That’s it.