ESA Policy News September 30: Pope preaches to Congress on climate, Speaker Boehner to resign, Science committee examines NEON

Here are some highlights from the latest ESA Policy News by Policy Analyst Terence Houston. Read the full Policy News here. CONGRESS: POPE CALLS ON LAWMAKERS TO AVERT ‘ENVIRONMENTAL DETERIORATION’

On Sept. 24, Pope Francis spoke before a joint session of the United States Congress, advocating for compassion and equal opportunity for the underprivileged. He also urged Congress to take action to protect the earth and touched on the value of scientific discovery.

While Pope Francis did not explicitly utter the phrase climate change, he stated that protecting the earth should be one of the many ways in which human society works to advance the common good.

“We need a conversation which includes everyone, since the environmental challenge we are undergoing, and its human roots, concern and affect us all,” said Francis.

Highlighting the value of scientific research, Pope Francis stated “America’s outstanding academic and research institutions can make a vital contribution in the years ahead” towards combating poverty and protecting nature.

Click here to read the text of the pope’s speech. Click here to read the text of the pope’s White House speech.

HOUSE: SPEAKER BOEHNER TO RESIGN IN OCTOBER

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) announced last week that he will resign from Congress effective Oct. 30.

The announcement came a day after Pope Francis made history as the first pope to speak before a joint session of Congress. Boehner was instrumental in arranging his invitation. It also came amid growing unrest among the House Republican conference with Speaker Boehner. One lawmaker, Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC), had introduced a resolution in July that called for Boehner’s resignation as speaker.

The party is also strategizing over how to continue funding the government throughout FY 2016. Prior to Boehner’s resignation, far-right conservatives had been pushing party leaders to include language prohibiting funding for Planned Parenthood in any continuing resolution to fund the government beyond tonight’s deadline, when FY 2015 funding expires. The White House released a Statement of Administration Policy declaring the president would veto any legislation to defund Planned Parenthood. The Senate recently passed a clean continuing resolution by a vote of 78-20 that will extend government funding at existing levels through Dec. 11. The House is expected to approve the bill before today’s midnight deadline, allowing the government to remain open.

Current House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is the leading contender to succeed Boehner. The next speaker will likely be under political pressure to adopt a more confrontational approach to dealing with the White House and Congressional Democrats. The House Republican leadership elections are scheduled for Oct. 8.

HOUSE: SCIENCE COMMITTEE DELVES INTO NEON DESCOPE PLAN

On Sept. 18, the House Science, Space and Technology Subcommittee on Research and Technology, and Subcommittee and Oversight convened for a joint hearing examining the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON).

The Subcommittee heard testimony from NEON Board of Directors Chairman James Collins and NSF Assistant Director for Biological Sciences James Olds about the recent NSF decision to descope the NEON facility due to projected cost overruns.

For the descope plan, NSF convened an panel of experts from NSF staff from the NEON program, NEON Inc., members of the NEON Board of Directors and Science Technology Education Committee and experts from scientific community involved in its original design.

Olds also referenced a letter penned by the current and past Ecological Society of America presidents expressing their confidence in NEON and NSF.

Click here to view the hearing and access testimony.

Click here to view the ESA presidents’ letter.

WHITE HOUSE: CITIZEN SCIENCE AND CROWDSOURCING MEMO RELEASED

Today, the White House affirmed the potential for citizen science to engage the public directly in scientific discovery and the monitoring and management of our natural resources.

In a memorandum to the heads of executive departments and agencies, Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy John Holdren mandated that all federal agencies build capacity for citizen science and crowdsourcing, while also facilitating cooperation across agencies and with outside organizations. Agencies are directed to identify an internal coordinator and catalog agency-specific citizen science and crowdsourcing projects in a government-wide database to be developed for public and agency use.

To help guide program managers in deciding if citizen science is right for their organizations and how best to design citizen science projects to meet their organization’s goals, the Ecological Society of America (ESA) released a report today summarizing how “Investing in Citizen Science can improve natural resource management and environmental protection.” The report is number 19 in ESA’s series Issues in Ecology and is included as a resource in the Federal Citizen Science and Crowdsourcing Toolkit, released this morning in conjunction with Holdren’s policy memo and a Citizen Science Forum webcast live from the White House.

To read the White House Citizen Science and Crowdsourcing memo, follow this link. To access the Federal Citizen Science and Crowdsourcing Toolkit, follow this link. To access the Issues in Ecology report, follow this link.

HOUSE: SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES APPLAUD REPUBLICAN-SPONSORED CLIMATE RESOLUTION

The Ecological Society of America was among 13 scientific societies that signed a letter expressing their appreciation for the introduction of H.Res. 424, a non-binding resolution that affirms humans are contributing to climate change. The resolution also calls upon the US House of Representatives to take steps to mitigate climate change’s environmental impacts.

The resolution is sponsored by Rep. Chris Gibson (R-NY) and has ten original cosponsors, all Republicans.

Click here to view the letter.

EDUCATION:  ORGANIZATIONS EXPRESS SUPPORT FOR COMMUNITY LEARNING CENTERS

On Sept. 22, the Ecological Society of America cosigned a letter requesting that the Elementary Secondary and Education Act (ESEA) reauthorization maintains the 21st Century Community Learning Center (21st CCLC) initiative as a separate federal funding stream.

“More than a decade of research has shown that 21st CCLC has resulted in wide-ranging positive impacts for students and families by leveraging school and community partnerships to help millions of low-income children become successful in school and in life,” the letter states. “The bipartisan language supported unanimously by the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee reauthorizes the 21st CCLC program while also strengthening it to reflect what has been learned over the past decade in providing high-quality programming.”

Both the House and Senate have passed legislation to reauthorize ESEA, but the two chambers have not yet negotiated a conference report agreement that could be sent to the president.

Click here to view the entire letter.

RESEARCH: SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES, PUBLISHERS EXPRESS CONCERN WITH PUBLIC ACCESS BILL

On Sept. 16, the Ecological Society of America joined with a number of non-profit scientific societies as well as publishers in cosigning a letter expressing concern with S. 779, the Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act, which would place mandates on the release of federally-funded research into law.

“The undersigned include non-profit scientific societies that use the proceeds from their journal operations to serve the public and the scholarly enterprise; small businesses that support researchers and their local communities; and others devoted to creating, disseminating, and preserving scholarship,” the letter notes. “All make significant investments in support of science and the use of research to improve lives that would be undermined by S. 779.”

The ESA letter expresses support for an Office of Science and Technology Policy memorandum that provides federal agencies with more flexibility in carrying out public access policies.

Click here to view the letter.

POLLINATORS: NFWF ALLOCATES FUNDS TO PRESERVE MONARCH BUTTERFLY

On Sept. 22, the US Fish and Wildlife Service determined that the greater sage-grouse does not need federal protection under the Endangered Species Act.

“Because of an unprecedented effort by dozens of partners across 11 Western states, the US Fish and Wildlife Service has determined that the greater sage-grouse does not require protection under the Endangered Species Act,” stated Department of Interior Secretary Sally Jewell in a video announcement of the determination.

A 2011 court settlement required the agency to make a determination by Sept. 30, 2015. The announcement came after a new strategy was developed by federal agencies, state officials and private landowners to conserve the sagebrush habitat the where they are found. The plan aims to stem habitat loss across 67 million federal acres that represents most of their prime breeding grounds.

Click here for additional information. Click here to watch the video from Sec. Jewell.

POLLINATORS: NFWF ALLOCATES FUNDS TO PRESERVE MONARCH BUTTERFLY

On Sept. 28, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation announced it is allocation $3.3 million in 22 grants towards efforts to save the monarch butterfly. The funding will be matched with $6.7 million of donor contributions and will come from the non-profit organization’s Monarch Butterfly Conservation Fund, launched in Feb. 2015. The US Fish and Wildlife Service was the first federal agency to commit funding towards the effort.

The North American monarch butterfly population has been reduced by about 90 percent in the past 20 years, from a high of around one billion in the mid-1990s to less than 60 million, largely due to habitat loss. Conservation efforts by the fund focus on planting monarch-friendly plants along the butterfly’s migration path and improving coordination between federal agencies and the private sector on habitat preservation and restoration.

For additional information, click here.

NSF: NOMINATIONS OPEN FOR NATIONAL SCIENCE BOARD

The National Science Foundation is accepting nominees to fill eight positions with the National Science Board (NSB) that will expire May 10, 2016.

Every two years, the Board solicits recommendations for new members from leading scientific, engineering, and educational organizations, as well as the public, and submits them to the White House for consideration. Members are formally appointed by the President and serve a six-year term.

The Call for Nominations web portal is open and accepting submissions for the NSB class of 2016-2022 from now until October 30, 2015. Click here for additional information.