Senate Advances Spending Bills, Status of Appropriations Uncertain<\/strong><\/a> Congress<\/strong><\/a> Executive Branch<\/strong><\/a> Courts<\/strong><\/a> States<\/strong><\/a> International<\/strong><\/a> Scientific Community<\/strong><\/a> Opportunities to Get Involved<\/strong><\/a> ESA In the News<\/strong><\/a> <\/a> Nevertheless, it remains unclear when lawmakers will resolve differences between the House and Senate bills and pass final spending bills for fiscal year (FY) 2020, which began Oct. 1. House and Senate leaders have not yet reached an agreement on 302(b) allocations \u2013 the top-line numbers for each of the 12 spending bills. The House passed ten of the 12 required spending bills during summer 2019. The federal government is currently funded through a stop-gap measure that expires Nov. 21.<\/p>\n Agencies that use, fund and\/or conduct ecological science receive modest increases in the Senate bills (see ESA budget tracker<\/a>):<\/p>\n Senators approved a few non-controversial amendments of interest by unanimous consent:<\/p>\n <\/a> House<\/strong>: The full House passed three natural resources bills.\u00a0House Natural Resources Chairman Raul Grijalva\u2019s (D-AZ) Grand Canyon Centennial Protection Act (H.R. 1373<\/a>)\u00a0permanently bans<\/a>\u00a0new mining claims on around a million acres of public land surrounding Grand Canyon National Park.<\/strong>\u00a0Mining companies have long been interested in extracting uranium near the Grand Canyon. These lands are currently protected under a 20-year mining withdrawal, finalized in 2012.\u00a0Rep. Ben Lujan\u2019s (D-NM) Chaco Cultural Heritage Area Protection Act (H.R. 2181<\/a>)\u00a0prohibits<\/a>\u00a0oil and gas development on public lands within a ten-mile radius of Chaco Canyon National Historical Park in New Mexico.<\/strong>\u00a0This area is culturally and spiritually significant to the Navajo and Pueblo people.\u00a0The third bill is the Colorado Outdoor Recreation and Economy (CORE) Act (H.R. 823<\/a>), sponsored by Rep. Joe Neguse (D-CO), which designates 73,000 acres of public lands in Colorado as wilderness and around 80,000 acres as recreation and conservation areas.<\/strong>\u00a0The bill also withdraws 200,000 acres from oil and gas leasing. President Trump has threatened to veto the Grand Canyon and Colorado bills, but he has not made a statement regarding the proposed Chaco legislation.<\/p>\n Conservation<\/strong>:\u00a0Sens. Tom Udall (D-NM) and Michael Bennet (D-CO) introduced a nonbinding resolution (S.Res.372<\/a>) calling for protecting 30 percent of the United States\u2019 oceans and lands by 2030.<\/strong>\u00a0Udall and Bennet\u00a0cited<\/a>\u00a0the May 2019 International Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Global Assessment Report that found a million species are at risk of extinction.\u00a0The Senators also reference a\u00a0Science Advances article<\/a>\u00a0calling for a \u2018Global Deal for Nature.\u2019 The resolution calls for improved access to nature for communities of color and economically disadvantaged communities.<\/p>\n Legislative updates:<\/strong><\/p>\n See ESA\u2019s\u00a0Legislative Tracker<\/a>\u00a0for more updates on legislation relevant to the ecological community.<\/p>\n <\/a> EPA:<\/strong>\u00a0The agency released a\u00a0five-year action<\/a>\u00a0plan for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI),<\/strong>\u00a0a requirement of 2015 and 2016 amendments to the Clean Water Act. The plan touts the benefits of GLRI funding and identifies objectives for GLRI\u2019s five focus areas \u2013 toxic substances, invasive species, nonpoint source pollution, habitats and species and foundations for future restoration actions (i.e., environmental education and research).<\/p>\n The Trump administration has proposed reducing GLRI funding by 90 percent in its President\u2019s Budget Request, but in a change of tune, Trump and EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler\u00a0promoted<\/a>\u00a0the program in recent months to boost political support in the region. Wheeler acclaimed the action plan and recent grants for Great Lakes restoration funded by the GLRI in a\u00a0press release<\/a>\u00a0and a speech he gave in Detroit. In March 2019, Trump promised to fully fund the GLRI in a rally in Grand Rapids, MI. Congress has funded the GLRI at $300 million in recent years, rejecting the president\u2019s requests to cut funding. Trump narrowly won the Great Lakes states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin in the 2016 election.<\/p>\n The EPA confirmed that it terminated the Environmental Laboratory Advisory Board (ELAB) and the National Advisory Council for Environmental Policy and Technology (NACEP)<\/strong>\u00a0to comply with President Trump\u2019s June 2019 executive order directing agencies to eliminate one-third of their advisory committees. ELAB members included representatives of environmental testing labs, environmental regulatory agencies and scientists with relevant expertise. The group advised the EPA on its measurement programs and its environmental laboratory accreditation program. The NACEP provided advice to the EPA on general environment management issues.<\/p>\n Interior<\/strong>:\u00a0Secretary David Bernhardt\u00a0issued<\/a>\u00a0an order grounding the department\u2019s drone fleet, citing potential cybersecurity risks.<\/strong>\u00a0Nearly all of the agency\u2019s 810 drones are either manufactured by Chinese companies or contain Chinese parts. The Interior Department uses drones for fighting wildfires, monitoring dams and wildlife and other purposes. The agency\u2019s use of drones has increased from 750 drone flights in 2016 to 10,342 flights in 2018. The order allows drones in emergency situations, including responses to natural disasters.<\/p>\n USFWS:<\/strong>\u00a0A final biological opinion\u00a0allows<\/a>\u00a0more water to be sent from the San Joaquin Delta to farmers in California\u2019s Central Valley and weakens protections for the federally endangered Chinook salmon and threatened delta smelt.<\/strong>\u00a0In July 2019, the Los Angeles Times\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0that career scientists working on an earlier version of this biological opinion were reassigned and replaced when they wrote that removing protections for delta\u00a0smelt would harm the salmon fishery and Southern Resident Killer Whales on the Pacific coast. A\u00a0New York Times investigation<\/a>\u00a0found that Interior Secretary David Bernhardt personally asked U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) officials to modify the biological opinion. Bernhardt\u2019s biggest former lobbying client, the Westlands Water District, stands to benefit from the new biological opinion.<\/p>\n USFWS is proposing\u00a0removing<\/a>\u00a0the interior least tern from the federal endangered species list.<\/strong>\u00a0Its populations were decimated by hunting in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Their feathers were widely used in women\u2019s hats. Then, the species\u2019 recovery was thwarted by new dams built across the species\u2019 range, which includes the Great Plains and the lower Mississippi River Valley. USFWS listed the bird as an endangered species in 1985. Successful, collaborative conservation efforts by state, federal and tribal agencies and nongovernmental organizations brought the species to a population of around 10,000 today. A\u00a0public comment<\/a>\u00a0period on this proposed rule is open through Dec. 23, 2019.<\/p>\n USAID<\/strong>:\u00a0The international aid agency\u00a0ended<\/a>\u00a0funding for the Predict program that collected biological samples to detect diseases that domestic and wild animals may transmit to humans.<\/strong>\u00a0A U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) representative told The New York Times that the program had reached the end of its funding cycle. Dennis Carroll, a former USAID official who oversaw Predict, said that the program ended because of \u201cthe ascension of risk-averse bureaucrats.\u201d<\/p>\n NSF:<\/strong>\u00a0The Biological Sciences Directorate issued a\u00a0Biology Integration Institutes solicitation for proposals<\/a>.<\/strong>\u00a0These institutes will support collaborative teams of researchers at a level not feasible in most existing core programs and exist over a greater timeframe than standard NSF awards. NSF\u2019s goal is to stimulate creative integration of diverse biological disciplines using innovative experimental, theoretical and computational approaches to discover underlying principles operating across all levels of life \u2014 from biomolecules to organisms, species, ecosystems and biomes. Letters of intent are due Dec. 20, 2019, and full proposals are due Feb. 6, 2020.<\/p>\n <\/a> Pesticides:<\/strong>\u00a0The EPA\u00a0agreed<\/a>\u00a0in a court settlement to analyze the impacts of eight frequently used pesticides and rodenticides.<\/strong>\u00a0The substances include the pesticides atrazine, carbaryl, methomyl and simazine and rodenticides bromadiolone, warfarin, zinc phosphide and brodifacoum. This settlement comes in response to a lawsuit filed by the Center for Biological Diversity and the Pesticide Action Network North America. Atrazine is the second most used pesticide in the United States and harms aquatic animals and plants\u2019 reproduction.<\/p>\n Exxon:<\/strong>\u00a0Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey\u00a0sued<\/a>\u00a0ExxonMobil for deceiving consumers and investors on the risks of climate change<\/strong>. This lawsuit follows similar cases filed by the states of New York and Rhode Island and several cities.\u00a0The trial for New York state\u2019s case began Oct. 22, with former Exxon CEO and former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson\u00a0testifying<\/a>\u00a0Oct. 30.<\/strong>\u00a0That case alleges that ExxonMobil violated New York\u2019s anti-fraud law by keeping two separate sets of books \u2013 one internal and one external \u2013 accounting for the cost of greenhouse gas regulations to the company.<\/p>\n Coinciding with the start of the New York trial,\u00a0former Exxon scientists\u00a0Martin Hoffert<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Ed Garvey<\/a>\u00a0told<\/a>\u00a0the House Oversight Committee that their research in the 1980s confirmed that carbon dioxide levels were increasing as a result of fossil fuels and that the corporation was aware of the threat of climate change.<\/strong><\/p>\n North Atlantic Right Whales:\u00a0A federal district judge\u00a0ruled<\/a>\u00a0that the National Marine Fisheries Service violated the Endangered Species Act when it allowed the use of gillnets in two of the North Atlantic right whale\u2019s feeding grounds in April 2019.<\/strong>\u00a0Only around 400 North Atlantic right whales exist and fishing gear entanglement accounted for the vast majority of the species\u2019 deaths between 2010 and 2016.<\/p>\n <\/a> <\/a> The Green Climate Fund\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0that 27 countries, led by the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan and Sweden, pledged $9.78 billion for climate change mitigation and adaption in developing countries.<\/strong>\u00a0The United National Framework on Climate Change established the Green Climate Fund to direct climate finance to developing countries in 2010. The United States and Australia are not participating in this round of funding.<\/p>\n Convention on Biological Diversity<\/strong>:\u00a0Executive Secretary Cristiana Pas\u00e7a Palmer, the U.N.\u2019s top biodiversity official,\u00a0will leave<\/a>\u00a0her position Nov. 30.<\/strong>\u00a0Pas\u00e7a Palmer cited health reasons in her announcement, but there are reports suggesting that allegations of discrimination against African staff members and high staff turnover at the U.N. secretariat may have contributed to her departure. The Convention on Biodiversity is set to determine new global biodiversity targets at the U.N. Biodiversity Conference in China in October 2020.<\/p>\n Oceans:\u00a0Governments, businesses and nongovernmental organizations\u00a0made<\/a>\u00a0370 commitments worth more than $63 billion toward improving ocean health and productivity at the annual Our Ocean conference in Norway.<\/strong>\u00a0The United States announced 23 commitments worth $1.21 billion toward sustainable fisheries, combating marine debris and marine science and exploration.<\/p>\n China:<\/strong>\u00a0The Ministry of Science and Technology\u00a0issued<\/a>\u00a0a new draft research misconduct law, which would make plagiarism, fabrication, embezzlement of research funds and other acts illegal.<\/p>\n Australia:\u00a0Environment Minister Sussan Ley\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0that Prime Minister Scott Morrison\u2019s government will launch a review of country\u2019s environmental laws, with a goal of reducing \u201cgreen tape\u201d and accelerating project approvals.<\/strong>\u00a0An expert panel will lead the review that includes several independent environmental policy experts, but there are no representatives of conservation groups. Before the announcement,\u00a0240 conservation scientists and ecologists\u00a0sent<\/a>\u00a0a\u00a0letter<\/a>\u00a0to the prime minister urging the government to strengthen species protections<\/strong>, writing that 17 native Australian species could go extinct in the next 20 years.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n NSF:<\/strong>\u00a0Sixteen grantees have been reported to NSF under a policy that requires universities to report when they have taken \u201cadministrative action\u201d toward grantees accused of sexual harassment. The policy only applies to researchers who received an award after October 2018. NSF officials said that this number represents more cases than they anticipated when they announced the policy.<\/p>\n NAS:<\/strong>\u00a0A new National Academies\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0recommends that colleges and universities in the U.S. should take a\u00a0\u201cmore intentional, inclusive, and evidence-based approach\u201d towards mentoring students in the STEM fields, and that this shift would help retain and support students from underrepresented backgrounds. An\u00a0online, interactive guide<\/a>\u00a0accompanies the report.<\/p>\n <\/a> The House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis\u00a0is\u00a0<\/strong>seeking stakeholder input<\/a>\u00a0on how Congress and the U.S. government should respond to the climate crisis<\/strong>\u00a0and \u201clead an ambitious transition to clean energy and resilience that puts Americans to work, builds a just economy, unleashes American ingenuity and prepares communities for the impacts of climate change.\u201d\u00a0Questions from the committee ask about community climate resilience, forests, oceans and climate information needs. To inform the policy recommendations of the committee, provide responses to the questions by Nov. 22, 2019 by emailing\u00a0ClimateCrisisRFI@mail.house.gov<\/a><\/p>\n Public Meetings, many of which are live-streamed:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Opportunities for Public Comment and Nominations:<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nBills fund the Departments of Interior and Agriculture, National Science Foundation and more.<\/p>\n
\nHouse passes bills banning mining and drilling the Grand Canyon and Chaco National Historical Park.<\/p>\n
\nWhite House revives President\u2019s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.<\/p>\n
\nConservation groups challenge the EPA\u2019s repeal of the Waters of the U.S. rule.<\/p>\n
\nEnergy company Exelon pledges $200 million for Chesapeake Bay restoration.<\/p>\n
\nChilean president cancels planned U.N. climate conference in Santiago. Spain to host conference in Madrid.<\/p>\n
\nNSF reports 16 sexual harassment cases in first year of new policy.<\/p>\n
\nFederal Register opportunities.<\/p>\n
\nView an up-to-date list of ESA\u2019s media coverage.<\/p>\nSenate Passes Bills Funding Science Programs, Status of Appropriations Uncertain<\/h2>\n
\nThe full U.S. senate easily passed a package of four domestic spending bills Oct. 31 that includes funding for the Departments of Agriculture and Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Science Foundation and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.<\/p>\n\n
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Congress<\/h2>\n
\nSenate:<\/strong>\u00a0Sens. Mike Braun (R-IN) and Chris Coons (D-DE)\u00a0launched<\/a>\u00a0a bipartisan Senate Climate Solutions Caucus<\/strong>\u00a0whose members will work to identify common ground on climate policy and introduce corresponding legislation. The group is similar to the House Climate Solution Caucus and will aim for an equal number of Democrat and Republican members. Sen. Coons cited energy efficiency and funding for research and development as areas of agreement. Energy and Natural Resources Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Environment and Public Works Ranking Member Tom Carper (D-DE) plan to join the caucus.<\/p>\n\n
Executive Branch<\/h2>\n
\nWhite House<\/strong>:\u00a0President Trump\u00a0reactivated<\/a>\u00a0the President\u2019s\u00a0Council of\u00a0Advisors\u00a0on Science and Technology (PCAST) and named seven new PCAST members.<\/strong>\u00a0This group advises the president on \u201cpolicy that affects science, technology and innovation, as well as science and technology information that is needed to inform public policy.\u201d Six out of the seven new members are chief technology officers and executives from major corporations, including\u00a0S.C.\u00a0Johnson & Son, IBM and Dow Chemical. The sole academic researcher is Brigitta Whaley, a professor of chemistry and co-director of the Berkeley Quantum Information and Computation Center at the University of California, Berkeley. The Office of Science and Technology will eventually expand the PCAST to include 16 members. The PCAST has been dormant since the beginning of the Trump administration. The group will hold its\u00a0first meeting<\/a>\u00a0Nov. 18, 2019.<\/p>\nCourts<\/h2>\n
\nWaters of the U.S.<\/strong>:\u00a0A coalition of conservation groups\u00a0filed a lawsuit<\/a>\u00a0challenging the Trump administration\u2019s repeal of the 2015 Waters of the U.S. rule.<\/strong>\u00a0The lawsuit alleges the repeal violates the Administrative Procedures Act and \u201cbetrays an extraordinary disregard for federal rulemaking requirements and the views of the American public.\u201d The EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers finalized the repeal of the WOTUS rule in a Federal Register notice Oct. 22, 2019. The repeal goes into effect Dec. 23, 2019. The EPA is expected to finalize its new Waters of the U.S. rule in December 2019, which will trigger a new round of lawsuits.<\/p>\nStates<\/h2>\n
\nMaryland:\u00a0Gov. Larry Hogan (R)\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0that the state government and energy company Exelon Generation reached an agreement in which Exelon will pay contribute $200 million to Chesapeake Bay restoration to continue operations of the Conowingo Dam.<\/strong>\u00a0Exelon needs state approval to renew the permit from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to operate the dam, which is located near the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. Hogan and other state officials argue that increased sediment buildup around the dam has allowed increased levels of pollutants to enter the bay. The funds will go toward improved fish passage around the dam, aquatic habitat restoration and debris management.<\/p>\nInternational<\/h2>\n
\nClimate:\u00a0Chilean President Sebasti\u00e1n Pi\u00f1era\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0that Chile will not host the United Nations\u2019 annual climate meeting scheduled for December 2019,<\/strong>\u00a0amid ongoing unrest in the country. Instead, Spain will host the Conference of Parties 25 meeting in Madrid.<\/p>\nScientific Community<\/h2>\n
Opportunities to get involved<\/h2>\n
\nThe Forest Service\u2019s Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program is looking for new Advisory Panel members, including individuals with expertise in ecological restoration, fire ecology, ecological adaption to climate change and fish and wildlife ecology.<\/strong>\u00a0This panel evaluates and provides recommendations on potential restoration programs to the Secretary of Agriculture. The Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program funds and promotes collaborative, large scale ecosystem restoration on priority forest landscapes.\u00a0See the\u00a0Forest Service website<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0Federal Register notice<\/a>; nominations must be received by Nov. 15, 2019.<\/p>\n\n
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