Democrats ramp up calls to investigate NOAA
By Miranda Green - 09/11/19 06:45 PM EDT
Democratic lawmakers are ramping up requests for investigations into why officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reprimanded their own scientists for contradicting President Trump’s tweet on Hurricane Dorian.
Four Democratic lawmakers are now calling for probes into reports that the White House played a hand in reprimanding NOAA staff at the agency’s Birmingham, Ala., office for tweeting that Alabama would not be affected by the hurricane. That kind of involvement would be seen as a politicization of science.
On Wednesday, the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology launched a congressional inquiry into the circumstances that led NOAA to issue an unsigned statement last week that appeared to rebuke its own scientists who contradicted Trump’s claims about Dorian’s path.
Committee Chair Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas) and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chair Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.) sent a letter to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross on Wednesday, requesting a briefing from him and asking for details surrounding publication of last week’s statement.
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https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/461011-democrats-ramp-up-calls-to-investigate-noaa