My mission was to sit in on a confirmation vote and a congressional briefing, the first event in Dirksen (one of the three Senate buildings) and the second in the Capitol Visitor Center. Luckily for me, one of my fellow interns is placed in Dirksen, so I just tagged along with him in the morning to make it to my first meeting.
The morning meeting was a confirmation vote by the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on four nominations. Though the session took only 20 minutes, that was enough time for three protestors to rise up and be escorted out by security. What they were protesting was the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), an agency they deemed "rubber-stamping frack lovers." Two of the four nominations were in position to become members of the commission. However, the nomination that caused contention among the Senate Committee was for Deputy Secretary of the Interior. The committee's ranking member, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) said the nominee, David Bernhardt, would “bring a great deal of unwelcome baggage to the Department” because of his history as a lawyer for corporate interests, who sued the Interior Department and Energy Department on multiple occasions. Despite this, the vote split 14-9 along party lines and Bernhardt was confirmed.
Right: Chairwoman Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska)
The room was really full, though I can't even imagine what the room will look like on Thursday during the Senate hearing for James Comey. I stayed for the first 40 minutes of the Education Department hearing, and I could tell the rest of the hearing probably went downhill from there. The committee's ranking member, Patty Murray (D-WA), tore into DeVos' budget. After a particularly scathing exchange Murray summed up in my favorite quote of the day: "You and I disagree about basic math."
Yeah, that budget likely isn't getting passed, seeing as how it cuts all funding for Special Olympics, student work study, and Pell Grants.
Right: Ranking Member Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA)
The briefing, titled "The Decline in Research: Should We Worry?" discussed how corporate research has taken a plunge, with corporations focusing more on design instead in an effort to stay competitive in today's world. While some competition is good to spark innovation, too much competition makes the long process of research a "waste of time" so energy is instead devoted to modifying products already existing.
The same talk was given back in March, at which time the five speakers each talked for about 45 minutes each. Today was a condensed version (phew!) so each person spoke only 10 minutes on their specific section of the larger topic, and that left a half hour for questions at the end. The main conclusion drawn by the speakers was that there needs to be more public-private partnerships occurring, i.e., where corporations collaborate with higher institutions of learning, who have done the basic research, to create new products.
I found the event interesting, but even more important was the fact I got free lunch!
Right: Arti Rai, professor of law at Duke University.
Additionally, here is what you can get if you eat at Ted's Bulletin: