Political bickering disrupts legislative process for energy research bill

Science : The House Science Committee’s panel on energy met on 11 June to discuss the Department of Energy (DOE) Research and Development Act of 2014, but the session ended after just 22 minutes and no votes. The act has provisions to guide funding for DOE research programs. In its draft form it includes major cuts to climate change research, restricts how findings can be used when setting agency policy, but raises Office of Science funding 5.1%. The 102-page draft, written by Republican committee members, was not circulated until late Friday, which prompted Democrat committee members to complain about the lack of time to review the proposal before the meeting. As a result, instead of proposing and discussing edits to the draft, both sides resorted to parliamentary maneuvering, and the meeting ended quickly. Because of this, the draft will go to the full committee hearing without having any edits made.