What makes a scientific expert? Congressional Democrats offer a shocking answer

By Steve Milloy —— Bio and Archives July 12, 2011

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What makes a scientific expert? Knowledge? Expertise? Accomplishment? Respect of one’s colleagues? A new bill introduced in Congress has a shocking new answer. Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) and Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA) have proposed a rigged process to ban so-called ‘endocrine disrupting’ chemicals like bisphenol A (BPA).

The bill would establish an “Endocrine Disruption Expert Panel” to advise the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences on banning chemicals. But to be on the panel an “expert” must:

… have received Federal endocrine-research-related funding within the 2 years preceding appointment under this subsection…

So you can’t be an expert unless you’re at least partially-owned by the politicized federal agencies that want to ban chemicals like BPA in the first place. Astonishingly, a scientist’s source of funding is what makes him expert, according to the Kerry-Moran bill. While the bill is unlikely to go anywhere due to probable Republican opposition, it does expose where Democrats want to take science and scientists.