WASHINGTON, DC (March 5, 2009) – Anonymous senators are putting President Barack Obama’s science advisors on ice, reports Congressional Quarterly. White House science advisor John Holdren and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration head Jane Lubchenco await confirmation, following Feb. 12 Senate confirmation hearings. The anonymous "holds" are a Senate prerogative used in the past to delay naming Presidential appointees.
“It’s infuriating,” Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV, Dem., W.Va., chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, told Congressional Quarterly. Overriding the holds by the unnamed senators would require 60 votes.In unrelated federal news, the National Institutes of Health today posted online "Challenge" grant requirements for "jumpstart funds" available to researchers under the recently-passed 2009 stimulus bill. At least $200 million will go to two-year grants to study, "knowledge gaps, scientific opportunities, new technologies, data generation, or research methods," says a NIH statement.
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