Science committee accused of industry bias

The House of Representatives’ Science, Space and Technology Committee is being accused of significantly increasing its reliance on witnesses from industry, under both Democratic and Republican control, while calling a smaller share of academic witnesses, including scientists, to testify.

An analysis, released by the Union of Concerned Scientists’ Center for Science and Democracy (CSD) on 31 March, found that only 18 per cent of committee witnesses in the 107th Congress from 2001-03 were from industry, while industry witnesses climbed to 28 per cent in the 112th Congress from 2011-13.

Specifically, the group found that academics made up 33 per cent of the witness pool in the 111th Congress, but that figure fell to less than 25 per cent in the 112th Congress.