Re: reading the wapo article
Posted by
Chris in Tampa on 12/5/2016, 4:58 pm
Skepticism is a good term for a lot of things. There was supposed to be a meeting today with Al Gore and Ivanka Trump but Al Gore ended up also meeting with Donald Trump too.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/12/05/ivanka-trump-to-meet-with-al-gore-to-discuss-climate-issues/
I haven't looked too deep at the commercial and private sector parts in the 64 page bill. Pages 12 to 15 seem to be about some of that in regards to space. I don't know how bills are usually written, especially on something like this. It seems for future satellite programs over $500 million they will determine how useful they are and make available to the public the results of "an assessment of related private and public sector weather data sourcing options, including their availability, affordability, and cost effectiveness."
Language like that could be anything from it makes sense to scary, depending on how someone uses it.
I was looking up who runs some things. I think the NOAA administrator is appointed by the President. Maybe the Secretary of Commerce might appoint the Assistant Administrator for Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research "subject to approval of the President". It might be some other Secretary though in the Department of Commerce.
The Assistant Administrator for Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, who would handle some of the things in that bill:
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2015/20150121_oar-director.html
Who heads NOAA:
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2014/20140306_sullivanconfirmed.html
From an earlier Act:
"Section 203(a) would provide that NOAA would be
administered by the Administrator of NOAA. The Administrator
would be appointed by the President, by and with the advice of
the Senate. The Administrator would be compensated at level II
of the Executive Schedule under section 5313 of title 5, United
States Code. The Administrator, under the supervision and
direction of the Secretary, would be responsible for the
exercise of all powers and the discharge of all duties of NOAA,
including all personnel and activities thereof. The term of any
individual to serve as Administrator would be five years."
"[(e)(1) There shall be in the Administration a General
Counsel and five Assistant Administrators, one of whom shall be
the Assistant Administrator for Coastal Zone Management and one
of whom shall be the Assistant Administrator for Fisheries. The
General Counsel and each Assistant Administrator shall be
appointed by the Secretary, subject to approval of the
President, and shall be compensated at a rate now or hereafter
provided for level V of the Executive Schedule Pay Rates (5
U.S.C. 5316)."
From:
https://www.congress.gov/congressional-report/108th-congress/senate-report/407/1
I don't know if people could be removed immediately, but I would assume so at the higher appointed levels.
I don't know about other parts of the bill. Although I did skim through more and see on page 33 there is information about commercial weather data through page 38. I don't know how I feel about some of it. You can see they would report back to the Senate and House. One of the things seems to talk about if something may be developed by some other organization in the future, the committees want to know about it, perhaps so it would not need to be done with NOAA then. I don't know what it is talking about, such as if a few years from now a private organization or government says they might develop something, would we wait for that? What if it didn't happen? How reliable would it be? How much would it cost if they increased their rates?
I don't normally read bills, so I might be reading more into things. I just don't want wiggle room in existing and upcoming laws in regards to this kind of thing. At least this seems to be more about weather data rather than personnel, though I have not read the entire thing. |
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