Science appointments on hold.

Members of the US Senate are holding up the appointments of Jane Lubchenco as NOAA administrator and John Holdren as Science Advisor. Moreover, while the specific Senators causing the delay are still anonymous they are apparently Democrats using these positions as pawns in a bargaining game for unrelated political gains. This situation is unacceptable. I and many others voted for the Democrats in the last election because we were sick of poor treatment of science by the Republicans. Unfortunately, I am cynical enough that holding up critical appointments of qualified appointments for necessary science positions is change I can believe in; it is no change at all.

You can help deal with this. Mike Dunford has multiple pieces discussing the situation and what you can do about it. Mike has the details of which Senators to contact. This situation is unacceptable. The Democrats in the Senate need to understand that people who care about science care about empirical results. We won't just listen to your rhetoric if you don't follow through. Having these appointments confirmed by the Senate is vitally important. Please look at Mike's pieces and contact your Senators.