Overview of SCB
Policy Approval Process
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| An overview of SCB's Policy Approval Process is available here.
After reviewing the policy page and resources, one of the most effective ways you can bring science to policymakers is to establish relationships with your government officials wherever you are.
In the U.S., for example, citizens can get to know their Senators, Members of Congress and agency officials working on issues they care about most. Under "Policy Tools and Guidelines for SCB Members" on the navigation bar to the left, we have web sites for offices and research reports to help guide you through the international and U.S. federal policy ecosystems. U.S. SCB members may also want to call the Capitol Operator at 202-225-3121, and ask to be connected to the offices of your House Members and Senators and Committees of interest. |
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SCB Members Can Help Deliver SCB's Message to the New Congress and Administration
As described below, SCB developed and delivered a set of recommendations for the Obama Administration’s transition team. We are using these recommendations to help Senators prepare questions for nominees whose positions require Senate confirmation. Our goal is to make sure the new appointees and the Senators understand and deliver on issues of concern to SCB and our colleagues.
We need help from all SCB members in getting these points across to the new Administration and to the new Congress. Please read SCB's recommendations to advance the scientific foundation for conserving biological diversity.
If you are in the U.S. or if you are a U.S. citizen, please help us by
1) contacting your Members of Congress (Capitol Operator -- 202-225-3121),
2) contacting the regional administrators of Federal resource management and environmental agencies in your area, and
3) contacting other offices of the executive branch to discuss SCB’s recommendations and whatever local examples you may be able to offer.
Ask your Congressional delegation and agency leaders to review the publication and let you know how they can support its implementation. For problems or solutions not covered here or in SCB statements posted on the policy pages, feel free to offer personal suggestions but make it clear that you are not speaking for SCB. (You can deliver official SCB positions once the policy committee has approved a proposed policy statement or one that covers the issue).
Through the SCB-sponsored International Marine Conservation Congress in May, in our other meetings, and through chapter, working group, section and Executive Office initiatives, the Policy Committee will consider expanding SCB's recommendations as we move ahead. In the meantime, share your plans and progress with your SCB colleagues and send big news to us and your chapter, section, and working group leaders. This is a new government. Make it yours.
Background:
On Thursday December 11th, SCB presented its recommendations to six members of Obama’s Transition Team. The team represented the Interior and Agriculture Departments and EPA teams. SCB Executive Director Alan Thornhill, Policy Director John Fitzgerald, former North America Policy Chair Dominick DellaSala, and annual conference seminar leader and policy panelist Francesca Grifo summarized the report that they and other contributors had developed to guide the new President and his team as they begin their new Administration. We were assured that they would send the report to all of the affected teams who were not present, as well as to their various agencies and offices.
We may be able to follow this paper with another paper that will more fully reflect contributions from our chapters and other elements of SCB that we were unable to include due to time constraints. More to follow on this in the coming weeks…
Last, but not least, just as we were helped by senior policy professionals and SCB members who work on enhancing conservation science, practice, and scientific integrity in other organizations, we aided the National Council on Science and the Environment and the Endangered Species Coalition in developing and delivering mutually reinforcing or complementary recommendations. In this process we help each other cover gaps and reinforce concerns we have in common.
New Developments!
During the January 15th hearing on the Confirmation of Senator Salazar to be Secretary of the Interior, Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), as we had urged him to, asked the nominee for a timetable for correcting the more than 20 Endangered Species Act decisions that the Inspector General reported were inappropriately and possibly illegally made and for curtailing the harm caused to sensitive resources in the meantime. That afternoon, Chairman Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) and the staff of the House Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands noted that the Senate had passed S. 22, the compromise omnibus wilderness and forest bill assembled primarily to designate many areas of wilderness, and committed to working with us and the Administration to:
- approve H. J. Res. 18 striking down the Bush regulation curtailing expert agency consultation and climate mitigation under the ESA
- contribute to climate mitigation through forest policy enhancements
- restore and enhance the regulations protecting biological diversity on Federal lands,
- reform the 1872 Mining Act,
- address the Border Wall,
- curtail NEPA rollbacks and excessive categorical exclusions,
- work with the Administration on road-less areas in National Forests,
- enhance protection for the Grand Canyon, and
- improve the professional development, staffing and working conditions of federal employees
Please Thank Chairman Grijalva (202-2265-2435) for keeping his chairmanship and drawing up this active agenda despite an attractive offer to serve on the Ways and Means Committee.
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