Commerce, Science & Transportation Sen
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</font></div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Senate_Committee_on_Commerce,Science,and_Transportation">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Senate_Committee_on_Commerce,Science,and_Transportation</a>
</font><table class="wikitable"><tbody><tr><th><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Majority</font></th><th><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Minority</font></th></tr><tr><td style="background:#B0CEFF" valign="top">
<ul><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Rockefeller" title="Jay Rockefeller">Jay Rockefeller</a>, West Virginia, <i>Chairman</i></font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Boxer" title="Barbara Boxer">Barbara Boxer</a>, California</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Nelson" title="Bill Nelson">Bill Nelson</a>, Florida</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Cantwell" title="Maria Cantwell">Maria Cantwell</a>, Washington</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Pryor" title="Mark Pryor">Mark Pryor</a>, Arkansas</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claire_McCaskill" title="Claire McCaskill">Claire McCaskill</a>, Missouri</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_Klobuchar" title="Amy Klobuchar">Amy Klobuchar</a>, Minnesota</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Warner" title="Mark Warner">Mark Warner</a>, Virginia</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Begich" title="Mark Begich">Mark Begich</a>, Alaska</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Blumenthal" title="Richard Blumenthal">Richard Blumenthal</a>, Connecticut</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Schatz" title="Brian Schatz">Brian Schatz</a>, Hawaii</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mo_Cowan" title="Mo Cowan">Mo Cowan</a>, Massachusetts</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Donnelly" title="Joe Donnelly">Joe Donnelly</a>, Indiana</font></li></ul>
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<ul><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Thune" title="John Thune">John Thune</a>, South Dakota, <i>Ranking Member</i></font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Wicker" title="Roger Wicker">Roger Wicker</a>, Mississippi</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Blunt" title="Roy Blunt">Roy Blunt</a>, Missouri</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marco_Rubio" title="Marco Rubio">Marco Rubio</a>, Florida</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelly_Ayotte" title="Kelly Ayotte">Kelly Ayotte</a>, New Hampshire</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_Heller" title="Dean Heller">Dean Heller</a>, Nevada</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Coats" title="Dan Coats">Dan Coats</a>, Indiana</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Scott" title="Tim Scott">Tim Scott</a>, South Carolina</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Cruz" title="Ted Cruz">Ted Cruz</a>, Texas</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deb_Fischer" title="Deb Fischer">Deb Fischer</a>, Nebraska</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Johnson%28U.S.politician%29" title="Ron Johnson (U.S. politician)">Ron Johnson</a>, Wisconsin</font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Chiesa" title="Jeffrey Chiesa">Jeffrey Chiesa</a>, New Jersey</font></li></ul></td></tr></tbody></table><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The <b>Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Science and Space</b> is one of the seven subcommittees within the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senate_Committee_on_Commerce,_Science_and_Transportation" title="Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation" class="mw-redirect">Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation</a>. It was renamed from the <b>Subcommittee on Space, Aeronautics, and Related Sciences</b> at the start of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/111th_Congress" title="111th Congress" class="mw-redirect">111th Congress</a>.</font></p>
<h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Jurisdiction"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jurisdiction</font></span></h2>
<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Subcommittee's jurisdiction includes oversight over <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA" title="NASA">NASA</a>. For the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/111th_Congress" title="111th Congress" class="mw-redirect">111th Congress</a>, the committee gained additional jurisdiction on science matters from the former <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_Commerce_Subcommittee_on_Science,Technology,and_Innovation" title="United States Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Science, Technology, and Innovation" class="mw-redirect">United States Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Science, Technology, and Innovation</a>.</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font><div><h1 class="title" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 26px; direction: ltr; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; line-height: 36px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-stretch: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">House Science Chair Says Latest Climate Report Is 'Clearly Biased,' But He Only Read The Summary</font></font></font></h1><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; line-height: 21px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-stretch: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Lamar Smith, the Republican chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, hasn't read the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/02/un-climate-change-report_n_6089392.html" target="hplink" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">latest report</a> from the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, but he says he knows enough to conclude that “most of the predictions have been wrong," he told Bloomberg TV on Friday.</font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; line-height: 21px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-stretch: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">“Congressman, it’s science. It’s 800 scientists," Bloomberg host Cory Johnson interrupted. "It’s not some random guy making a prediction.”</font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; line-height: 21px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-stretch: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">“There are a lot of other scientists who disagree," said the Texas Republican. "For example<b>, we’ve now had close to 18 years of no global warming even though carbon dioxide emissions have increased 25 percent over the last 18 years.</b> Nobody can explain that."</font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; line-height: 21px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-stretch: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Smith told Johnson he had not read the IPCC report. “I only read summaries,” he said, and described the report authors as “clearly biased.”</font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; line-height: 21px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-stretch: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">There is <a href="http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/8/2/024024/article" target="hplink" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">near unanimity among active climate scientists</a> that climate change is happening and that humans are causing it. <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2013EF000165/abstract" target="hplink" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Several studies</a> have <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/345/6199/860.summary?rss=1" target="hplink" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">also debunked</a> the idea that climate change isn't happening because surface air temperatures have risen more slowly since the 1990s. Rising greenhouse gas emissions mean a stronger greenhouse effect and the Earth continues to absorb more energy than it radiates back into space. This energy imbalance manifests itself in other ways, such as ocean warming and glacial melting.</font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; line-height: 21px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-stretch: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>Globally, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/mar/24/warmest-years-record-un-global-warming" target="hplink" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">13 of the 14 warmest years on record</a> have occurred in the 21st century. And there is a good chance that <a href="http://www.climatecentral.org/news/2014-on-track-to-be-warmest-year-on-record-18041" target="hplink" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">2014 may set the record</a> as the warmest year since record keeping began in 1880.</b></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; line-height: 21px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-stretch: normal;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"There’s still no explanation and no one can tell me yet what percentage of so-called climate change is due to human activity [and] what percentage is due to natural trends, natural cycles," Smith said. But in its <a href="http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar5/syr/SYR_AR5_SPM.pdf" target="hplink" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">latest report</a>, the IPCC states with 95 percent confidence that it is "extremely likely" that "more than half of the observed increase in global average surface temperature from 1951 to 2010" was caused by human activities.</font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; line-height: 21px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-stretch: normal;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Despite this overwhelming evidence from the most respected climate researchers,<b> Rep. Smith says, "We don’t know enough yet to make decisions that are going to hurt our economy or hurt the American people ... Let’s continue to gather the facts, make sure the science is correct."</b></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; line-height: 21px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-stretch: normal;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Smith, however, has worked to undermine climate science in his position as chairman of the committee.</font><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">He's <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2014/10/lamar-smith-climate-science-investigation-nsf" target="hplink" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">investigated National Science Foundation grants</a> to researchers working on climate change on the premise that those grants aren't in the "national interest."</font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; line-height: 21px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-stretch: normal;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Nor does he seem particularly interested in finding out more about climate science.</font><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> His committee has <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/22/congress-climate-change-aliens_n_5372168.html" target="hplink" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">held more hearings on aliens</a> than they have on climate science in the 113th Congress.</font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; line-height: 21px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-stretch: normal;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">[huffpo</font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; line-height: 21px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-stretch: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">R</font><span style="line-height: 27px;">ep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), chairman of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, has a long</span><span style="line-height: 27px;"> </span><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/lamar-smith-overheated-rhetoric-on-climate-change-hurts-the-economy/2013/05/19/32cb6d94-bda4-11e2-97d4-a479289a31f9_story.html" target="hplink" data-beacon="{" p="p" mnid="mnid" entry_text="entry_text" lnid="lnid" citation="citation" mpid="mpid" style="line-height: 27px; box-sizing: inherit;">track record of climate change denial</a><span style="line-height: 27px;">. And under his leadership, the committee has</span><span style="line-height: 27px;"> </span><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/03/house-hearing-aliens_n_4379175.html" target="hplink" data-beacon="{" p="p" mnid="mnid" entry_text="entry_text" lnid="lnid" citation="citation" mpid="mpid" style="line-height: 27px; box-sizing: inherit;">spent more time</a><span style="line-height: 27px;"> </span><span style="line-height: 27px;">holding hearings on the existence of extraterrestrial life than it has examining climate science or the repercussions of global climate change.</span></font></p><div class="content-list-component mt-paragraph text" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: 630px; min-width: initial; width: 630px; line-height: 1.5em;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The House and Senate have held a combined 19 hearings on space exploration during the 113th Congress, according to a report Wednesday in the <a href="http://www.nationaljournal.com/energy/the-house-science-committee-has-held-more-hearings-on-aliens-than-on-climate-change-20140521" target="hplink" data-beacon="{" p="p" mnid="mnid" entry_text="entry_text" lnid="lnid" citation="citation" mpid="mpid" style="box-sizing: inherit;">National Journal</a>.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Smith’s committee alone has organized 15 of those hearings, including<b>three</b> that focused on discovering alien life.</span></font></p></div><div class="content-list-component mt-paragraph text" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: 630px; min-width: initial; width: 630px; line-height: 1.5em;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Meanwhile, Smith’s committee has held just<b> two hearings dedicated to climate change.</b></font></p></div><div class="content-list-component mt-paragraph text" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: 630px; min-width: initial; width: 630px; line-height: 1.5em;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Several House committees are responsible for addressing U.S. energy and environmental issues. The House Energy and Commerce Committee has held only one hearing on climate change, while the House Natural Resources Committee has yet to take up the issue in the 113th Congress.</font></p></div><div class="content-list-component mt-paragraph text" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: 630px; min-width: initial; width: 630px; line-height: 1.5em;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Numerous sitting members of the House Science Committee have expressed views rejecting the scientific consensus on climate change. Committee member James Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc.) has gone so far as to call climate change a “massive international scientific fraud” and evidence of “scientific fascism,” while Paul Broun (R-Ga.), a young Earth creationist, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/03/house-hearing-aliens_n_4379175.html" target="hplink" data-beacon="{" p="p" mnid="mnid" entry_text="entry_text" lnid="lnid" citation="citation" mpid="mpid" style="box-sizing: inherit;">believes the Earth</a> was “created in six days as we know them.”</font></p></div><div class="content-list-component mt-paragraph text" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: 630px; min-width: initial; width: 630px; line-height: 1.5em;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“You could argue that it makes sense for the House Science Committee to rigorously discuss outer space — after all, it’s right there in the committee’s name,”<a href="http://www.nationaljournal.com/energy/the-house-science-committee-has-held-more-hearings-on-aliens-than-on-climate-change-20140521" data-beacon="{" p="p" mnid="mnid" entry_text="entry_text" lnid="lnid" citation="citation" mpid="mpid" style="box-sizing: inherit;">wrote The National Journal’s Emma Roller</a>, who tallied up the hearing topics. “But you could also argue that when the committee you chair has the word ‘science’ in its name, you may want to discuss the premier scientific debate that’s going on.”</font></p></div><div class="content-list-component mt-paragraph text" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: 630px; min-width: initial; width: 630px; line-height: 1.5em;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sometimes, however, the environment comes up in the context of extraterrestrial life. At the House Science Committee’s latest hearing on aliens, held on Wednesday, Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Director Dan Werthimer noted that while the possibility of extraterrestrial microbial life is nearly certain, “If we discover that we are alone, we’d better take really good care of life on this planet.”</font></p></div><div class="content-list-component mt-paragraph text" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: 630px; min-width: initial; width: 630px; line-height: 1.5em;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While much of the congressional climate change denial <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/12/al-gore-republicans_n_5313028.html" target="hplink" data-beacon="{" p="p" mnid="mnid" entry_text="entry_text" lnid="lnid" citation="citation" mpid="mpid" style="box-sizing: inherit;">happens in the House</a>, the Democrat-led Senate has also failed to exhibit substantial interest in the issue.</font></p></div><div class="content-list-component mt-paragraph text" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: 630px; min-width: initial; width: 630px; line-height: 1.5em;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Senate </span>Commerce Science and Space Subcommittee has held four hearings on space, but only one on climate change. </b>The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hasn’t addressed the topic since 2012. The Environment and Public Works Committee has held three hearings on climate change this Congress.</font></p></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-stretch: normal;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="line-height: 21px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/22/congress-climate-change-aliens_n_5372168.html</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-stretch: normal;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="line-height: 21px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">]</font></p></div><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/07/lamar-smith-climate-change-denial_n_6123638.html">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/07/lamar-smith-climate-change-denial_n_6123638.html</a></font></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"> =</font></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
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</div><div>next to helping President Joe Biden get reelected, the Democratic Nation Committee's (DNC) top goal for 2024 is keeping their party's effective majority in the U.S. Senate. Democratic strategists and organizers realize that if Biden is reelected but Republicans retake the Senate, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) would — assuming he became Senate majority leader again — do everything he could to block Biden's nominees.</div><div>
</div><div>That could everything from a possible U.S. Supreme Court nominee if there are any vacancies to lower federal court nominees to potential members of Biden's administration.</div><div>
</div><div>Democrats slightly increased their effective Senate majority in the 2022 midterms. But in an article published on June 12, Politico reporters Burgess Everett, Jennifer Haberkorn and Daniella Diaz describe the <b>difficulties that Biden nominees have been facing in the Senate Commerce Committee.</b></div><div>
</div><div>READ MORE: Senate Republicans resist Biden's Highway Traffic Safety nominee: report</div><div>
</div><div><b>"Relatively obscure nominations are turning into Senate knife fights as 2024 approaches," </b>the reporters explain. "<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">And the Commerce Committee is the center of the action. So far this year, three Biden picks for executive-branch positions withdrew because they lacked enough support in the Committee, which has four Democratic members up for reelection in swing states next fall. And when Republicans stick together — under the surprising leadership of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) — that can cause problems."</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">One of the Biden nominees who withdrew was Ann Carlson, who Biden had in mind to head the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">According to Everett, Haberkorn and Diaz, "The Carlson episode is instructive for a White House and Democratic Senate that's faced several tough nomination crunches. At the moment, labor secretary hopeful Julie Su is in the highest-profile fight, as a handful of Democratic senators remain undecided and there's no floor vote in sight."</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Politico reporters add that "it's not hard to see why the Commerce Committee is so tough" for Biden nominees.</span></div><div>
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</div><div>READ MORE: Watch: Ted Cruz lashes out at Biden nominee for referring to Fox News as propaganda</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">"The combative Cruz is the top Republican on the panel," Everett, Haberkorn and Diaz note. "And the Committee's Democratic members include incumbent Sens. Kyrsten<b> Sinema</b> (I-Ariz.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Jon <b>Tester </b>(D-Mont.) and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.)."</span></div><div>
</div><div>READ MORE: <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Susan Collins helps sink hopes of replacing Dianne Feinstein on Judiciary Committee</span></div><div>
</div><div>Politico's full report is available at this link.</div><div>
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