nat'l research cncl
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">neglected? // NAS?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div class="widget__brief" style="color: rgb(31, 31, 31); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="margin: 10px 0px;">As the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the leadership of Scott Pruitt moves to make it easier for big industry to <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/09/14/mind-bogglingly-dangerous-trump-epa-rolls-back-water-pollution-limits-coal-plants" target="blank" style="color: rgb(82, 149, 70); text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">dump dangerous chemicals</a> into the nation's air and water, the agency <a href="http://thehill.com/regulation/energy-environment/375725-major-epa-reorganization-will-end-science-research-program" target="blank" style="color: rgb(82, 149, 70); text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">announced</a> late Monday that it is dissolving a program that funds studies on the effects of pollution and chemical exposure on America's children.</p></div><div class="js-appear-on-expand" style="transition: all 350ms; height: auto; overflow: hidden; opacity: 1; color: rgb(31, 31, 31); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px;">Called the National Center for Environmental Research (NCER), the program previously provided millions of dollars in grants per year to researchers studying the effects of chemicals on children's health. The EPA's move, first <a href="http://thehill.com/regulation/energy-environment/375725-major-epa-reorganization-will-end-science-research-program" target="blank" style="color: rgb(82, 149, 70); text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">reported</a> by The Hill, will eliminate the NCER in the process of consolidating three EPA offices.</p><p style="margin: 10px 0px;">Critics responded to the move with outrage, denouncing it as "truly wicked" and further proof of the Trump administration's willingness to <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/02/21/slap-face-victims-big-oil-pollution-speak-out-against-pruitts-luxury-flights" target="blank" style="color: rgb(82, 149, 70); text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">sacrifice the health of the public</a> in the service of its corporate-friendly deregulatory agenda.</p></div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">omg</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) plans to eliminate its National Center for Environmental Research (NCER), a department that funds research into environmental impacts on communities.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The center, tasked with distributing “grants to test the effects of chemical exposure on adults and children,” will be shuttered amid a reorganization at the agency as part of EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s goal of creating more efficiency at the agency.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Most of the EPA’s grants come out of the NCER, a division of the agency’s Office of Research and Development. Last October, Pruitt ordered that scientists who have received EPA grants from the NCER and other programs at the agency won’t be allowed to serve on the agency’s advisory boards. Critics of the policy change denounced the move as a poorly disguised attempt to push out experts at odds with industry.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The NCER’s most prominent program is called Science to Achieve Results, or STAR, which was created in 1995. The STAR program has distributed grants to the Children’s Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research Centers. The two centers have been “successful in advancing our scientific understanding and ability do address the ways that environmental chemicals can impact children’s health,” a former EPA senior scientist told The Hill.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A recent report issued by the National Academies of Sciences concluded that through the STAR program, EPA has created a vehicle that fosters collaboration and knowledge-sharing in a way that “may reduce the cost of regulations, protect public health, and save lives.” A<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">bout eight years after STAR’s creation, a National Research Council committee reviewed the program and strongly endorsed it as an integral part of EPA’s research program.</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Trump administration, however, has singled out the STAR program for elimination in its budget proposals. The STAR program’s budget allocation has varied over the years, peaking at around $138 million in 2001 and 2002 and reaching its lowest point in 2016 at about $39 million. Between 2001 and 2015, the program awarded nearly 1,500 grants and fellowships in total, according to the <b>National Academies of Sciences report.</b></font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div>