§2932 Committee on Earth and Environmental Sciences

Summary

The President must set up a Committee on Earth and Environmental Sciences through the Council. The Committee will carry out the Council’s work under section 6651 of Title 42 to make federal global change research more effective. It must include at least one representative from 15 places, including NSF, NASA, NOAA, EPA, the Departments of Energy, State, Defense, Interior, Agriculture, and Transportation, OMB, OSTP, CEQ, the NIEHS (NIH), and any other agencies the President or Council Chair thinks should join. Every two years the Council Chairman, with the Committee, will pick a Committee member to be Chairperson. The Chairperson must have experience running science programs and come from an agency that gives substantial research capacity and budget. The Chairperson appoints an Executive Secretary, who must be a permanent employee of one of the represented agencies and stay employed there. The Committee must plan and coordinate the Program. It will make the Program plan and check that it is carried out, improve agency cooperation, give budget advice as described in section 2935, arrange regular public and peer reviews with universities, states, and industry, work with the Secretary of State on international meetings and coordination (for example, with the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program), consult people who will use the research to make sure results are useful for policy, and report at least once a year to the President and Congress through the Council Chairman on priorities, policies, and programs.