Rep. Lamar Smith Announces Retirement

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4. Lamar Smith retiring from Congress

Breaking: Lamar Smith is retiring from Congress, according to two sources close to the congressman.

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Lamar Smith retiring from Congress

U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio, is retiring from Congress, two sources close to the congressman told The Texas Tribune on Thursday.

BY ABBY LIVINGSTON NOV. 2, 2017 UPDATED: 2:50 PM

From February: How a minor committee became a 'weapon' of the climate wars

Retweeted by David Fahrenthold: https://twitter.com/Fahrenthold

Here’s how @LamarSmithTX21, a warrior against climate science, transformed his sleepy committee into potent weapon:

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POLITICS

How a minor committee became a 'weapon' of the climate wars

Scott Waldman, E&E News reporter
Climatewire: Monday, February 13, 2017

A House panel overseeing science has transformed over the past two years from a sleepy backwater committee into a subpoena-wielding, headline-generating political actor feared by actual scientists.

Under the tenure of Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas), the House Science, Space and Technology Committee has taken on an unprecedented aggressiveness, serving federal researchers with subpoenas and accusing entire federal agencies of engaging in massive scientific fraud. The committee's shift under Smith, who took over in 2013, has stunned longtime congressional observers, Democrats and Republicans alike. Many said they are concerned that the panel's focus on politics will cause irreparable harm to government science.

But Smith also has his fans, including conservative media outlets and lawmakers delighted to see a comeuppance for federal agencies they believe are politicized. Smith's supporters cheer his vow to rid agencies of what he calls "politically correct" science and say the committee under his rule will usher in overdue reforms — especially, they say, if the voices of industry scientists can be amplified in setting federal policy.

In the last few weeks alone, the committee has generated global headlines as it prepares a wave of legislation designed — depending on one's perspective — to reform or impede federal science in a manner unprecedented in recent memory. In the last few weeks, the committee has been compared to the Spanish Inquisition by left-leaning Mother Jones magazine, and Smith has been hailed as an "unlikely warrior against dubious science" by the conservative National Review.