To watch Senator Capito’s questioning, click here or the image above.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), a member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, participated in a full committee hearing on the nomination of Dr. Arati Prabhakar to be Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). During the hearing, Senator Capito discussed the need to support science centers in West Virginia, as well as the importance of encouraging more participation in STEM fields.
HIGHLIGHTS:
COMMITMENT TO CHEMISTY RESEARCH: “Will you commit to helping me work on these issues? Senators Coons, Collins, Klobuchar, and I introduced – we were able to pass the Sustainable Chemistry Research and Development Act as part of NDAA in FY21. The Office of Science and Technology Policy announced their request for information from the public on a consensus definition of what ‘sustainable chemistry’ is, so quick action would be good. I just ask that we could work on this together.”
SUPPORTING WEST VIRGINIA’S SCIENCE CENTERS: “West Virginia is home to a number of scientific facilities. We have NSF’s Green Bank Telescope Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia. We have NOAA’s supercomputer computer. We also have great NASA facilities, and we also have NETL. So, the reason I think it's important…there are seeds of excellence all around the country. If you look at where a lot of the funding goes for science and research, it goes to six states, a third of it goes to, I think, Maryland, and either Massachusetts or California. We happen to believe we have some great – I don't think we're ever going to be able to build the seeds of excellence in other states if we don't start recognizing that the talent is there. But, it in order for the talent to stay there, you have to have the encouragement, and some of that has to come from the federal government.”
GROWING INVOLVEMENT IN STEM FIELDS: “One of the areas that a lot of us have worked on is to try to get involvement in STEM careers. Women and people of color were underrepresented in these areas, so I'm glad to see that this is a passion – obviously your life's work. In the U.S., I mean, from my perspective, you have to start early, you have to talk about what does it really mean. It doesn't mean, you know, you're sitting in a lab coat with a beaker and a Bunsen burner, or whatever it is we had back in the 70s. You know, there's all kinds of wonderful opportunities, particularly in the robotics area. Do you have any original ideas, or any new ideas to reach those underrepresented populations?”
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