Weekend Update Corner: Confirmations, Court Date, STOCK and Walport

Four updates addressing recent developments in ongoing stories:

Several of the Obama Administration’s recent agency nominations have moved forward in the confirmation process.  Energy Secretary nominee Ernest Moniz testified at his confirmation hearing last week.  In a nice contrast to recent Cabinet-level confirmation hearings, there was little drama.  Gina McCarthy’s recent confirmation hearing to become the next head of the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) was not so genteel.  Given that both McCarthy and Moniz come to their agency’s top jobs with prior agency experience, I believe the difference can be attributed to the relatively hostile reaction the EPA generates in many quarter. The Senate confirmed new Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell last Wednesday.  Still no official word on the next nominee to be Director of the National Science Foundation.

The Supreme Court will hear arguments this week in the Myriad Genetics case.  It will be limited to whether the genes at issue in the case would be patentable.  I would not expect an opinion before the end of June.

The STOCK Act – which was intended to prevent the then-legal insider trading conducted by members of Congress and their staff – has once again come back to Congress for revision.  As I’ve noted, many government employees (in the Executive Branch) have expressed concerns that the disclosure requirements in the bill would expose them to identity theft and/or fraud.  I’m sympathetic to this concern, and think a compromise could be found to allow information disclosure that didn’t facilitate fraud or theft.  Congress, perhaps being consistent with its inadequacies elsewhere, couldn’t figure out the balance.  It passed legislation that would scale back disclosure requirements, exempting executive branch employees and Congressional staff.  Feel free to slap your head on the desk or with your hands.

Finally, there has been a peaceful transfer of power between U.K. Government Chief Scientific Advisers.  Sir John Beddington vacated his post on April 1st, with Sir Mark Walport assuming the mantle of GCSA.  Sir Mark’s first speech as GCSA was last week (though no official remarks are available at the Government Office of Science website – yet).