Senator Vitter, EPA and the National Academy of Sciences
As we noted on Christmas Eve, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has agreed to engage the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) as the peer review body on the agency's IRIS assessment of formaldehyde. And, as we also noted at the time, that action would have been impossible without U.S. Senator David Vitter (R-La.), who had placed a hold on the nomination of Paul Anastas as the head of the agency's office of Research and Development. Once EPA agreed to the NAS peer review, Senator Vitter lifted the hold and Anastas was confirmed by unanimous consent.
But for some reason, others, like the Swing State Project, still haven't picked up on the news that's already been reported by the New Orleans Times-Picayune and Baton Rouge Advocate. For those who missed it, here's the relevant portion of FCI Executive Director Betsy's Natz's statement: "Overcoming the agency's intransigence in engaging NAS on formaldehyde would have been impossible without the timely intervention of U.S. Senator David Vitter (R-La.). In his time in Washington, Senator Vitter has acted as a firm advocate in favor of sound science in the development of public policy, consistently resisting the injection of agenda-driven research into environmental regulation. Both public safety and scientific integrity have been bolstered as the result of Senator Vitter's efforts."