
Trump has nominated Jim Bridenstine — a member of Congress from Oklahoma without a formal science or engineering background — to be the administrator of NASA. Bridenstine is an anti-science climate change denier who has received more than $170,000 in campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry.
And people are paying attention! Science advocate Bill Nye was feeling the heat for attending Trump’s State of the Union address as the guest of Rep. Bridenstine. Together with Climate Hawks Vote, Demand Progress, and MoveOn, over 40,000 petition signatures were delivered to Bill Nye, and the joint campaign was all over the news in outlets like CNN, The Washington Post, Bloomberg, The Hill, People, Slate, and more.
Now we must redouble our efforts to stop this nomination in its tracks, and ensure that Rep. Bridenstine does not become the next administrator of NASA. Momentum is on our side — Bridenstine's nomination is now a controversy and, if enough of us speak out, we're confident we can convince senators to stop this from moving forward.
NASA performs critical climate science research, and if the Senate confirms Bridentine's nomination he could work with Trump to end NASA's earth science missions, and ground essential research satellites. Bridenstine sponsored legislation to remove earth science from NASA's remit, and he once demanded that President Obama apologize for spending money on climate change research. And that's just the start...
Bipartisan opposition to Bridenstine's confirmation is growing, including concerns from both Florida Senators. In a letter, Senator Patty Murray of Washington said that: “Rep. Bridenstine’s failure to accept fundamental scientific truths about Earth’s climate make him an ill-suited and dangerous choice to lead the agency."
Bridenstine's nomination has been voted out of committee and the full Senate vote is coming up soon. Senators need to hear from you. Add your name to call on the Senate to reject Jim Bridenstine as administrator of NASA.