On Saturday, the House passed H.R. 1, the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011, which would cut government spending by $60 billion between now and the end of September.   
It would also fund federal government operations for the remainder of the fiscal year.
The bill was passed by 235 Republicans, with three joining the 189 Democrats who voted against it. While the bill will likely face withering repudiation in the Senate after its current recess, it is vital to note a few of the GOP’s political attacks on scientific matters.
The bill would end federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and senior policy advisers for the White House.
Also, it would block efforts of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to enforce the Clean Air Act pursuant to section 202(a) therein contained and reduce funding for the agency’s Greenhouse Gas Registry.   
On Feb. 15, before the passing of H.R. 1 in the House, the Obama Administration released a statement of policy indicating its strong opposition to the bill.    As per the 2011 State of the Union Address, the statement echoed the administration would not support cuts it believes would undermine the ability of the United States to “out-educate, out-build and out-innovate the rest of the world.”
On the same day, President Obama stated during a press conference, “Just like every family in America, the federal government has to do two things at once: it has to live within its means while still investing in the future.”
In 1948, a cloud of pollution killed 20 and caused sickness for 6,000 in the small city of Donora, Pa.    In 1953, smog killed between 175 and 260 people in New York City.    Incidents such as these prompted Congress to pass the 1955 Air Pollution Act.
Though it only granted funds for federal research of air pollution, the act set the ground for the passing of the 1963 Clean Air Act — the first efforts to control air pollution — which was in turn strengthened in 1970 and expanded in 1990.
In 1970, the EPA was also formed with the primary role of carrying out the law and with a mission to “protect human health and the environment.” Under EPA auspices, the Clean Air Act is credited with preventing 400,000 premature deaths and hundreds of millions of cases involving respiratory disease —    the quintessential example of a successful investment in the future.
Unfortunately, the GOP has failed to comprehend the value of the EPA and has instead chosen to stymie its efforts to protect and ready America for the effects of climate change.   
H.R. 1 would circumvent the ruling of a 2007 case, Massachusetts v. EPA, 549 U.S. 497 (2007), which found greenhouse gases (GHGs) are pollutants covered by the Clean Air Act. By 2009, the EPA administrator had signed off on two key findings: current and projected concentrations of GHGs “threaten the public health and welfare of current and future generations” and motor vehicles are a contributor to this pollution.
Although there is fear that such regulation would “kill jobs,” EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson stated, “In truth, updating environmental standards […] levels the playing field and provides certainty to businesses to create jobs.”   
The Administrator’s stance is corroborated by a report from Ceres, a network of investors and environmental organizations, which found “infrastructure investment driven by air pollution rules” would create an estimated 1.46 million jobs over a five year period.
The GOP’s pathetic efforts to cut the CPB, costing on average $1.35 per person per year, is nothing short of tragic.
To destroy such a successful mode of educating the population in culture, math and science is to engender a future nation more susceptible to accepting such shortsighted budget cuts to our most fruitful programs.
Christopher Ramos is a graduate student in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. He can be contacted at [email protected].