Congressional Physicists Fuse Efforts

W A S H I N G T O N, Sept. 25, 2001 -- On his hectic first day on Capitol Hill ascongressman-elect, Democrat Rush Holt of New Jersey made time tovisit a Republican — Rep. Vernon Ehlers of Michigan.

Ehlers at the time was the first and only research physicistever to serve in Congress. Holt was about to become the second.

“We joked [that] if we can find a room with a chalkboard, we’llset up a bipartisan physics caucus,” Holt said after the 1998meeting.

Teaming Up

Turns out, they weren’t joking. Holt and Ehlers have become theScience Guys of Congress, joining forces across party lines tosupport research and science education.

Working together, they added language to an education fundingflexibility act to prevent schools from spending less on math andscience.

They opposed legislation jeered by many scientists that wouldrequire most taxpayer-funded research to be made public uponrequest.

They fought for an amendment giving science equal billing withreading and math in federal Title I programs for disadvantagedstudents.

They co-hosted a breakfast honoring the U.S. team competing inthe International Physics Olympiad and a discussion with theAmerican Society of Mechanical Engineers on how to improve science,math, engineering and technology teaching in high schools.

“We work well together,” Ehlers said. “It’s unfortunate we’renot in the same party. That would help even more.”

Said Holt, “A lot of people recognize that we’ve spent yearsthinking about science education and the role of research insociety.”

Other Distinguished Members

Ehlers, in his fourth term, is comfortably ensconced in theHouse. But Holt, a freshman, is one of the Republican Party’s toptargets this fall. His opponent is former Rep. Dick Zimmer, whorepresented the district until 1997 and says Holt has proven to betoo big a fan of federal spending.

Ehlers said he has received no pressure from his party to stopcooperating with his Democratic colleague.

Other members of Congress have backgrounds in science. Rep.Roscoe Bartlett, R-Md., holds a Ph.D. in physiology and worked as aprofessor and researcher before joining Congress. Rep. John Olver,D-Mass., has a Ph.D. in chemistry and also was a professor.

But Ehlers says he and Holt are the first research physicists -trained in the study of matter, energy and motion — to serve inCongress.

One person who has not yet mastered the formula is PresidentClinton, who last year praised Holt as “our only bona fidescientist” in Congress and this year called him “the onlyphysicist in Congress.”

Ehlers, 66, received a doctorate in nuclear physics from theUniversity of California at Berkeley. Before being elected toCongress in a special election in 1993, he was a state lawmakerand, earlier, chairman of the physics department at Calvin College.

Holt, 51, received a doctorate in physics from New YorkUniversity. Prior to his election in 1998, he was assistantdirector of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.

Pocket Protector Pride

Catherine Woytowicz, a science policy fellow at the AmericanChemical Society, said Ehlers and Holt became particularly valuableallies to the science community when Rep. George Brown, D-Calif,died last year. Brown championed science and technology issuesduring 17 terms in the House.

On occasion, colleagues seek out Ehlers and Holt on sciencematters. At the request of then-Speaker Newt Gingrich, Ehlersdirected a 1998 study — Unlocking Our Future: Toward a NewNational Science Policy — that laid out the case for more fundingof scientific research.

Holt says colleagues have approached him with questions like“How does a fuel cell work?”

The two lawmakers don’t always see eye-to-eye on science issues.Holt supported two attempts to reduce NASA’s contribution to theinternational space station. Ehlers voted no. Both measures failed.

What has united them most is their work on the House Educationand Workforce Committee, where they have argued that scienceeducation is important even for those who do not become scientists.

“The ability to look for patterns is a critical skill, whetheryou’re going to be a lawyer, a doctor, a legislator,” Holt said.

Ehlers agreed, “We’re not trying to produce nerds — even thoughI still wear my plastic pocket protector.”