Lamar Smith (R-Texas) today acknowledged he is retiring at the end of his current term. Smith was one of the key sponsors of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), which attracted widespread criticism for the powers it would grant companies going after copyright infringement. For the past five years, he has been chair of the House Science Committee, where he has intruded on peer review at the National Science Foundation and gotten into fights with NOAA because he refuses to accept the evidence for climate change.
At the same time, Smith targeted the review process that approved the grants he didn't like. Grant reviewing is provided anonymously by researchers considered experts in the relevant fields. Smith demanded that the NSF hand over all documents related to the NSF's decision to fund specific grants, including "paper copies of the following public records: every e-mail, letter, memorandum, record, note, text message, all peer reviews considered for selection and recommendations made by the research panel to the National Science Foundation (NSF) or document of any kind that pertains to the NSF's consideration and approval of the grants listed below, including any approved amendments to the grants." This would end the anonymity of the peer reviewers, which the NSF objected to.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy...-sopa-and-antagonist-of-scientists-to-retire/
Basically he's a climate change denier who was made head of the House Science Committee, and then abused his power in order to uncover evidence of a fictional conspiracy that he invented in his head as the only reason federal agencies would ever put out reports showing climate change. This is in addition to him being a cosponsor of SOPA.
Pardon my langauge, but: fuck this dude.