Posts Tagged ‘Science’

Rep. Schiff Testifies at House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security

American Chronicle | 06-08-2010

“We know with a statistical certainty that delaying the testing of rape kits will mean that we miss the opportunity to take people off the street who have committed rape or murder and in the interim, these people will go on to murder and rape others. That is simply unacceptable,” Rep. Schiff said. “DNA is the most powerful law-enforcement innovation since the fingerprint, but only if we use it to its fullest potential. It is time we take the lessons learned in the years since the passage of the Debbie Smith Act and turn them into new policies to speed the processing of rape kits.”

Tags: , , ,
Posted in News | Comments Off

U.S., China relations improving: U.S. Congressman

Xinhua| 06-05-2010

Schiff sponsored the Nuclear Forensics and Attribution Act to strengthen the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s efforts in developing techniques for “fingerprinting” nuclear material and encouraged U.S. President Barack Obama to negotiate international agreements to govern international nuclear forensics activities.

Schiff is also leading the effort to combat intellectual property theft. He is a co-chair of the Congressional International Anti-Piracy Caucus, a bipartisan group of House and Senate lawmakers dedicated to working with America’s international trading partners to secure the enactment of strong copyright laws as well as their vigilant enforcement.

Schiff said Hollywood movies are popular in China and the movie industry is one of the few sectors enjoying a trade surplus.

He said it was important for the U.S. to strengthen its efforts to fight piracy, admitting that in this field, the United States and China had many concerns.

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in News | Comments Off

NSA stops collecting some data to resolve issue with court

Washington Post | 04-19-2010

A special federal court that oversees domestic surveillance has raised concerns about the National Security Agency’s collection of certain types of electronic data, prompting the agency to suspend collecting it, U.S. officials said.

“It was much simpler when all you needed to do was figure out whether you needed a search warrant to search a particular location,” said Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), also a Judiciary Committee member. “But in an age of voice over IP, when everyone has stored electronic communications on answering machines, the laws that were quite simple rapidly become outdated. The challenge at agencies like NSA is to not only stay ahead of the technological curve, but to stay ahead of the legal curve as well.”

Tags: , ,
Posted in News | Comments Off

Steve Scauzillo: Preventing a preventable catastrophe such as nuclear war

Pasadena Star News | 04-16-2010

Typically in government, the things that are really important rarely get addressed.

Yet sometimes, government does something that makes you sit up and say, it’s about time. That kind of aha! moment occurred this week for Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena, when President Obama called 47 nations together to address the problem of loose nuclear materials, which, if not accounted for, secured and eventually destroyed, could fall into the hands of terrorists.

In 2001, Schiff got elected to Congress and immediately began talking about what he called “loose nukes” to anyone who would listen. One of my first interviews with Schiff was about that very topic. I spoke to him by telephone from Washington about the same topic Thursday afternoon:

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in News | Comments Off

Obama announces a plan to set foot on an asteroid, Mars

Pasadena Star News | 04-15-2010

President Barack Obama plan to send American astronauts to an asteroid and Mars – but not the moon – could benefit scientific research at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, officials said Thursday.

“The President’s original plan for human space flight had some good ideas, but suffered from a lack of detail and an overarching goal,” said Rep. Adam Schiff D-CA, in a statement. “The new plan fills in many of the details and provides the vision and timetable for aggressive exploration that NASA and the country need. I look forward to working with the Administration to ensure that we remain the leader in human and robotic exploration.”

Tags: , ,
Posted in News | Comments Off

Our View: Push back from the nuclear brink

Pasadena Star News | 04-14-2010

With Iran saber-rattling its nuclear program and the risk of “dirty bombs” being used by terrorists never higher, there could not be a more important issue to hold an international summit on than nuclear security.

One who made nuclear terrorism a large part of his agenda a decade ago is Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena, who in 2008 co-founded the bipartisan Congressional Caucus on Nuclear Security. The group seeks to identify security weaknesses and take immediate action to prevent the misuse of sensitive nuclear materials and technologies.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in News | Comments Off

Schiff Amendment Clears the Way for JPL to Compete in Solar Technology Research and Development

American Chronicle | 10-26-2009

“The House of Representatives passed a bill to authorize a sharp increase in solar energy technology research. Congressman Adam Schiff offered an amendment that was included in the bill to ensure that the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is eligible to compete for these grants. The bill establishes a comprehensive process for facilitating the research and deployment of American solar technology in partnership with the private sector, and Rep. Schiff´s amendment clears the way for JPL to be a vital part of this new effort.

‘There is no better place for groundbreaking research and development to be undertaken than JPL. JPL has top-notch facilities and some of the world´s best scientists, and I have no doubt that JPL can lead the way in advancing solar technology right here at home in our backyard,’ said Schiff.”

Tags: , , ,
Posted in News | Comments Off