Science or spies? That's a choice facing Representative Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY), who heads the House Science Committee and was recently named temporary head of the House Intelligence Committee too.
Boehlert's double play was prompted by President George W. Bush's 10 August decision to nominate Representative Porter Goss (R-FL) to be the next head of the Central Intelligence Agency. Goss resigned from Congress, and House leaders asked Boehlert, a senior member of the intelligence panel, to take his place until they can pick a permanent successor.
CREDIT: HOUSE COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE |
Boehlert, however, says he's probably not interested in the intelligence job--in part because taking it would mean giving up his leadership of the science panel. "My choice right now is science," he told the Ithaca (NY) Journal last week. But that could change, he says, if the intelligence panel wins expanded powers during a pending overhaul of U.S. intelligence. A final decision could come as early as this month.
