House science chair talks new priorities

Eddie Bernice Johnson is probably not a name many Houstonians are familiar with, though she has been one of Dallas’ representatives in Congress since 1993. But for folks deeply invested in the future of space, in climate change, the success of the Environmental Protection Agency or next year’s NASA budget, there are few names more valuable to know.

Johnson, a Democrat, was the first female psychiatric nurse at the VA hospital in Dallas. She was elected to the Texas House in 1972, where she was head of the labor committee before becoming the first woman and first African-American to represent Dallas in the Texas Senate since Reconstruction. Last week she was elected as chairwoman of the Science, Space and Technology Committee in the U.S. House. That means she’s the new boss of a panel with primary oversight of the EPA, NASA, many of the nation’s most important scientific research programs and the nonmilitary aspects of the U.S. Department of Energy.

Michael Lindenberger is deputy opinion editor for enterprise at the Houston Chronicle. He began keeping tabs on the clash of views on the science committee in 2013, when he arrived in Washington as a business correspondent for the Dallas Morning News. He caught up with Johnson last week to ask about her plans now that she holds the gavel.

Q: What can folks expect to see now that you are the committee chairperson? Is bipartisanship on the menu?

A: I am hoping so. In fact, I am having dinner soon with the new ranking member. I know him well. We’ve worked on projects relating to research funding previously, and he’s from Oklahoma so we ride the plane together (back and forth to Washington). I don’t expect that he is going to be a wild-eyed liberal, but I do think we will have a little bit more input and collaboration between the majority and minority on legislation. He knows me pretty well. And he knows that I’ve vowed