is http://time.com/5008393/lamar-smith-texas-retirement-republican-congress/
Texas Congressman Lamar Smith Will Not Run for Reelection
Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, leaves the House Republican Conference meeting in the Capitol on Wednesday morning, Sept. 7, 2016.
Bill Clark—CQ-Roll Call,Inc.
(WASHINGTON) — Rep. Lamar Smith, a climate change skeptic who chairs the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, announced Thursday he won’t run for re-election, making his 16th term in office his last.
Smith, a Texas Republican, said in a statement “this seems like a good time to pass on the privilege of representing the 21st District to someone else.”
Smith completes his term as chairman of the science committee at the end of 2018. The committee has jurisdiction over federal agencies that have a major focus on research and development, such as NASA and the Department of Energy.
As chairman, he’s voiced skepticism that climate change is caused by human behavior, saying that the Obama administration engaged in alarmism to promote an extreme climate agenda. Smith said at a hearing earlier this year that “much of climate science today appears to be based more on exaggerations, personal agendas and questionable predictions than on the scientific method.”
The American Meteorological Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science have both said that the overwhelming scientific evidence is clear that global warming is primarily caused by humans.
Smith, who was first elected in 1986, also has encouraged Americans to get their news from President Donald Trump and not the news media.
