Two of US President Barack Obama’s key science administrators passed their first test on Thursday, by withstanding a mostly friendly firing squad of senatorial questions during their nomination hearing.

John Holdren, the Harvard University climate scientist who is Obama’s science adviser, has been picked to head the Office of Science and Technology Policy. Next to him sat Jane Lubchenco, the marine ecologist from Oregon State University who has been tapped to head up the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration within the Department of Commerce.

The standing room only hearing — held under the chandeliers and marble in a room of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation committee — offered a first dose of Washington theater for the nominees. They still have to be confirmed by the Senate as a whole before they assume office. But they learned a quick lesson in the competing tug-of-war of Congressional politics, where parochial interests carry the day.

Holdren seemed to already know this, and made a strategic addition to his opening remarks that were available as photocopies throughout the room. “I want to give special mention to the importance of R&D in our space program,” he said. “As with the rest of our fundamental and applied research enterprise, investments in space are a bargain.”

That played well with two senior senators on the committee, Kay Bailey Hutchison, ranking Republican from Texas, and Bill Nelson, a Democrat from Florida. Hutchison brings money home for Johnson Space Center, in Houston, while Nelson, a former astronaut, is always looking to find money for employees at Cape Canaveral.

Hutchison wanted more assurance. She asked, “Dr. Holdren, will you make NASA, and science in space a priority and do you have any thoughts about the National Space Council being a part of the White House?” “The short answer… is yes, it is a priority,” he replied. “We have been looking at what the best way to resurrect the National Space Council in the White House would be. I think that’s going to happen.” Obama made campaign promises to revive the council, an interagency White House group established during the administration of George H. W. Bush that was supposed to coordinate military and civilian space activities.

Lubchenco also seemed to have learned the art of making congressional friends, and, by the end of the hearing, had offers to go scuba diving with senators from Georgia, Florida and even Minnesota (in Lake Superior). In her opening remarks, she said she wanted to create a National Climate Service, modeled after the National Weather Service, that would offer information on the likely local impacts — drought, sea level rise and chemistry changes — of climate change. “It is an idea whose time has come and I would like to make it happen.”

The only friction in the hearing came from questions from David Vitter, the Louisiana Senator who was the last Republican sitting (and the last to get his question time). He unearthed some alarmist statements from Holdren’s past: one from a 1971 article, written with Paul Ehrlich, which said that some form of “ecocatastrophe” was “almost certain” to overtake the world before the end of the century. “Do you think that was a responsible prediction?” Vitter asked.

Holdren showed off a different skill: the art of hedging. He said, “One of the things I’ve learned in the intervening nearly four decades is that predictions about the future are difficult.” Vitter pressed further, citing a statement in a 1986 article, attributed to Holdren, that said that global warming could cause the deaths of one billion people by 2020.

“Would you stick to that statement?” asked Vitter.

“Well, again, I wouldn’t have called it a prediction then, and I wouldn’t call it a prediction now. I think it is unlikely to happen.”

“But you think it could happen?”

“I think it could happen.”

The confirmation of both Holdren and Lubchenco could also happen. In fact, to use Holdren’s words, they’re almost certain. Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, chair of the committee, said he would move to have a unanimous consent vote on the floor of the Senate soon.

Image: K. Srakocic /AP