Some US science policy and politics news courtesy of Mike Stebbins. Mike notes that Senator John McCain has introduced an amendment to the ‘American Innovation and Competitiveness Act of 2006’ (S.2802). McCain’s amendment would essentially force the President’s science adviser, John Marburger, to come up with written policies that will allow government scientists to tell the truth in public as they see it. An early draft can be found here, which has clearly been offered in response to recent embarrassing attempts by officials to interfere with free and open communication by government scientists. Mike also points out that Senator Bill Frist is under increasing pressure to bring up for a vote a bill to end the ban on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. This bill has already passed the House of Representative. Rick Weiss, writing in the WaPo (as the bloggers like to say), has more on the politics behind the senator’s dilemma.