Good question. I’m not sure about this types of committees in particular, but:
One reason this might not go terribly is that unlike many issues government deals with, there probably aren’t a mess of competing interests they’ll have to cater to in this case. Voters don’t feel strongly about obscure catastrophic risks, and I can’t think of any powerful companies who would be investing in lobbying around this (they mostly care about short-term issues).
So if the senators care about this issue and have good guidance on it, they will be relatively unencumbered to follow their experts’ advice. They won’t have to, e.g. contort their plans to sound good to their constituents and then hollow them out to please their campaign donors.
Good question. I’m not sure about this types of committees in particular, but:
One reason this might not go terribly is that unlike many issues government deals with, there probably aren’t a mess of competing interests they’ll have to cater to in this case. Voters don’t feel strongly about obscure catastrophic risks, and I can’t think of any powerful companies who would be investing in lobbying around this (they mostly care about short-term issues).
So if the senators care about this issue and have good guidance on it, they will be relatively unencumbered to follow their experts’ advice. They won’t have to, e.g. contort their plans to sound good to their constituents and then hollow them out to please their campaign donors.