The House of Representatives approved by a nearly unanimous vote a bill that would provide awards to amateur astronomers who discover near Earth asteroids (NEAs). The Charles “Pete” Conrad Astronomy Awards Act (HR 912) would give the NASA administrator the authority to provide small ($3,000) cash awards to amateur astronomers (who must be US citizens or permanent residents) for either discovering the brightest (and thus most likely largest) NEA in the past year or making the greatest contribution in the NEA search, according to the Minor Planet Center.
The bill passed the House by a roll call vote of 404-1. The only person voting against was Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX); I haven’t heard why he opposed the legislation. An AP article has a few more details about the bill.
I’m sure he opposed it because he’s a libertarian (the only one, really, in Congress), and doesn’t believe that the taxpayers’ money should be spent on it.