The Senate Budget Committee announced its FY2005 budget resolution on Thursday, an initial step in the budget process. The budget, Reuters reports, cuts $7 billion from President Bush’s FY05 budget proposal for defense and has more cuts for other discretionary spending programs. For NASA, according to the Chairman’s Mark (see page 26), the committee budgets only $15.6 billion in FY05, $600 million below what Bush requested and only 1.4 percent higher than the current budget. “While the Mark supports the President’s vision for exploration and discovery, the current budget situation necessitates slower implementation,” the document notes. “The resolution assumes fully funding the President’s request for NASA in 2006 and beyond.” There’s no reason to panic just yet: this is only an early step in the process, and the appropriations committees in the House and Senate have yet to do much significant work on the budget. It does suggest, though, that pushing through the proposed budget increase will be difficult, particularly when other agencies and departments are getting much smaller increases.
On the same topic, the subcommittee of the Senate Approprations Committee that deals with NASA (along with VA, HUD, and other independent agencies) will hold a hearing on the FY05 NASA budget proposal Thursday, March 11, at 10am. NASA’s Sean O’Keefe is scheduled to appear.
