The Senate’s Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs was scheduled to hold a hearing Wednesday morning on NASA’s fleet of passenger aircraft, with the rather provocative title of “NASA Passenger Aircraft: Mission Required or Expensive Perk?” (Readers may recall that this hearing was scheduled for July, but pushed back until after the summer recess.) However, according to the notice on the committee’s web site, the hearing has been postponed “until further notice”. Given that the same committee has oversight on FEMA and other DHS agencies, it may have its hand full for quite a while as it deals with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina; the committee now plans to have a closed session with DHS officials on hurricane relief on the 7th.
I remember reading somewhere that FEMA commandeered NASA’s fleet of passenger aircraft for the hurricane relief efforts. If so, then the fact that that committee also has oversight over FEMA seems to make the hearing quite ironic.