While the space advocacy community is talking to Congress about the FY07 NASA budget proposal, the tone of their messages is very different. The Planetary Society issued a “Take Action Alert” Tuesday, calling on its members and other interested people to contact the House Science Committee to express their opposition to cuts in science programs, claiming such efforts are “eviscerated” in the budget. (They seem to be particularly fond of the term “eviscerated”; one assumes they’re thinking of the definition “to deprive of vital content or force” and not “to take out the entrails of”, although the latter does conjure up more memorable mental images.) The society is concerned not just with the FY07 budget but also with changes in the NASA operating plan for FY06: “NASA has already begun canceling 2006 research projects and mission studies, including the mission to Europa. Even programs Congress has voted into law are being ‘delayed indefinitely’.” Their near-term goal is to raise awareness of the issue for the House Science Committee’s hearing tomorrow, although I suspect committee members are already planning to bring it up.
The Space Exploration Alliance, via the NSS, takes a more optimistic tone in their press release about last week’s Space Budget Blitz. Participants met with 23 Congressional offices and delivered petitions to “more than 25″ Senate offices. Participants are clearly pressing for more money for NASA (although not specifying in the release what program(s) should get any additional funds), but without the same dire mood as The Planetary Society. “Although the country is in a constrained financial situation, Blitz participants were encouraged to hear that NASA and the Vision for Space Exploration remain strong priorities on Capitol Hill,” the release notes.
My Congressman, Steny Hoyer (Democratic Whip) has taken to going around and giving talks about how the budget deficit is eating everybody’s lunch. I first heard him say this at last year’s Goddard Memorial Symposium. He repeated his message again at Maryland’s Governor’s Workforce Investment Board Aerospace Summit in January.
Hoyer is one of the good guys. He’s a centrist, albeit with liberal leanings. He does have a probusiness and protechnology orientation.
It’s good to lobby Congress as many of us have done. I suspect it might also be worthwhile to help build a “realist” coalition that actually works to solve problems rather than make political points.
I sent a letter to the Planetary Society letting them know I disagreed with their position. I stated I believe at this point in time the best thing for science was placing geologists on the moon and Mars. Other projects should have a lower priority.
— Donald
Steny Hoyer a “centrist”?
Oh, PLEASE, Chuck.
However, the broader point is right on. Entitlements are going to eat discretionary spending, including NASA. We better break out into LEO commercially and to the Moon in partnership with NASA now, while we can afford it.
And Steny, along with Sen. Mikulski, should be happy with the budget, since it doesn’t hurt Goddard (or JHU/APL) too much.
Jim,
I think you know how much I respect you. Have you read James Q. Wilson’s Divided We Stand in Wednesday’s Opinion Journal? I agree wholeheartedly with what Wilson is saying. I also think the phenomenon he describes carries over into things beyond national defense.
You know that, over here in Maryland, I’ve gotten involved in Democratic Party politics. Believe it or not, Hoyer does rank as a centrist given what I’m seeing. He is arguing for fiscal reality. He does things to help the private sector. In his reelection campaign in 2004, he even mentioned his support of nuclear power on his web site. Even a few conservatives claim he’s different from some of his Democratic colleagues such as Nancy Pelosi.
Scary, isn’t it?
Next week I might have the opportunity to bring this thread on Making Light to some local Democrats’ attention. I’ll let you how it goes.
There are days I wish I’d moved to Snow Country and become one of those photographers prowling the slopes photographing people on vacation rather than coming to DC to work at Goddard.
Hoyer does rank as a centrist given what I’m seeing. He is arguing for fiscal reality.
There’s nothing centrist about that. Fiscal reality is just a slogan for raising taxes.