Tom DeLay says goodbye, and good luck

Ronald Reagan looks out over Tom DeLay—literally, at the very least—during DeLay’s speech Thursday morning.

Rep. Tom DeLay, just weeks away from his retirement from the House, was the speaker at a Space Transportation Association breakfast Thursday morning. His comments were brief, and largely looked back on the accomplishments that he, the Bush Administration, and NASA have made in recent years. “When I leave Congress this summer, I will leave with the space program in a stronger position than it has enjoyed in years,” he said. He also touched upon the authorization bill for NASA that Congress passed last fall, and warned that, given competitive pressures from China in particular, that “we ensure we maintain our lead in the upcoming years.”

The highlight of the morning, though, might have been just before DeLay’s speech, when NASA deputy administrator Shana Dale presented him with a framed display of pins from all of NASA’s shuttle missions since 1981. DeLay could not contain his glee, muttering “wow, wow” several times, even as Dale continued to describe the gift. “That is really special, wow,” he said.

DeLay did offer one policy insight: he is skeptical that Congress will be able to fund NASA at the level authorized in last year’s legislation. “It’s going to be very difficult,” he said. “We’re taking this a little at a time.” His language was a little curious, though: “We’ll be working very, very hard to eke out as much as we can. This year and next year and the following years, we’re going to close that gap that we’re all interested in. We’re going to have to fight, claw for every dime that we can.” We? Is that an old habit or does he have plans once he leaves Congress to remain involved?

DeLay’s statement comes at the same time that Reps. Bart Gordon and Mark Udall, the ranking members of the House Science Committee and its space subcommittee, respectively, sent a letter to the chairman and ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee subcommittee that oversees NASA, asking for additional money for science and aeronautics programs. They ask specifically for $587.4 million in additional money, principally for science missions and aeronautics research (although they did request $8 million more for COTS to bring it up to the level specified in FY07 in the RFP.) “Fundamentally,” Gordon and Udall write, “we believe that it is important for Congress to provide an overall funding level for NASA as close as possible to the $17.8 billion level recommended by the NASA Authorization Act of 2005. Otherwise, as is demonstrated by NASA’s FY 2007 budget request, ill-advised and damaging cuts to NASA’s science and aeronautics programs, as well as to important long-term exploration research and technology efforts are inevitable.”