The Senate yesterday passed the joint funding resolution that funds NASA and many other federal agencies through the rest of the 2007 fiscal year. Since the Senate made no changes to the House version, that means that NASA will get just over $16.2 billion for the full fiscal year, compared to the nearly $16.8 billion the agency was expecting in the original FY07 budget, with essentially all of that cut on NASA’s exploration programs (with some reshuffling of money among other agency programs). How that cut with affect specific programs hasn’t been announced.
Florida Today reports this morning that Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) will seek supplemental funding for NASA, either in a standalone bill or with an increase in the 2008 budget (presumably on top of the increase already proposed by the Bush Administration). “We’re committed to seeing NASA made whole by restoring funding through a supplemental (spending bill) or in the 2008 budget,” a Nelson spokesman said. Nelson, the new chairman of the space subcommittee of the Senate Commerce Committee, has scheduled a subcommittee hearing on “NASA Budget for the afternoon of February 28th.
Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), however, was more resigned to the lower funding level. “While I would have liked to have increased funding for NASA, there was simply not enough extra funding available for us to do so,” she said in a statement. “With only seven months left in this fiscal year, I believe NASA will be able to manage their programs in exploration with minimal impact to the overall schedule.”
Wow… so much for the Senate boosting NASA in the budget resolution or the Mikulski miracle. Not a complete knockout in terms of keeping Constellation on schedule, but certainly a couple more serious body blows.
I guess all that NASA exploration is left with in terms of a champion is an ex-astronaut Senator who doesn’t have any direct influence on appropriations. This lowers the chances of a supplemental even further, and the probability that Nelson can push NASA above the President’s request in 2008 (already a 6+ percent increase over 2007) is vanishingly small.
Here’s hoping Griffin & Co. can mitigate the impact and/or seriously reconsider their current course. But the chances of the latter are probably also vanishingly small.
Well, because of Mr. Bush’s gross mismanagement of the wider budget for the last six-plus years, The Honorable Mikulski unfortunately has it right, and NASA will have to live within its lesser means. Everyone — exploration and science alike — is likely to get hurt, the only question is to what relative degree. We are in for a pretty grim financial future for the next few years — especially so in spaceflight.
— Donald
Watch for Senator Nelson to send out lots of press releases, and make lots statements during hearings about the importance of human spaceflight. He may even introduce a bill. He may trot out his old argument that a gap in human spaceflight is a threat to national security.
It will all be for consumption back home, but it is not likely to have much of an impact. Since being on the record with the voters is more important than results, the Senator will achieve his purpose.
– Al
It will all be for consumption back home, but it is not likely to have much of an impact. Since being on the record with the voters is more important than results, the Senator will achieve his purpose.
Well put, Al. That’s exactly what we’ll see over the next year from congressional members with NASA constituents. Bottom line is that the FY08 budget will also be reduced due to other overriding national concerns.
“Watch for Senator Nelson to send out lots of press releases, and make lots statements during hearings about the importance of human spaceflight. He may even introduce a bill. He may trot out his old argument that a gap in human spaceflight is a threat to national security.
It will all be for consumption back home, but it is not likely to have much of an impact. Since being on the record with the voters is more important than results, the Senator will achieve his purpose.”
Based on a decade or so of watching the NASA and federal budget cycle, I agree with Mr. Fansome. There are exceptions to the rule, but generally speaking, most congressional pronouncements to save NASA program X, boost NASA funding Y, or pass zero-g tax incentive Z are just hot air — never serious in terms of priority but look good to constituents.
“Bottom line is that the FY08 budget will also be reduced due to other overriding national concerns.”
That would be my prediction as well. Right now the 2008 request is a 6+ percent increase over the 2007 budget resolution. At the end of the day, I don’t think it will be above 3 percent, and exploration will have taken another hit.
For what little any prediction is worth…
ANON: At the end of the day, I don’t think it will be above 3 percent, and exploration will have taken another hit.
I agree with these predictions. In fact, I think that NASA could easily get less, and should be happy to get a 3% increase on the top line.
If you go back to the last time there was a Republican President, and a Democratic Congress (e.g., Bush 1), I recall that there was a pretty consistent trend. My recollection is that the Democratic Congress rarely, if ever gave the Bush 1 WH what it requested for NASA. I recall that it was almost always several % lower than what the WH requested.
If somebody could supply those budget numbers — what the Bush 1 WH actually requested, and what Democratic Congress actually appropriated on a year by year basis for NASA — that might be informative.
– Al
Well so much for the Democrats and bi-partisonship. The Democrats will rape and dismantle any attempts to return to the Moon. 1) It was proposed by a Republican 2) it takes money away from programs the Democrats can use as a narcotic to keep people addicted to thier party.
Sorry folks. Humans will never go back to the Moon, let alone Mars or anywhere else. Amercians least of all. We’ve become gutless.
“Well so much for the Democrats and bi-partisonship. The Democrats will rape and dismantle any attempts to return to the Moon. 1) It was proposed by a Republican 2) it takes money away from programs the Democrats can use as a narcotic to keep people addicted to thier party.
Sorry folks. Humans will never go back to the Moon, let alone Mars or anywhere else. Amercians least of all. We’ve become gutless.”
Before you go blaming the Democrats too much, we have to remember that the Bush II White House, in its annual budget requests to Congress, has failed to live up to the budgetary promises that were made to NASA in the VSE. The Democrats may have failed to give NASA and exploration an exemption from a government-wide flat-funding rule in the budget resolution, but the Republican-controlled White House has failed to even propose budgets in prior years that match its VSE commitments.
I’d also remind you that it was an admittedly “do-nothing” Republican-controlled Congress that failed to pass budgets for most government agencies last year, which put the new Democrat-controlled Congress in the driver’s seat. You may not agree with the Democrats’ priorities, but it was the Republicans who ceded control over the 2007 budget.
The point is that there’s plenty of blame on both sides of the aisle and no need to engage in useless partisan attacks.
Yes of course there is blame everywhere. We’ve become a gutless lazy civilization more concerned with our 401(K) accounts and what Brittany Spears is doing than we are with space exploration. The Democrats don’t want anything to do with manned space exploration and all they want to do is feed the poor government lard to keep getting themselves voted into office. I’m fed up with both parties and thier 30 second attention span. Let the Chinese beat us back to the moon and then watch all the congressional hearings giving NASA an anal probe as to “why we let the Chinese beat us back to the moon”, then watch them blame everyone but themselves. Blame enough to go around? Sure. But you’ll never, ever get the Democrats to ever admit any wrong doing at all. Never. They’ve got the American people snowed and that’s how they like it. Prediction: The VSE will be cancelled within the year. America will never send people beyond low Earth orbit ever again.