Congressman Nick Lampson (D-TX) is recovering well from quadruple bypass surgery he underwent on Sunday. The surgery, performed in Houston, took place after he reported experiencing chest pains last week; tests found a blockage in a key coronary artery. Lampson is expected to remain in the hospital for nearly a week and be away from Congress for at least a few weeks, although after this week Congress will be in recess for two weeks. Lampson serves on the House Science and Technology Committee; his district includes JSC.
Apologies for the off-topic post but I was wondering if anyone had heard anything more on Mikulski’s call for a White House “summit” on NASA’s budget in advance of tomorrow’s Senate hearing on the transition to a new human space flight system:
http://commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Hearings.Hearing&Hearing_ID=1826
Senators Nelson and Hutchison are the chair and ranking minority member on the relevant subcommittee. It will be interesting to see what is said, if anything, regarding a summit. This would be a good opportunity to push it, if they wanted to join with Mikulski.
I have not heard of any movement since Mikulski’s original call for a summit and assume that it has either fallen on deaf ears (doubtful that the White House will recant its budget request) and that Mikulski has not done much follow-up (at least yet). But I may not have the full scoop. Anyone else?