Congress, NASA

Mikulski confirms another attempt at a “miracle”

In a press release Thursday, Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), chair of the appropriations subcommittee whose jurisdiction includes NASA, confirms that she would again seek a billion-dollar increase in NASA’s budget above the $17.8-billion budget her subcommittee approved on Wednesday (and which the full appropriations committee also apparently approved Thursday, although there’s no announcement about it on the committee web site.) Mikulski made a similar statement earlier this year, when her subcommittee first held hearings on NASA appropriations. “I am committed to restoring NASA’s budget to ensure the continued safety of our astronauts, and to supporting the critical programs that are the hallmarks of their success,” she said in her statement.

This will be the third time she has sought to bypass the regular appropriations process by offering an amendment for additional funding to be considered by the full Senate, an effort known as the “Mikulski Miracle”. Two years ago the Senate never took up the appropriations bill, and NASA and other agencies ended up with a year-long continuing resolution. Last year the Senate did approve the amendment, but the extra billion was lost in conference committee. Will the third time be the charm?

As for the regular appropriations bill itself, the details have not been released yet. Mikulski’s statement did include a few top-level details:

The bill fully funds the President’s budget request for Space Shuttle operations ($3 billion) and Space Station operations ($2 billion). The bill also provides $2.9 billion for development of the next generation Crew Launch Vehicle and Crew Exploration Vehicle. The bill provides $4.5 billion for NASA’s science programs and $500 million for aeronautics research.

2 comments to Mikulski confirms another attempt at a “miracle”

  • […] Mikulski confirms another attempt at a “miracle” – Space Politics […]

  • anonymouspace

    Maybe part of the reason these “miracles” keep failing year after year is because the lobbying effort doesn’t get started until after the President’s budget has been submitted and the appropriations bills have already started moving. Maybe Sen. Mikulski and her staff wouldn’t have to rely on “miracles” if they bothered to influence key White House and Congressional decisionmakers before decisions are made and become formalized in budgets and bills.

    Of course, highly public calls for changes in budget priorities like this one are usually more about impressing voters in home states rather than making any actual impact on the budget.

    FWIW…

Leave a Reply to Library: A Round-up of Reading « Res Communis Cancel reply

  

  

  

You can use these HTML tags

<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>