Reaction to the House vote

The final recorded vote for S.3729 in the House last night is available. There aren’t too many surprises in who voted for or against the bill; in addition to Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who spoke out against the bill on the House floor, some Ohio representatives, including Dennis Kucinich (D) and Steven LaTourette (R), who had […]

The debate over the NASA bill, and its passage [updated]

Update 11:45 pm: The House did pass the bill in a recorded vote by well over the two-thirds margin needed: 304-118.

For about 45 minutes this evening the House debated S. 3729, the NASA authorization bill. Because the bill is taken up under suspension of the rules, the debate was relatively streamlined, with no opportunity […]

One more lobbying push on the NASA bill

The House is in session right now, but there’s no timetable for consideration of the Senate NASA authorization bill. This morning there’s been one final wave of statements about the bill and requests for people to contact their representative regarding it. Late this morning NASA released a statement from administrator Charles Bolden expressing his support […]

Post wants a better compromise

It’s official: the Senate NASA authorization bill is on the floor schedule for the House today as the sixth of six bills to be considered under suspension of the rules. With that in mind, the Washington Post sounds off on the state of the agency and its future in an editorial Wednesday, its second in […]

Griffin to House: just say no

Former NASA administrator Mike Griffin, who has previously said he liked the original House version of the NASA authorization bill more than the Senate’s version, is now openly calling for House members to vote against the Senate bill when it comes up for a vote tomorrow. “After considerable reflection, I have reluctantly come to the […]

Reaction to the House’s decision

While the announcement yesterday by Rep. Bart Gordon that the House will vote this week on the Senate’s version of a NASA authorization bill, rather than its own, would seem to clear the way for passage of the bill, advocates of the Senate version are not resting. Because the House will take up the bill […]

Gordon: House to vote on Senate authorization bill Wednesday

It appears that advocates of the Senate version of the NASA authorization bill have won their battle: House Science and Technology Committee chairman Bart Gordon issued a statement Monday afternoon saying that he anticipated the full House to take up the Senate bill on Wednesday. “It has become clear that there is not time remaining […]

More advocacy for and against the House NASA bill

With the House not planning to take up its version of a NASA authorization bill before Wednesday, space advocates opposed to the legislation are continuing their efforts to win support for the Senate’s version. Commercial suborbital spaceflight supporters sent out emails on Sunday asking people to contact their representatives on Monday to seek their support […]

No love for the House compromise bill

If the House Science and Technology Committee thought that its revised version of the NASA authorization bill, with additional funding for commercial crew development, would win support from commercialization advocates, well, not exactly. “Although they’ve done their best to appear to be compromising, the fine text makes it clear that they want to continue Constellation,” […]

House releases compromise NASA authorization bill

The House Science and Technology Committee announced Thursday morning the release of “compromise legislative language” for a NASA authorization bill, presumably (although not explicitly stated) after negotiations with the Senate [I’ve since been told, second-hand, that this compromise bill was drafted just by the House, and is not necessarily endorsed by the Senate]. The full […]