Other

No workforce funding for the Space Coast

Speaking at the Kennedy Space Center just over a year ago, President Obama promised $40 million for “regional economic growth and job creation” on Florida’s Space Coast, $35 million of it in in the form of grants through the Commerce Department to support business in the area. Late today, though, Florida Today reported that the grant program won’t be funded in FY2011. The article is short on details: it claims the funds were cut from the final continuing resolution (CR) that funded the government in 2011, although it’s not clear if Congress explicitly failed to fund the program or if NASA and the Commerce Department, as they drew up spending plans as required by the CR, decided not to fund the program. A spokesman for Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) blamed “extremists bent on wildly and blindly slashing the budget” for the cut. The other $5 million, intended to establish a commercial spaceflight technical center run by the FAA at the Cape, apparently also is not funded.

15 comments to No workforce funding for the Space Coast

  • DCSCA

    The President proposes; the Congress disposes.

  • common sense

    Well yeah. Congress wants to cut. Some people go along with that just in case if they would not it might impair their chances at being elected and then suddenly well what??? The budget is cut. You know like they take away the money. Really? That is a budget cut! Well yeah. A budget cut means we take money away from your program(s). On the other hand there is money put in the SLS like what $1.8B and MPCV like what $1.2B. Something like that. Useless investment for sure but we have to have a big rocket, it is good for the country. Now what do you mean that cash does not go to Florida? Well they don’t really design anything in Florida related to SLS or MPCV for that matter. Of course you’d have to assume they design space vehicles in Alabama for example. But it is a slightly different question. Well I guess some workforce is more important than others. I am sure Sen. Nelson is happy he supported SLS and MPCV. Well at least he was right that Obama’s plan was not going to be enacted. Not as planned anyway. It is unfortunate that it was the plan that would have supported Florida during the transition. Sen. Nelson you did the right thing by not supporting FY11. Good for you. Good choice. How are those elections coming now? Good? Yeah sometime you need to draw a line that you will not cross. And today this line is that of the voting booth the electors may not cross to vote for you.

    Feels better now, thank you for asking.

    Our next topic will be healthcare… See how those smart Dems fare on that one.

  • Last week, I e-mailed a representative of the EDA to check the program’s status. He replied:

    The Space Coast RIC grant competition is on hold until an official determination has been made regarding funding by Congress, and the Atlanta Regional Office has been notified by Washington. At that point EDA will be contacting all of the applicants to provide an update.

    So clearly it was Congress that cut the funding, not the Commerce Department.

    Obama kept his promise to help displaced space workers. The Republicans in the House blocked the funding. I hope Space Coast workers remember that in 2012 when Reps. Adams and Posey are up for re-election; those two talk like they support NASA but time and again this year they’ve voted to cut the NASA budget. Now they’ve voted to cut help for displaced space workers.

  • amightywind

    A spokesman for Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) blamed “extremists bent on wildly and blindly slashing the budget” for the cut.

    The desperate shriek of a man who realizes this is the end for Bill Nelson. The Cape will have been euthanized on Bill Nelson’s watch. He has been one of Obama’s most reliable supporters. I don’t see how he wins re-election against an ascendant Tea party.

    “Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice!” – Senator Barry Goldwater

    As for Obama breaking his promise, what else is new? His credibility is shot.

  • E.P. Grondine

    I mentioned before that posting here does very little except to affect perceptions of events.

    AW, the Cape is far from dead, but the responsibility for this Pause and this Disruption lies firmly with Griffin and the Utah delegation.

    It was that combination of bad systems architectures/engineering and lobbying with money from Iraq war profits that led to the Ares1 5 seg fiasco.

    The US space industry will recover from that fiasco.

    A good HLV and vehicles will be along shortly for BEO, and US manned operations to LEO will resume very shortly.

    Now I’m sure that there are some Republicans who want to make this as painful as possible, counting their future electoral votes well before the election results are in. While the parsons advise to love the sinner but hate the sin, its hard to follow their advice in this case… I think these people are disgracing themselves.

    Obama proposed work on high speed rail to fill in this pause. That would have freed up Florida’s economy from its oil dependence to a great degree. Who killed that, AW? Tell them there is still time to repent.

    In any case, these bastards can do nothing to stop the work force at the Cape from improving their technical skills through education during this pause.

    That way they will be better prepared when the Ares 1 disruption is over.

    AW, the bottom line is that you don’t pay for a war with tax cuts for billionaires. It does not work.

    “I like Ike” – Daniel Washburn, senior advertising VP, General Mills

  • E.P. Grondine wrote:

    AW, the Cape is far from dead, but the responsibility for this Pause and this Disruption lies firmly with Griffin and the Utah delegation.

    Watching this morning’s commercial space conference at KSC, one of the speakers presented a map showing states with some direct relationship to CCDev.

    Utah was not one of them.

    They rolled their dice on protecting their government monopoly, and lost.

  • amightywind

    AW, the Cape is far from dead, but the responsibility for this Pause and this Disruption lies firmly with Griffin and the Utah delegation.

    Like I said, this calamity happened on Nelson’s watch. He can try to blame Bush or blame Griffin. I am not sure the Florida electorate will accept that excuse. It doesn’t seem a winning strategy, but I hope he runs on it.

    Obama proposed work on high speed rail to fill in this pause. That would have freed up Florida’s economy from its oil dependence to a great degree. Who killed that, AW? Tell them there is still time to repent.

    Obama’s malinvestments in a Soviet style rail system have been summarily rejected, and rightly so. The notion that there is any economic benefit for Florida is absurd. The left clings to green energy and collective transportation. There is no substitute for driving a large SUV to work, or flying a jet plane to Vegas. And there is plenty of oil off of Florida’s coasts for the fuel.

    AW, the bottom line is that you don’t pay for a war with tax cuts for billionaires. It does not work.

    It is in the interest of a rational Government to maximize tax revenues. You do that by expanding the economy, not by punitively squeezing its most productive participates. Look up the Laffer Curve. But government is not rational. Democrats would rather squabble over a smaller pie than make a bigger one.

  • A_M_Swallow

    IIRC the $40 million was not new money but a transfer from NASA’s budget.

    With hindsight it may have been better to make finding jobs for the ex-contractor a NASA programme.

  • Nelson’s position is peculiar. He asked Augustine flat out if the Shuttle could be kept flying until commercial crew was operational. Augustine said yes, for a mere $10B. But Nelson then decided to push for the Senate-designed HLV instead, even though the jobs it would create were in Utah.

    The Laffer Curve, the idea that cutting taxes would paradoxically increase tax revenue, was rightly called “voodoo economics” by George HW Bush when he was running against Reagan. But Reagan told people convincingly that it was true, that greed was patriotic, and he was elected. The deficit skyrocketed. Bush I and Clinton restored taxes to a reasonable level and balanced the budget with continued growth, but Bush II slashed taxes again and again plunged the country into deficits and depression. How many more times is it necessary to disprove the Laffer curve?

  • E.P. Grondine

    EP – the Cape is far from dead, but the responsibility for this Pause and this Disruption lies firmly with Griffin and the Utah delegation.

    AW – Like I said, this calamity happened on Nelson’s watch. He can try to blame Bush or blame Griffin. I am not sure the Florida electorate will accept that excuse. It doesn’t seem a winning strategy, but I hope he runs on it.

    AW, Nelson could point out the unforeseen technical problems ATK ran into with large grain solid rocket motors – the oscillation problem.

    If Nelson was pressed further, he could blame it on ATK’s inability to deliver on time and on cost.

    If further pressed, he can point out to the effort he made to enable DIRECT, only to have that effort way-laid by ATK and the Utah Delegation.

    And he can point out that manned operations at the Cape will be back soon with SpaceX and ULA, and that a good HLV will be along shortly.

    As gasoline prices are going up again, and that is bound to have an effect on Florida tourism again, Nelson can also run on the Republican obstruction of high speed rail. It would have generated employment in the Florida construction industry, and could already be doing so.

    Its how the kids, grandkids and friends will visit, and its how many tourists will visit the beaches, Miami, and KSFC in the future. My guess is they ought to run a monorail from KSFC to Disneyworld and the other Orlando attractions, though a high speed rail spur would work just fine. Or perhaps the spur should be to the southern beaches and Miami. My guess is that one transfer would be acceptable to most users, but then I’m not a high speed rail planning expert.

    We have to go to Europe and Japan to get that information.

  • amightywind

    was rightly called “voodoo economics” by George HW Bush when he was running against Reagan.

    Let us judge the economies of Ronald Reagan and George HW Bush, and recall that Reagan was dealt the inferior hand. Talk about voodoo economics all you want. I say compare the results.

    The current malaise is the electorate’s 30 year periodic reminder of the disastrous futility of Keynesian economics. Let is hope that it is at least that long until it rears its ugly head again.

    ATK ran into with large grain solid rocket motors – the oscillation problem.

    Did my eyes deceive me or was Ares I-X not a magnificent success. Time magazine called it the invention of the year for 2009.

  • Ferris Valyn

    Did my eyes deceive me or was Ares I-X not a magnificent success.

    Your eyes? I doubt they decieved you – I don’t wish to speak to other body parts.

    Time magazine called it the invention of the year for 2009.

    Such a bastion of engineering or conservatism. Truly a ringing endorsement.

  • Robert G. Oler

    Dan Woodard wrote @ April 28th, 2011 at 9:31 pm

    “The deficit skyrocketed. Bush I and Clinton restored taxes to a reasonable level and balanced the budget with continued growth, but Bush II slashed taxes again and again plunged the country into deficits and depression. How many more times is it necessary to disprove the Laffer curve?”

    there is a case to be made that the entire notion pushed by the “rising tide lifts all boats” crowd is about to run out of steam…One doesnt have to go farther then the Paul Ryan inspired Town halls where the “keep the rich getting richer” schemes are starting to inspire some serious angst among voters. This is going to continue as the people who on the face of it claim they want “small government” really like The Empire we have and particularly in how it affects their lives.

    It is to far out to see right now, but one of the interesting currents that is forming up is the possibility that the issue over all (and again it is to far out) in the 12 election is going to be “fairness”…along with “responsibility” in government spending.

    The GOP base is about the dumbest that has ever existed…but they are nuetralizing themselves with fixation over the birther issue AND the fact that a lot of them are “old” and like their big government programs…the next six months are going to be fascinating to watch.

    The heads up in space policy and politics is to see if 1) the HLV report from the dolts at JSC is as bad as it looks on the documents I have read and 2) what the general and political reaction to that is going to be.

    12 billion (and it will be more) for 4 (FOUR) launches of a SDV…

    Goofy Robert G. Oler

  • E.P. Grondine

    AW – “Did my eyes deceive me or was Ares I-X not a magnificent success. Time magazine called it the invention of the year for 2009.”

    Maybe its time you read publications other than Time when you want information on the space industry. There’s Aviation Week; Space News from Phillips is good, along with their “Satellite News” and “Defense Daily”; and Jane’s publications in English.

    Perhaps if you spent more time reading them, and less time writing here, your comments might be a little more coherent.

    But please don’t give up. Coffee, cigarettes, and the aggravation from dealing with your nonsense gets me going in the morning.

  • Vladislaw

    How was President Reagan delt the inferior hand? He campaigned on President Carter’s 70 billion a year deficits were outrageous. He slashed government revenues, and increased spending. His deficits got so bad he pushed to have the Social Security trust fund, which was running surpluses, brought in to create a unified budget so the deficits wouldn’t look at bad. But if you look what happened to the National debt under Reagan it was plain to see he pumped so much deficit spending into the economy it took off.

    “Cheney to Treasury: “Deficits don’t matter”
    Former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill was told “deficits don’t matter” when he warned of a looming fiscal crisis. O’Neill, fired in a shakeup of Bush’s economic team in December 2002, raised objections to a new round of tax cuts and said the president balked at his more aggressive plan to combat corporate crime after a string of accounting scandals because of opposition from “the corporate crowd,” a key constituency.

    O’Neill said he tried to warn Vice President Dick Cheney that growing budget deficits-expected to top $500 billion this fiscal year alone-posed a threat to the economy. Cheney cut him off. “You know, Paul, Reagan proved deficits don’t matter,” he said, according to excerpts. Cheney continued: “We won the midterms (congressional elections). This is our due.” A month later, Cheney told the Treasury secretary he was fired.

    The vice president’s office had no immediate comment, but John Snow, who replaced O’Neill, insisted that deficits “do matter” to the administration.”

    When the Republicans are in office, deficits don’t seem to matter, but man they sure do when a Democrat is in office.

    Vote for me, I will cut your taxes and cut spending. We can see how that has worked under Reagan and Bush. Slash revenue and run wars off the books.

Leave a Reply to Dan Woodard 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>