Congress, NASA, White House

Bolden to testify at China hearing today

The Oversight and Investigations subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, chaired by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), is holding a hearing titled “Efforts to Transfer America’s Leading Edge Science to China” at 3 pm EDT today. (The hearing will be webcast on the committee’s site and also carried on NASA TV.) The witnesses at the hearing include NASA administrator Charles Bolden, who will likely be asked about the agency’s adherence to a provision in the final FY2011 spending bill that prohibits the use of NASA funds for any sort of cooperation with China. He will be testifying on the same panel as White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) director John Holdren. OSTP is subject to the same prohibition but ran afoul of the law when hosted meetings with Chinese officials in May at a cost of $3,500, money members of Congress, backed by a GAO report, argue should not have been spent. Thus, Holdren is likely to get far more attention (and also take fire) from members of the committee than Bolden.

18 comments to Bolden to testify at China hearing today

  • Simon

    Let’s assume it’s true, that $3500 was spent on a meeting with China…

    How much money — between the salaries of Congress and others at this panel — do you think will be wasted if they spend maybe 15 minutes talking about it?

  • common sense

    @ Simon wrote @ November 2nd, 2011 at 1:38 pm

    Don’t be silly.

    What do you want them to do with their time and salary? Fund the russian space program instead? Send US jobs overseas with their own economic policies? What?

    They MUST do something.

    Anything.

  • SpaceColonizer

    Is anyone else getting some ghost show streaming on the subcommittee website? NASAtv stream seems fine… just a little stupid that the “main” location has been hijacked.

  • SpaceColonizer

    NM… looks like they fixed it.

  • amightywind

    It is not the amount of money that was wasted that is the issue, it is Holden’s flouting of the law. For this alone he should be removed from his post.

  • common sense

    Rep. Wolf: “We will replace all electronic equipment in Congress with US built equipment”. “Our troops will only wear sneakers built in the US”. “Who said my salary is paid by China because we borrow so much from them?”

    $3,500?

    Whatever…

  • common sense

    Ah Reagan what would we do without him? The GOP is so inspirational that what? Look at that!!!! Role model?????

    http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2044712,00.html

    He can’t do that! Come on! Obama is a socialist!!!! We all know that. Right?

    Whatever. Again.

  • Coastal Ron

    So if Holdren says “sorry, won’t do it again”, will they adjourn the meeting and go off to work on more pressing matters?

    No wonder no one has confidence in Congress anymore…

  • Coastal Ron

    amightywind wrote @ November 2nd, 2011 at 3:21 pm

    It is not the amount of money that was wasted that is the issue, it is Holden’s flouting of the law.

    If only you and the people you support were judged in the same way, but we know you’re just being partisan about it…

  • Aberwys

    common sense wrote @ November 2nd, 2011 at 3:57 pm

    Oh, yes, I see it…the juxtaposed images of Reagan and Obama make it clear that they have a bromance.

  • Robert G. Oler

    he law when hosted meetings with Chinese officials in May at a cost of $3,500, money members of Congress, backed by a GAO report, argue should not have been spent.”

    gee more of the GOP revolution…wow. be still my heart…RGO

  • Robert G. Oler

    There is a great shot of the hearing room on NASA Watch that nicely captions the absurdity of the entire event…Nice Job KC RGO

  • common sense

    @ Aberwys wrote @ November 2nd, 2011 at 9:48 pm

    “Oh, yes, I see it…the juxtaposed images of Reagan and Obama make it clear that they have a bromance.”

    Are you suggesting I am making idiotic reference to Reagan? Are you suggesting GOP/Wolf is making idiotic reference to Reagan? Are you suggesting journalists are making idiotic reference to Reagan? Are you suggesting any reference to Reagan nowadays is idiotic?

    What?

  • E.P. Grondine

    Hi AW –

    I won’t comment here on China’s intelligence gathering efforts, past or present. That said –

    The President has a duty to conduct the foreign policy of the United States.
    Blocking channels of communication, and channels of communication necessary to carry out nor only that duty, but also to see to the security and welfare of the people of this country, is not really the best thing to do, as it hamstrings the President.

    I’ll have to disagree with Rep. Rohrabacher and others on this. As a mater of fact, I believe that the law is probably unconstitutional as written, as it breaches the separation of powers, and should be reconsidered carefully.

    Criminally, and returning to space matters, I would like to remind everyone here of former NASA Administrator Mike Griffin’s actions in regards to the execution of the George Brown Jr. amendment. If there’s one investigation I’d like to see the NASA IG carry out, its an investigation into that.

  • vulture4

    China is the only other superpower. A confrontation with China could poison world progress for decades. NASA can help prevent that by b uilding lines of communication and understanding. Charlie Bolden was doing the right thing by trying to improve relations with China, as was the OSTP. Congress, for it’s part, is doing its best to start a war because hanging on to power is more important to them than national survival.

  • Dennis

    The question hasbeen asked before, should China be allowed on the ISS? If it is truly an international spacestation, representing occupants of this planet, then YES, if they can get there, they should be allowed access. Hey maybe they then would be willing to carry our astronauts with them for less then what Russia charges!

  • E.P. Grondine

    vulture4, I’m afraid its far more serious than that. We are facing the military-industrial complex that Eisenhower warned us of. The military industry jobs are in the south and west, while the rest of the economy is “manure”, to use Truman’s word.

    Now to justify those military jobs you need enemies.

    (For example, you can look for ATK to start in again on the need for an anti-ballistic missile system. The one I like is the “Peacekeeper” missile, which they were clamoring for until it was proposed to base it in Utah. Then it quietly went away.)

    While it is certainly true that not everyone likes us and we need a strong defense, I disagree with the continual efforts by some fundamentalist Christians to demonize China over its abortion policies/population policies.

    The bottom line is that China has 4 times our population and about 1/4 our agricultural land. Let me make this really clear: A larger population by new births=death by starvation for others.

    Rep Wolf doesn’t have to deal with that kind of problem. The leadership of China does. Rep. Wolf does not have to deal with China on a large number of issues; the President does.

    I really despise the neo-cons for their policy of making sure that nothing gets done and denying Obama any credit for what little does get done. While the liberals can be that vicious, the center Democrats are not that vicious, and neither are old school conservatives.

    Speaking about vicious, I’d like to see David Morrison gone from NASA as soon as possible. Science does not advance through adroit maneuver.

  • Coastal Ron

    Dennis wrote @ November 4th, 2011 at 11:31 am

    If it is truly an international spacestation, representing occupants of this planet, then YES, if they can get there, they should be allowed access.

    Dennis, you’re looking at this from a tourist perspective. The ISS is international because it has many countries that have paid for it’s construction and use. It was not built as the “United Nations” space station, where everyone had a right to use it regardless of their contribution. Get real.

    The U.S. is not the only ISS partner that would hesitate in letting China participate (or even dock with) in the ISS – Japan has frostier relations with China than we do.

    Until there is a clear geo-political reason for China to be allowed access to the ISS, it’s not going to happen anytime soon. More likely China will join in some future space project, but who knows how far out that will be.

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