Congress « Space Politics

Hearings, budgets, and priorities

By Jeff Foust on 2007 March 12 at 6:01 am ET

It was easy to miss (I know I did), but the Commerce, Justice, and Science subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee held a hearing Friday morning about the NASA budget. (Unfortunately, appropriators are not as enlightened as their colleagues, and the hearing was not webcast, nor opening statements of the witnesses or committee members posted […]

A Congressional ASAT discussion

By Jeff Foust on 2007 March 9 at 7:05 am ET

Yesterday’s “Decision 2008″ event at CSIS was billed as a “discussion”, and that was an accurate description: although Sen. John Kyl (R-AZ) and Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA) are from opposite sides of the aisle, there was more agreement than disagreement between the two on the topic of China’s anti-satellite weapon test and its ramifications. Some […]

Hearings, scheduled and cancelled

By Jeff Foust on 2007 March 7 at 7:20 am ET

The space subcommittee of the Senate Commerce Committee has a hearing scheduled for this afternoon on “National Imperatives for Earth Science Research”. This hearing looks to be similar to a House Science and Technology Committee hearing on the topic in February.

One hearing that had been scheduled for today but was cancelled yesterday afternoon was […]

Mikulski: Congress didn’t cut NASA’s exploration budget

By Jeff Foust on 2007 March 6 at 5:40 pm ET

I received an email this afternoon from the communications director for Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), who wanted to respond “to some inaccurate information circulating through the Space community” about the final FY2007 NASA budget. They key points, directly from that message:

– In fiscal year 2006, Congress provided a funding level of $3.05 billion for […]

March Storm agenda: prizes, spaceports, and Orion/COTS

By Jeff Foust on 2007 March 3 at 6:13 pm ET

ProSpace, the group that bills itself as “The CITIZENS’ Space Lobby dedicated to opening the space frontier”, who be holding its annual March Storm lobbying effort this coming week, bringing dozens of space activists to Capitol Hill for three days of briefings in Congressional offices. ProSpace has posted its “2007 Citizens’ Space Agenda”, which covers […]

Harman, Kyl, and ASATs

By Jeff Foust on 2007 March 1 at 12:48 pm ET

The notice of this event hasn’t been posted on CSIS’ web site yet, but as part of its “Decision 2008″ series, the organization is hosting a discussion with Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA) on “China’s Anti-Satellite Weapons Launch” on March 8th from 8:30 to 9:30 am. The event notice doesn’t provide […]

Delaying Orion

By Jeff Foust on 2007 March 1 at 6:32 am ET

The big news that came out yesterday’s hearing, as noted by the Houston Chronicle, Florida Today, New York Times, and others was that the cut in NASA’s exploration program enacted by the Congress when it passed the final FY07 budget a few weeks ago will result in a delay of four to six months in […]

Hearings hearings hearings

By Jeff Foust on 2007 February 28 at 6:43 am ET

If you like Congressional hearings (and who doesn’t?), then today’s your day. The most obvious space-related hearing is the one by the Senate Commerce Committee’s space subcommittee on the NASA budget. NASA administrator Mike Griffin is the sole witness scheduled to testify; it will be his first opportunity to discuss the FY08 budget request, and […]

Mars Society lobbies for NASA budget increase

By Jeff Foust on 2007 February 23 at 1:12 pm ET

The Mars Society is asking its members to contact their Congressional representatives and request that they either approve FY2007 supplemental funding for NASA and/or support a budget increase for the space agency in FY08. A key passage from the email sent out by the organization earlier this week:

The Vision for Space Exploration (VSE) is […]

Competitiveness and competing for funding

By Jeff Foust on 2007 February 15 at 5:56 am ET

Yesterday the House Science and Technology Committee held a hearing on the proposed overall FY2008 R&D budget, with OSTP director John Marburger as the sole witness. Neither the official committee press release about the hearing, nor the release by the committee’s Republican office, made any mention of NASA funding, but a GovExec.com article noted that […]

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