Congress « Space Politics

A question of priorities

By Jeff Foust on 2011 March 3 at 7:25 am ET

NASA administrator Charles Bolden made his first visit to Capitol Hill Wednesday to defend the FY2012 budget request, encountering criticism of the proposal from some members of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee. Members such as committee chairman Rep. Ralph Hall (R-TX) criticized a budget proposal that did not align with the authorization act, […]

Shutdown averted, but…

By Jeff Foust on 2011 March 2 at 7:36 am ET

Yesterday the House passed another continuing resolution (CR), providing another two weeks of funding to keep the government operating. With the Senate willing to support this CR, the threat of a government shutdown at the end of this week has been eliminated (or, more accurately, pushed back for two weeks.)

The CR has a mix […]

Space leaders call for commercial crew funding

By Jeff Foust on 2011 March 2 at 7:19 am ET

In a letter released Tuesday, a group of 56 “space leaders”, ranging from former astronauts and NASA officials to industry executives, called on Congress to fully fund NASA’s commercial crew development program, claiming it is “critical to the health of the Nation’s human spaceflight efforts.” Funding for that program is 2011 is still pending a […]

Briefs: another CR, NASA budget hearings, India’s budget

By Jeff Foust on 2011 March 1 at 6:11 am ET

The House is expected to take up today a short-term continuing resolution (CR) to keep the government operating for two more weeks and thus avoiding a government shutdown at the end of the week. The House CR would include $4 billion in cuts, although none of them would appear to directly affect NASA or other […]

How would a government shutdown affect NASA?

By Jeff Foust on 2011 February 26 at 9:44 am ET

The current continuing resolution that funds the federal government, including NASA, expires in less than a week: midnight on Friday, March 4. Unless Congress can agree to a new funding bill, be it a full FY11 appropriations act, as the House passed last week with HR 1, or another short-term stopgap bill, the federal government […]

Affording the final shuttle launch

By Jeff Foust on 2011 February 24 at 7:10 am ET

In an interview with CNN, NASA administrator Charles Bolden suggested that NASA stretched out the shuttle program far longer than it should have. “It was time for the shuttle to go a long time ago, in deference to a vehicle that was going to take humans to the Moon,” he said, suggesting that the Challenger […]

Briefs: assigning members and blame

By Jeff Foust on 2011 February 22 at 7:38 am ET

Some miscellaneous items from the last few days:

It’s not posted yet on the committee’s web site, but the full House Science Committee will hold a hearing on Wednesday, March 2, on NASA’s FY12 budget request. NASA administrator Charles Bolden is the sole witness scheduled to testify.

Last week the Senate Commerce Committee announced the […]

Another NASA funding amendment to watch?

By Jeff Foust on 2011 February 18 at 6:05 am ET

The House is continuing to debate hundreds of amendments associated with HR 1, the year-long continuing resolution that would fund the federal government for the remainder of fiscal year 2011. Among the amendments that have not yet been taken up on the floor of the House is one by Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR) that would, […]

Crime takes a bite out of NASA

By Jeff Foust on 2011 February 16 at 10:36 pm ET

On Wednesday the full House, debating the full-year continuing resolution HR 1, voted 228-203 to approve an amendment that would transfer $298 million from NASA to the Department of Justice’s Community Oriented Policing Services, a program that provides funding for local police forces. The amendment, introduced by Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) was actually debated Tuesday […]

Briefs: Air Force shuttle funding request, upcoming hearing

By Jeff Foust on 2011 February 16 at 6:36 am ET

People in both Ohio and Florida are abuzz over an item tucked away deep in the Air Force’s budget request for FY12. On page 599 (PDF page 604) of operations and maintenance budget document the Air Force requests $14 million to transport a space shuttle to the National Museum of the Air Force in Dayton, […]

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