Congress « Space Politics

One more lobbying push on the NASA bill

By Jeff Foust on 2010 September 29 at 1:00 pm ET

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

By Jeff Foust on 2010 September 29 at 6:23 am ET

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

By Jeff Foust on 2010 September 28 at 9:02 pm ET

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

By Jeff Foust on 2010 September 28 at 7:21 am ET

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

By Jeff Foust on 2010 September 27 at 2:18 pm ET

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

By Jeff Foust on 2010 September 27 at 12:46 pm ET

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

By Jeff Foust on 2010 September 24 at 6:53 am ET

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

By Jeff Foust on 2010 September 23 at 12:24 pm ET

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 […]

Mr. Musk goes to Washington

By Jeff Foust on 2010 September 23 at 6:26 am ET

The Washington Post examines the lobbying efforts of SpaceX founder Elon Musk, who has become something of a lightning rod in the ongoing debate about the administration’s NASA proposals, specifically development of commercial crew capabilities. The articles does note one area of debate: whether he has become a Democratic partisan in the process:

Since […]

Is a budget cut in NASA’s future?

By Jeff Foust on 2010 September 23 at 5:42 am ET

Later today House Republican leaders will unveil “Pledge to America”, their platform of policy changes they seek to enact if the GOP wins a majority in the House in November’s elections. POLITICO obtained a draft of the platform that, while not directly addressing space policy, does suggest that NASA will find it difficult to retain […]

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