This just in from FLORIDA TODAY's Bill Theobald in Washington
A NASA funding bill for next year passed the House on Thursday - without a cut of $566 million to the Constellation human space flight program being reversed.
Rep. Bill Posey, R-Rockledge, filed two amendments to the 2010 budget bill covering commerce, justice and science operations, attempting to restore the funding cut. But Democratic congressional leaders did not allow either to be considered.
The legislation passed 259-157. Posey and Rep. Suzanne Kosmas, D-Smyrna Beach, voted against it.
The reduction was first made in the House Appropriations Committee where Rep. Alan Mollohan, D-W.Va., chairman of the subcommittee covering NASA, said the funding should wait until a blue-ribbon panel appointed by President Barack Obama to study the future of the country's human space flight program completes its work. The Human Space Flight Committee held its first public meeting Wednesday and is expected to make recommendations by the end of August.
Mollohan has said the funding could be restored depending on the committee's recommendations.
But Posey said during a floor speech that the cut sends the wrong message to the people working on the Constellation program and young people working on advanced degrees in engineering and science.
"It tells them that human space flight is not really a priority," he said.
Kosmas called the funding levels for human space flight "unacceptable."
"These cuts will cause years of delays and put at risk the highly skilled workforce that is critical to Central Florida's economy and that may not be easily reassembled for future programs," she said.
The bill provides $18.2 billion for NASA, $421 million more than the current year but $483 million less than what President Barack Obama requested.
It now goes to the Senate, where the state's senators are likely to try to restore the funding.
Space news and analysis from Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral 
11 comments:
If I were a NASA worker I don't think I'd spend much time waiting to see what they will do. I'd get my resume up to date, put my house on the market and be very proactive about my employement.
Already proactive, house sold, resume ready, too bad for Brevard. They are going back to the stone age for good jobs and employment. You think home prices are cheap now, wait in seventeen homes. The sign will say "Welcome to Detroit".
Get ready boys and girls...my advise is to learn how to make change.
Do you want fries with that ???
This is change you can believe in....
Here we go back to the great white north after 27 years at KSC and CCAFS. Alaska has steady employment and excellent hunting and fishing, no crowded roads and a governor who isn't a backstabbing fool. I may miss the warm weather but I sure as heck won't miss the way Florida has gotten over the last decades. It's like being in New York South. NASA will land a man on the moon by 2020, yea right???
NASA launches 2 ships for the moon as Obama looks into cost of space exploration and asks the question: Will the US ever walk on the moon again? What do you people think?
Would you like a journalist to investigate that story and produce a report FOR YOU?
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Good riddance all you carpet-baggers. You've crapped on my homestate for far too long. Signed, a 4th generation Floridan!!
I have relitives who have dedicated their whole life work experience to NASA.
I have known them for more than 25 years.So I know what I'm talking about
The ignoramous Federal Government has pulled NASA around by the nose since its incertion.It(the gov't)has never done one smart thing for NASA since President Kennedy.
Now Obama and his democratic boneheads want to head up a blue ribbon commitee.
Given their way this commitee will ruin one of America's greatest accomplishments
Chances are this commitee dosen't even know what NASA stamds for
This is just more blind governing.
RICK
WAKE UP AMERICA
If the US doesn't start funding space exploration consistently, it will lose its advantage and good engineers/scientists to the competition... like China, India, Europe. Don't think the US is the only one in a new space race. He who controls the "high ground" gains a military advantage. In this case, the high ground is the moon, or perhaps someday - Mars. The US will not be able to deny access to space by its "adversaries" unless it uses its capabilities to maintain its lead. This takes money, commitment, and time. ... a Canadian reader.
As part of the rare generation of independent young US engineers (US raised, US educated, US employeed, in no debt, tax paying, sold my home without foreclosure LAST year, voted McCain, not part of the problem this country has), Obama is very short-sighted if he thinks that throwing money at a bankrupt GM (worthless uncompetitive sinkhole of a company) and social healthcare (you think getting a good doctor is hard to find now, just wait) is the answer. What is the answer? Throw that money into science/engineering/math EDUCATION. Start now or forever continue into oblivion.
The US is full of uneducated fools that can do nothing for their economy except consume handouts from their corrupt leaders. That's the opinion of MOST of the educated scientists/engineers that I know---we don't like America anymore. And America will have lost its talent to other countries-which is VERY sad.
I am part of the future talent and economic answer for America, and I'm thinking about packing my bags for good. Be worried. THAT is change you can BET on.
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