Congress isn't expected to make spending decisions about NASA until after the election, key lawmakers said Tuesday.
Lawmakers have been debating the space agency's future for most of the year, after President Barack Obama proposed changing course with an extra $6 billion over five years.
But there are only a couple of weeks remaining until Congress leaves town for the Nov. 2 election.
Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., has been negotiating a new blueprint for NASA with Rep. Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., who is chairman of the House Science and Technology Committee. But the House and Senate remain divided on issues such as how much to devote to commercial rockets and when to go ahead with a heavy-lift rocket.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said the chamber could still debate a NASA policy bill next week if Gordon and Nelson reach a compromise. But that's looking increasinly unlikely.
Sen. Barbara Mikulski, a Maryland Democrat who heads the Appropriations subcommittee that funds NASA, said action on the space agency's spending bill must wait until Congress returns after the election for what is called a lame-duck session.
"The appropriations will wait for the lame duck," Mikulski said.
-By Bart Jansen, Washington
Space news and analysis from Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral 
11 comments:
"Billions for ACORN; not for NASA. ACORN benefits Democrat National Socialism; NASA benefits the United States."
-Central Committee of the Democrat Party of the United States; B. Hussein Obama, General Secretary of the Democrat Party of the United States, Chair
The local layoffs start friday. Chicken Little was right.
Thanks Titusville City Council for doing everything in your power over the last 6 years to mitigate this...NOT!
This congress is not likely to do anything that is remotely good for America's working people. J-O-B-S and the E-C-O-N-O-M-Y should be priority one to the new congress after we pull the chain on these socialist duds!
By the way, will you be renaming this section of Florida Today the "Flame is Gone" after the death of America's Space Program?
I agree with all of the above comments.
Obama, Senators and Congress could have saved 30,00o jobs if the Space Shuttle program was extended to 2016. They are only interested in laying off 30,000 middle class educated workers.
We are being a second rate nation.
All this work they've been doing in Congress and they put off NASA and passing a budget for next session AFTER the election. What are they afraid of? What have the Dems been doing if they have an ENTIRE YEAR to prepare a budget and delay it? They are terrified of November and rightly so.
This will affect so many people, not to mention the future of the program. So sad.
Did anyone seriously think that the space program was a national priority to be hashed out before the 01 Oct deadline? Come on people, time you went back and studied your notes from government civics class that you must have been asleep in. Let me refresh you: The NASA appropriations bill is part of the much much larger Commerce Justice and Science bill. You don't vote on NASA approps..you vote on CJS approps! Many more important items under consideration in that bill than the measly few dollars spent on NASA. That's why there is no appropriations bill for NASA because there is no approps bill for CJS. Class dismissed.
To be undecided is to be decided. Outsourcing the Space Program... What a bad idea.
So three Democrats, Senator Nelson, Representative Gordon and President Obama are all fighting and won't agree to compromise so NASA can be funded. What about Hope and Change? The headline should have read CONGRESS UNLIKELY TO TACKLE NASA SPENDING BEFORE OR AFTER THE ELECTION. After elections, the session is called a lame duck session. All they do is come in, pass a continuing budget bill to fund government til January, pack their boxes and go home. In January, NASA will not be a priority of the new Congress. Under continuing resolutions, existing programs are continued. This means Constellation gets one more year of funding. By the time Congress gets around to passing the F2012 budget, the Constellation program will be very far along, and only two years away from operational status. Don't they have another test launch scheduled in 2011? Well all of that goes ahead under a continuing resolution.
JFK would be disappointed how KSC's leadership failed to continue manned space flights from making progress and therefore becoming redundant. Their leaders became overconfident in their positions to the necessary changes required to continue space exploration. Sure, there will be challenges for making advancements but the private companies won’t be sitting around idle like KSC leaders had for the last decade. Besides those being laid off will receive a lucrative severance package, work placement assistance, resume help, continued education, etc.
NASA Layoffs = Reaping What They Sowed
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