WASHINGTON — A key Senate panel will hold a hearing Nov. 18 on NASA's plans for changing the space agency's course.
The science committee drafted the policy legislation that President Barack Obama signed into law that supports commercial rockets to reach the International Space Station while still developing a NASA rocket to reach asteroids and Mars.
But for lack of a spending bill, Congress hasn't specified how much precisely to spend over the next year on commercial rockets or an extra shuttle that is envisioned in the policy legislation.
The election, which will change leadership of the House from Democratic to Republican in the new year, made spending decisions even more unpredictable than usual.
Lawmakers return Monday for a lame-duck session that could spill into December, to resolve spending and taxation issues.
NASA enjoys bipartisan support in both chambers. But Republican leaders in both chambers have suggested freezing current spending levels for government agencies, which could hinder Obama's proposal to boost NASA funding for the year that started Oct. 1 by about $300 million to $19 billion.
The science committee headed by Sen. John Rockefeller IV, D-W.Va., announced Wednesday it would hold the hearing about NASA's transition and implementation of the new three-year policy.
Contributed by Bart Jansen, Gannett Washington Bureau, bjansen@gannett.com.
Space news and analysis from Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral 
4 comments:
Just shut it down an lay every body off. Do it the Ron an Rand Paul way, republican's do not want rich people to pay taxes.
Nasa ! please make sure coming up with the plan quick. We have lost a lot of critical-skill workers. As you can see the news today, Google has raised salaries by 10% across the boards, starting Jan. 1. It also plans to give everyone a $1,000 holiday bonus.
The American People have proven by their love of Walmart, bus style air travel, crumbling bridges and roads, third world train service and with the exception of cancer care, worst in the civilized world health care that all they care about is their own dwindling wallets. I say shut it down, let the Chinese choose to excel in space and let us become the vacation backwater for prosperous and SMARTER working Europeans and Asians. We can still provide petroleum security for those new rulers of the worlds economy ... something we're still pretty good at.
Bush canceled Shuttle and ISS, making huge job losses in Brevard inevitable, but not one Brevard Republican objected.
President Obama added $300M to the NASA budget just weeks ago, but most KSC employees voted for Republicans who plan to slash the NASA budget further.
Next time, think before you vote.
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