A day before a U.S. Senate committee is expected to pass compromise NASA legislation that supporters call a "major breakthrough," Space Coast economic development officials say it could squander a rare opportunity to transform the area's economy. "The bill under consideration would in effect redirect funding away from research and development and commercialization efforts," states a press release from the Economic Development Commission of Florida's Space Coast, whose leaders today sent a letter expressing concerns to Florida Sen. Bill Nelson.
That direction "fails to grasp the opportunity for the commercial space industry and the new jobs and new investment that it would bring."
President Obama proposed spending $6 billion dollars to develop commercial crew taxis and nearly $5 billion on next-generation space technologies over the next five years would be scaled back.
A draft NASA reauthorization bill would instead accelerate development of a heavy-lift rocket and the Orion spacecraft for exploration missions beyond low Earth orbit.
Local officials say the reduced funding will weaken priorities that have generated a "rush of interests" in the Space Coast from businesses and universities that promises to diversify the area's space economy beyond launch operations.
Representatives for Sen. Nelson say the bill preserves funding for those goals and has a chance of passing -- critical for NASA avoid the paralysis that would result from a continuing resolution budget.
The Obama proposals have met with significant opposition in Congress.
Nelson and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, the ranking Republican on the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, have announced an 11:45 a.m. Thursday press conference to discuss a "major breakthrough" on the reauthorization act, suggesting its approval in an earlier hearing is all but certain.
Watch a Webcast of the committee's hearing here starting at 10 a.m.
3 comments:
The EDC's President & CEO Linda Weatherman was and remains a ardent defender of President Obama. I'm sure she doesn't want to see him harmed, as his presidency will be, by loosing the space fight. The problem is, she's placing her loyalty to the President beyond that of protecting and promoting the economy of the Space Coast.
Local Officials: Weatherman and Cunningham have yet to do any one thing that would justify the existence of EDC. Being fully funded by taxpayer money, they both would be smarter to hide their heads in the sand, enjoy county commission donated tax payer money, til next they must go begging again for tax payer money while the county asks "how now do we fund essential government services."
Just one month ago,County Commissioners, voted unanimously to fully fund (2.5 Million Dollars) dismal and defunct Economic Development Commission and additionally voted unanimously to provide a ten year tax abatement to Lockheed Martin in Melbourne (who knows how much that is). All this outside of the budget process, taking these funds away fully from any consideration of "how now do we fund essential government services" including Libraries I sent this as a question to the Town Hall, but apparently it has been ruled out as a factor in the budget process. So Weatherman and Cunningham would be smarter to just swell in the 2.5 Million tax payer money and hope that taxpayers concede to this instead of libraries and SCAT, and police/fire protection.
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