WASHINGTON
– As the U.S. Senate moved closer to voting on a spending bill that would give
NASA an extra $1.15 billion for 2008, lawmakers rejected an amendment to trim
$150 million from the U.S. space agency's budget to help states prosecute
crimes committed by illegal aliens.
The Senate
voted 70-20 to table the amendment, which was offered by Sen. John Ensign
(R-Nev.) during floor debate Oct. 16 on the Commerce, Justice, Science spending
bill.
Sen.
Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations commerce,
justice, science subcommittee, led the opposition to the Ensign amendment,
warning colleagues that trimming NASA's budget would further lengthen an
already nearly five-year gap between retiring the space shuttle and fielding
its replacement, the Orion
Crew Exploration Vehicle and its Ares I launcher. She was joined by her
subcommittee co-chair, Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), and Sens. Kay Bailey
Hutchison (R-Texas) and Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) in speaking against the amendment.
The 2008
Commerce, Justice, Science spending bill includes $17.5 billion in regular
funds for NASA and $1 billion in so-called emergency money that lawmakers added
at the prodding of Mikulski, Hutchison, Nelson, Shelby and others to help NASA
recover financially from the 2003
space shuttle Columbia accident.
A vote on
the spending bill was expected late Oct. 17, setting the stage for a
legislative conference with the House of Representatives, which passed a
related spending bill this summer that did not include extra emergency funding
for NASA.
The White
House has threatened to veto the Commerce, Justice, Science spending bill if
the Congress sends the bill forward with more funding than President George W.
Bush requested. The Senate version of the bill, which funds several different
agencies, exceeds Bush's request by over $3 billion, not including the $1
billion in emergency NASA money.
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