WASHINGTON —
Brushing aside White House objections, the U.S. House of Representatives
overwhelmingly approved a one-year NASA authorization bill that would require
the space agency to conduct an extra space shuttle mission to deliver the Alpha
Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) to the International Space station.
The White
House says that requiring NASA to fly the AMS could require the agency to
operate the space shuttle beyond 2010 and further delay the fielding of its
successor, the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle and Ares I rocket.
But the
House kept the AMS provision intact and relaxed the space shuttle's 2010
retirement date when it voted Thursday to approve the NASA
Authorization Act of 2008 (H.R. 6063) by a vote of 409 to 15. A similar
provision was included in a recent draft of a Senate version of the NASA
authorization bill that has yet to be introduced there.
In addition
to directing NASA to fly AMS, the bill also endorses the basic outlines of President
George W. Bush's 2004 call for the United States to complete the space station,
retire the space shuttle and field a new system capable of carrying
astronauts to the Moon, Mars and points beyond.
Rep. Bart
Gordon (D-Tenn.), chairman of the House Science and Technology Subcommittee,
hailed passage of the bill as a bipartisan endorsement of a robust U.S. space
program.
"The
bipartisan consensus we have reached on H.R. 6063 signals that Congress
believes a balanced NASA program of science, aeronautics, and human spaceflight
and exploration is important and worthy of the nation's support," Gordon
said in a statement. "Yet, I want to emphasize that H.R. 6063 takes a
fiscally-responsible approach to providing that support."
Rep. Ralph
Hall (R-Texas), the House Science and Technology Committee's ranking
Republican, said H.R. 6063 is meant to "remove any doubt the next
Administration may have about Congress' commitment to NASA's programs and
policies."
H.R. 6063 authorizes
a $20.21 billion budget for NASA for 2009 - about $2.5 billion more than the
White House requested or that congressional appropriators appear inclined to
approve as part of a broader Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS) spending bill.
The CJS
spending bills moving through the House and Senate both provide only $17.8
billion for NASA for 2009.
The Senate
Appropriations Committee is due to vote on its version of the CJS spending bill
June 19.
The House
Appropriations Committee had been scheduled to vote on its CJS bill at the same
time, but announced Thursday the markup had been postponed. No new date was
announced.
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