WASHINGTON (States News Service) -- The final version of the spending bill containing NASA funding will include, not a cut, but a $74 million boost to the space agency. However, the lawmakers who handled the bill sent a clear message about their priorities within NASA, and several programs will be left with less funding.
NASA and congressional sources said that the House-Senate conference report on the VA-HUD and Independent Agencies Appropriations bill would contain $13.65 billion for NASA, a total of $74 million above President Clinton's request for fiscal year 2000, and $25 million below the 1999 level.
Senate Subcommittee Chairman Kit Bond, R-Mo. and others predicted that the bill would sail quickly through both chambers and said that the president has already agreed to sign the bill late next week.
Congressional sources who wished to remain unnamed confirmed reports that several space science programs will be reduced or eliminated. The total cut to space science is $45 million, said Jim Simmons, an aide to House Subcommittee Chairman, Jim Walsh, R-N.Y. Of that, $30 million will be taken from NASA's "supporting research and technology" account, which funds a number of smaller sub-orbital and technology programs.
NASA had no comment available by Friday afternoon.
Most of the additions in the budget went to the aeronautics programs, sources said, mostly to future space launch technologies.
Funding for some of the Explorer and Discovery programs will be cut, and all funding for the $20 million LightSar program will be cut, sources said.
Most of the cuts came from programs that have been delayed due to launching difficulties, Simmons said. Therefore, the cuts will not really affect those programs, because they will be able to survive on existing funding. Other money came from programs that NASA has canceled, such as the failed Mars Climate Orbiter.
The bill requires the National Academy of Sciences to see if the Triana satellite's science objectives are worth the cost. Work will be suspended on the satellite until the review is completed, and then the Congress will determine the $77 million program's final fate.
The original House version of the spending bill included $900 million in cuts to the agency, prompting a months-long lobbying effort by space supporters to restore NASA funding. The Senate version of the bill fully funded the president's request, but shifted $120 million out of space science into space transportation and other programs.
The conference committee, faced with large differences between the bills and a presidential veto threat, negotiated down to the wire on the controversial spending bill. Lawmakers repeatedly pushed back a public meeting later and later, and the final report had not even been printed when the meeting convened late Thursday night.
"We cut a deal with the White House about 25 minutes before the meeting," one aide said.
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