The NASA spending bill will come to the House floor by Thursday, said Michele Davis, a spokeswoman for Majority Leader Richard Armey, R-Texas. A final vote is expected on the same day, or possibly Friday.

"It will definitely be over before recess," Davis said. The House Appropriations Committee voted Friday to cut $1 billion from the agency's budget request. The action triggered a round of public debates and finger pointing, with Republicans saying the cuts wouldn't be necessary if the administration would back raising Congressional spending cuts, and the White House saying the cuts would doom the civil space agency's science programs. The entire Congress recesses next week for the summer, returning after Labor Day to complete its work, which is mainly passage of the spending bills for the next federal Fiscal Year. That year begins October 1st, just weeks after Congress gets back to business.

But the Senate committee has not even written their version of the NASA bill, and won't until September, said Dan Hubbard, a spokesman for subcommittee chairman Kit Bond, R-Mo.

"We know it will be after the recess, but more than that I have no idea," Hubbard said.

Most senators on the spending committee have refused to comment until they actually take up the bill. In the meantime, they say, there are other priorities in Congress.