WASHINGTON (States News Service) -- Although the House is expected to vote for a $1 billion cut in NASA funding late Thursday, NASA supporters in Congress are relatively upbeat.
Pro-NASA Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Maryland) and others noted that the Senate will have practically no choice but to increase spending beyond the budget caps agreed upon in a 1997 budget resolution.
The caps limit the total amount of money available for the VA-HUD spending bill, which sets the funding for NASA, as well as the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Veterans Administration, and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Many of these programs are popular for both political parties.
"This agreement caused us to make some tough choices and we're trying to do that," said Subcommittee Chairman James Walsh (R-New York) the author of the bill.
On the House floor, Walsh indicated a likely increase in NASA funding in the final version of the bill that will emerge from the House and Senate conference.
"We have talked with a number of people concerned about the levels of NASA funding," Walsh said. "We know there's not enough money in there for NASA, we're not completed with this process yet."
Hoyer, who sits on the Appropriations Committee, said most of the lawmakers in both chambers in charge of spending have complained that the 1997 caps do not make sense in light of a projected surplus in the federal budget.
"The appropriators have said that these cuts are unrealistic," Hoyer said. The Senate appropriators "feel that what they're being asked to do is inappropriate."
Hoyer also noted that NASA has a "key ally" on the Senate VA-HUD spending committee in his Maryland colleague, Sen. Barbara Mikulski, the committee's ranking member.
"It'll be tough to get it by Sen. Mikulski, no doubt about that," Hoyer said, chuckling.
Members of both parties who spoke against cuts to NASA and other programs often took time to exonerate Walsh and Ranking Member Alan Mollohan, who they said simply did not have enough money to fund all the programs covered in the bill.
"We ought to reject this bill, send it back to committee," Hoyer said on the floor, "not because Mr. Walsh or Mr. Mollohan did anything wrong, but because the constraints placed on the bill were wrong."
Long-time NASA supporter Rep. Ralph Hall (D-Texas) expects to be forced to vote against the final bill. "We're going to oppose this. If this bill passes, it's going to be vetoed and then we'll start all over again. I don't know why they can't be sensible about this."
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