The bill includes a $1 billion cut in NASA funding and was scheduled for debate on Thursday and Friday. But the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee responsible for the bill, Rep. Alan Mollohan, D-W.V., asked the House leadership to delay action today. Mollohan will coordinate the debate for the Democrats on the floor when the bill comes before the entire House in September.
The House Appropriations voted for the 10 percent cut last Friday, in an attempt to meet spending caps mandated by the 1997 budget resolution.
On the Senate side, the chairman of the Senate committee that will decide NASA funding has not received any appeals to keep the agency's budget at
$13 billion, his spokesman said Thursday, nor does he have any meetings planned on the issue.
Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond, R-Mo., is chairman of the Senate's VA-HUD Appropriations subcommittee. That committee will write the spending bill that includes NASA's budget sometime in September after Congress returns from its month-long recess, said spokesman Dan Hubbard. The House bill cuts NASA spending by $1 billion and faces final approval later this week.
Despite the fact that some members of both houses have said they will lobby for the space agency, "I am certain that no one has been in contact with us on this issue," Hubbard said. Bond has no plans to meet with NASA Administrator Dan Goldin, pro-NASA Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, or anyone else about the budget.
Most senators on the spending committee have refused to comment until they actually take up the bill.
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