A House Appropriations subcommittee voted to slash NASA funding by $1.4 billion on Monday. The measure will go the full committee for a vote on Friday. Then the entire House must approve the bill. The Senate version of the bill has not been written yet.

On the full Appropriations Committee, Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., vowed to fight the cuts. Hoyer is the only Maryland representative on the spending committee, and his district includes Goddard Space Flight Center, which would take the brunt of the proposed cuts.

"These cuts threaten the entire space program," Hoyer said. "They are outrageous, irresponsible, and short-sighted."

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., chairs the House subcommittee on space and opposes the cuts made by his own party in the spending bill. His committee authorized a three-year budget for NASA earlier this year that gives the spaace agency about $13 billion a year.

Rohrabacher will fight for changes to that bill, said his chief of staff Rick Dykema, but has not yet decided on a strategy.

"It's difficult because you can't just offer amendments to increase spending on appropriations bills, you've got to take it from somewhere else," Dykema said.

Co-Chairman of the Congressional Aviation and Space Caucus, Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich, D-Ohio, said only that he is "actively working" with Congressman Steven LaTourette, R-Ohio, to restore the funds.

The funding is not a hot issue in the Senate yet, sources said, because the appropriations committee has not even written the funding bill. A spokeswoman for Democratic Senator John Breaux, ranking member of the Senate's Space subcommittee, said that Breaux has no plans to lead a coalition for NASA funding, and she had not heard of any other senator making such an effort.

Other senatorial aides said they were not even aware of the issue.

But individual senators facing cuts in their districts are likely to fight. Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, actually held up the NASA authorization bill in the

Senate in order to insure that Glenn Research Center got it's full share of funding.

"Of course, absolutely, he will always and continues to defend the jabs at NASA Glenn," said DeWine spokesman Charlie Boesel. "That's just part of who and what he is... However, we are still very early in the process and we are still working on our version in the Senate."