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Congress to Cut Less than One Percent of NASA Budget
By Alex Canizares
Special to space.com
posted: 06:30 pm ET
18 November 1999
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nasa_cuts_991118WASHINGTON, Nov.18 (States News Service) Forty-one million of NASAs $13.65 billion budget may end up on the congressional cutting room floor. How NASA would handle its share of the 0.38 percent across-the-board cut to all agencies remained unclear Thursday night. One NASA official said it would be harmless, as long as it was left up to the agency to decide what to do with it. GOP budget negotiators, after working into the wee hours Wednesday night with the presidents Office of Management and Budget, won the attachment of the cut to a massive spending bill, the last of the session. When the House passed the spending bill 296 to 135 Thursday evening, aides were uncertain how the cut would play out. The Senate may not approve it until next week. "Its difficult to know how the cut will be administered at this time," a congressional aide familiar with NASAs budget said. House Appropriations Committee spokesman John Scofield said the cut applies to every program except military personnel, and that agency administrators such as NASAs Dan Goldin would have some degree of flexibility in deciding what specific programs will be hit by the cut. A NASA official who wished to remain unnamed said that no program would be hurt if the agency took the $41 million out of earmarks -- items that lawmakers add to the bill as political hand-outs to research institutions or others in their district. To take $41 million "out of congressional earmarks would be real easy," the official said. NASA was forced to cut some programs to make room for the earmarks when Congress passed its budget last month. But if lawmakers refuse to let NASA handle the decision, and decide to take the money out of programs, that is "more difficult" for NASA, the official added.
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