WASHINGTON -- The first of what could be a series of weekly congressional hearings on NASA begins Wednesday when the Senate Commerce Committee calls NASA Administrator Sean OKeefe and Columbia Accident Investigation Board chairman Harold Gehman to testify.
The following day, Gehman is scheduled to appear before the House Science Committee to answer questions from that oversight panel.
David Goldston, Republican staff director for the House Science Committee, told reporters Tuesday afternoon, that the House Science Committee, starting in late September, plans to hold NASA hearings as often as once a week focusing in on different aspects of the Columbia Accident Investigation Report which was released Aug. 26.
In the weeks to come, the House Science Committee will be calling a procession of witnesses to testify on the risks of human space flight, the role of contractors in NASAs programs, budgetary constraints, and longer-term goals for the human space flight program.
Bob Palmer, the House Science Committees Democratic staff director, said he hopes the hearings pick up where the accident report leaves off in assessing the impact of budgets on safety and fully analyzing the role contractors played in the lead up to the accident.
Congress will have new fodder for hearings once NASA releases its intitial Return to Flight plan. That document, according to Goldston, is expected to reach Capital Hill on Sept. 8.
The purpose of the hearings, Goldston said, is to make sure weve laid out for members of the committee and for Congress as a whole a full understanding of all the issues the Gehman board has raised and to lay the groundwork for congressional oversight and the authorization bill.
The House and Senate is not expected to take up an NASA authorization bill until the 2004 legislative session.
Palmer said he anticipates broad participation from the committees 40-plus members, at least for the initial hearings.
Goldston agreed that future witnesses might be called to testify before something less than a full line up of members, but said what matters is that the committee as a whole gathers the information it needs to help provide guidace to NASA as it set forth to fix what the board found lacking in the agency.
"As long as the members who have the greatest on going concern with NASA are involved ... I think we will have been doing our jobs," Goldston said."The committee as a whole is going to remain focused and is not going to loose interest in this."
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