As those lawmakers see it, NASA's key partner in the $60 billion project -- Russia -- has failed to deliver on its commitments to the station, and the U.S. space agency and 14 other partner nations, they say, are suffering for it.
Critics point to the two-year delay in the Russian-built crew quarters called the Zvezda (or "Star") service module as an example of Russia holding NASA "hostage" to demands for more money. They fear money intended to pay for the station will instead go to keep Russia's ailing Mir space station aloft.
NASA argues just as adamantly that key U.S. pieces -- namely the Boeing-built U.S. Laboratory called "Destiny" -- were also behind schedule and that it would be unfair to single out the Russians as the source of all the station's problems.
As for the money, NASA says it will do its best to watch how the Russians spend it.
It all makes for great theater in a town that loves to keep track of who's up and who's down amid the mud-slinging.
"NASA's management of this program has all the appearances of a Keystone-Cops movie," said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-California) who chairs the House Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics. "The American people certainly deserve better. Our future in space demands it."
Rohrabacher's take on the station: "A grievous mistake that has finally caught up with our space program."
Powerful Science Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-Wisconsin) went so far as to imply perjury last month when he accused NASA Administrator Dan Goldin of misleading Congress half a dozen times in the past four years over the station's assembly sequence.
"We are all nervous about [the station]," Goldin told Sensenbrenner at a heated hearing. "We are doing what we think is in the best interests of America."
Even some of the more restrained lawmakers are losing patience.
Rep. Dave Weldon (R-Florida), whose district includes the Kennedy Space Center, bemoaned the fact that "ISS hardware is stacking up" there. More than 86 percent of the station hardware is complete, with most of it scheduled to arrive at the center this year.
That amounts to "a stagnation in the ISS assembly sequence," he said. "We simply cannot allow this to go on any further."
NASA, he said, needs to fly the U.S.-built Interim Control Module (ICM) as soon as possible to handle some of the critical functions of the Zvezda service module. NASA plans to fly the ICM this December if the Russian module can't be launched in July, or next year if it does go up as scheduled.
The $200 million ICM is a propulsion-and-control unit that could keep the embryonic station stable in orbit. But it does not contain the living quarters necessary for crews to take up residence aboard the station.
So until Zvezda can go up, no one can live aboard the ISS unless the shuttle is docked to it.
It's a dilemma that both Congress and NASA are going to have to live with, said Charles Vick, a space analyst at the Federation of American Scientists in Washington.
"Bringing the Russians aboard was correct," he said, given all the potential problems of otherwise unemployed Russian scientists selling their knowledge to rogue nations like Iraq or North Korea.
"But the bad idea was not making Mir a part of ISS, letting it be the building block for the rest of the station. For a short period of time, it would have been a different-looking station. But then Mir would be discarded when the ISS is permanently manned," Vick said.
That scenario, he believes, would have been a winning one for both sides.
"It would have saved face for the Russians and you wouldn't have this service module binding us and slowing us down like we have now," Vick said.
"It's a dirty little secret for Americans. But you wait, down the road we're going to have big problems with all the things we're developing for the station."
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