Report from Washington, D.C.


Report from Space Foundation's Washington, D.C., Office

Written by: developer

On July 17, the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee approved its version of the fiscal year funding legislation for the Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies bill, which includes funding for NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) weather satellite programs. The bill would appropriate a topline budget of $16.6 billion dollars for NASA, and fully fund the President's request for NOAA weather satellites JPSS and GOES-R.

The following day, the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space, and Technology approved the NASA Authorization Act of 2013 (H.R. 2687) to reauthorize programs at NASA for FY 2014 and 2015, including a topline budget of $16.8 billion dollars. In addition, the bill provides for increased spending above the $16.8 billion cap if the Budget Control Act is repealed.

On July 30, the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation Committee passed the NASA Authorization Act of 2013 (S. 1317) to reauthorize programs at NASA for FY 2014, 2015 and 2016, including a topline budget of $18.1 billion dollars.

On July 18, the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee approved its version of the fiscal year funding legislation for the Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies bill (S. 1329), which includes funding for NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) weather satellite programs. The bill would appropriate a topline budget of $18 billion dollars for NASA, and fully fund the President's request for NOAA weather satellites JPSS and GOES-R.

The Space Foundation has updated its budget comparison documents for NASA and NOAA, with regard to these pieces of legislation, which include more details on the various proposed provisions and funding levels within each bill. Those updates can be found here.

The Space Foundation routinely tracks relevant NASA, NOAA and National Security Space authorization and appropriations bills. However, with increasing attention to all-things-cyber, the Space Foundation is expanding into providing similarly-styled documents with respect to cyberspace. The first of which focuses on military cybersecurity-related provisions proposed in the House and Senate FY 2014 National Defense Authorization Act and the FY 2014 Defense Appropriations Act. That cyber document can be found here.

This article is part of Space Watch: August 2013 (Volume: 12, Issue: 8).


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