Washington Updates

On April 19, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved the Fiscal Year (FY) 2013 Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS) Appropriations bill, which funds several agencies, including NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The Senate bill would provide NASA with $19.399 billion in FY 2013, $1.6 billion above the President’s request. However, the increase is…

Congress continues to discuss funding for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). On Dec. 6, the House Science, Space and Technology Committee held a hearing entitled The Next Great Observatory: Assessing the James Webb Space Telescope, where Committee Chair Rep. Ralph Hall (R-TX) stated his support for the JWST, adding that “NASA’s latest replan for…

At the end of December, several key events took place affecting the future of the U.S. space program. On Dec. 20, NASA announced it was taking a modified approach to supporting commercial crew capability, saying it will “competitively award Space Act agreements for the next phase of the Commercial Crew Program,” rather than award contracts.…

In last month’s Space Watch The View From Here column, Space Foundation CEO Elliot Pulham predicted that the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (aka the Super Committee) would fail to produce a plan to reduce the U.S. budget deficit by $1.2 trillion over the next 10 years. Turns out, as usual, he was right. Commenting on…

Despite a very contentious year between Congress and the White House, President Barack Obama signed a spending bill in November that sets the 2012 budget for NASA, bringing to an end several years of operation under restrictive Continuing Resolutions that underfunded the agency. According to Space Foundation Vice President – Washington Operations Brendan Curry, “This…

The House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation held a hearing on Nov. 2 on Efforts to Transfer America’s Leading Edge Science to China. Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., warned against U.S. engagement with China on matters of technology. Ranking Member of the Subcommittee Rep. Russ Carnahan, D-Mo., expressed a different view, saying…