"Strongly Supports" Full Senate Stimulus Funding For Agency

Recent developments concerning the economic stimulus bill are cause for serious concern for NASA's funding needs, said the Coalition for Space Exploration on Friday.

A full vote in the Senate is imminent and the outcome for NASA is "imperative." The Coalition says NASA needs robust funding and the agency was poised to receive $1.5 billion from the Senate stimulus package, which would have been "a step in the right direction."

Instead, however, a proposed 50 percent cut puts NASA's programs at risk and in potential turmoil.

"The Senate has an opportunity to provide the resources NASA needs to accomplish the goals laid before it," the CSE said in a statement to Aero-News. "This could be the first step to adequately fund our nation's space program, which has gone from four percent of the federal budget during the Apollo era to less than one percent of the budget at present. NASA programs and the contractors who support them represent approximately half-a-million highly skilled jobs in key states across our country. Another blow to the NASA budget only means delays, hampered programs, reduced benefits to US citizens and unmet goals.

"How can we expect an agency that, as Coalition for Space Exploration research has shown over the years, is valued by the majority of Americans to function on so little? Now is the time to support NASA. Now is the time for a stimulus package that begins to fund our space exploration programs well. Now is not the time to once again shortchange NASA."

As of Friday night, a final Senate vote on the measure had to come to pass, though senators reportedly arrived at a tentative agreement late in the afternoon. Details of that agreement -- reached to appease Senate Republicans -- were not forthcoming.

With the Obama administration keen to pass a stimulus package as soon as possible, we'll soon see how effective the Coalition's appeal was. Stay tuned.

FMI: www.spacecoalition.com/