A House Space Subcommittee grilled NASA chief, Charles Bolden regarding NASA’s proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2017.
The hearing held today was titled “An Overview of the Budget Proposal for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for Fiscal Year 2017.”
Realistic budget?
In a statement, Space Subcommittee Chairman Brian Babin (R-Texas) noted: “Unfortunately, this administration has once again done a disservice to NASA, its employees, and our nation by providing a budget request that ignores the budget agreement, requesting mandatory funding for NASA. I had hoped that the administration would demonstrate leadership by proposing a realistic budget, but instead we were presented with a list of unfunded priorities.
Grounded astronauts
From Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas): “There are some areas of agreement between the Committee and the administration in NASA’s Fiscal Year 2017 budget request. But this proposed budget continues to tie our astronauts’ feet to the ground and makes a Mars mission all but impossible.
Resources:
1)
The hearing charter, loaded with information on NASA programs, is available at:
2)
NASA’s Charles Bolden’s prepared testimony is available at:
3)
To video view the entire hearing held on Thursday, March 17, 2016 – 10:00am | 2318 Rayburn House Office Building, go to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ry9BwJRmeYk
4)
The full opening statement from Smith is here:
5)
The Opening statement of Chairman Brian Babin (R-Texas) is here at: