A bi-partisan group of House members from Texas, twenty-five Democrats and five Republicans, have written an open letter to the House leadership calling for an increase of $2 billion for NASA's budget. See this article in the Houston Chronicle for details.
The bi-partisan group, lead by Representative Nick Lampson (D-22), addressed the letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Majority Leader Stephen Hoyer, Minority Leader John Boehner, Minority Whip Roy Blunt, Appropriations Chairman David Obey and Appropriations Ranking Member Jerry Lewis. They called for the increase to be part of another economic stimulus package or the supplemental appropriations bill.
As the delegation stated in the letter:
Investing these much-needed resources in NASA will reimburse the agency for funds spent on return-to-flight expenses following the Columbia disaster and for repairs needed following Hurricanes Rita and Katrina. In addition, these funds will help close the gap between the Shuttle and Constellation programs to minimize our dependence on Russia. We believe these funds will provide an immediate and long-term economic stimulus for our nation's economy as well through additional investments in science and aeronautics R&D.
This push for additional NASA funding mirrors a similar effort in the Senate, lead by Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) and Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX). The bi-partisan nature of both efforts illustrates how space exploration rises above the politically-charged bitterness that often divides members of Congress.
The Committee for the Advocacy of Space Exploation strongly supports the effort to increase NASA funding. It is critical that Project Constellation receive necessary funding to accelerate the development of the Orion spacecraft and Ares rockets, so as to minimize the gap between the final flight of the Shuttle and the first flight of Orion. This will not only reduce American dependance upon Russia for access to Earth orbit, but will greatly advance the twin goals of returning astronauts to the Moon and sending an expedition to Mars.
