External Perspectives on the FY 2010 NASA Budget Request and Related Issues

Opening Statement By Chairwoman Gabrielle Giffords

Good morning. I’d like to welcome our witnesses to this morning’s hearing. You all have prepared very informative testimony, and I look forward to hearing from you. This is an important hearing for the subcommittee.

I think that the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel—the ASAP—which is represented at today’s hearing, summed up the situation quite succinctly in its April 15th letter to Speaker Pelosi transmitting its annual report, namely: “…NASA and the new Administration stand at a critical crossroads for the Nation.”

I agree with the ASAP. NASA is at a critical crossroads, and decisions made by Congress and the White House this year will have an impact on NASA for years to come—for better or worse—and we need to ensure that they are for the better.

We are going to be making a number of those key decisions as we develop our NASA reauthorization bill later this year. I want those decisions to be as informed as possible. Last month, we got NASA’s perspective on its FY 2010 budget request as well as on other issues facing the agency when Acting Administrator Scolese testified before the Science and Technology Committee.

Today we are continuing our oversight by hearing from the advisory bodies who monitor the NASA’s activities and programs, as well as from one of the key organizations representing the aerospace industry.

I welcome your testimony because we need to know, from your unique perspectives, what’s going well at NASA, what’s not going so well, and what obstacles may lie ahead for the agency if appropriate corrective actions are not taken. We invited the ASAP to testify because it was established by Congress more than four decades ago to help ensure that NASA’s programs and activities are carried out safely—and safety is a paramount concern of this subcommittee. We also wanted to hear from the NASA Advisory Council because it is NASA’s main advisory body, whose purview extends over all of the programmatic and institutional issues facing NASA. Among its areas of focus have been NASA’s financial management practices, which is why we have also asked the chair of the NAC’s Audit and Finance Committee to testify today.

Good financial management practices are going to be a key factor in ensuring that NASA is a responsible steward of the taxpayers’ dollars, and this subcommittee needs to know how NASA is doing in that regard.

The National Academies’ Space Studies Board and Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board have long been important sources of advice and analysis for both the Executive Branch and Congress on issues related to NASA’s R&D initiatives in science and engineering.

Finally, I wanted to ensure that industry’s perspective was also presented at today’s hearing, and I can think of no better representative than the Aerospace Industries Association. You thus are a diverse group of witnesses, but you and the organizations that you represent share a common thread of competence and commitment. I hope that each of you will let your colleagues know how much we value their efforts.

We recognize that the members of these advisory bodies have many competing demands on their time, so their willingness to serve is deeply appreciated by all of us on the subcommittee. And I want to make it a regular practice of this subcommittee to hear from the advisory bodies represented before us today. We need your insights to enable us to carry out our legislative and oversight responsibilities as effectively as possible. With that, I again want to welcome each of you to this morning’s hearings, and I look forward to your testimony.
 

Witnesses

Panel

0 - Mr. John C. Marshall
Member Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP)
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0 - Dr. Kenneth Ford
Chair NASA Advisory Council (NAC) NASA Advisory Council (NAC)
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0 - Mr. Robert M. Hanisee
Chair Audit and Finance Committee NASA Advisory Council (NAC) Audit and Finance Committee NASA Advisory Council (NAC)
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0 - Dr. Raymond S. Colladay
Chair National Academies’ Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board (ASEB) National Academies’ Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board (ASEB)
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0 - Dr. Berrien Moore III
Member National Academies’ Space Studies Board (SSB) National Academies’ Space Studies Board (SSB)
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0 - Mr. J.P. Stevens
Vice President for Space Systems Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) Aerospace Industries Association (AIA)
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