NASA’s Fiscal Year 2010 Budget Request
Opening Statement By Chairman Bart Gordon
Good afternoon, and welcome Mr. Scolese. Before I go any further, I’d just like to take a moment to express my appreciation for your service over these past several months. You were handed a very challenging job when you were asked to serve as Acting Administrator of NASA, and by all accounts you have handled your responsibilities with distinction. That’s clearly a reflection on your competence and skill. But it’s also an indic ion of the high caliber of the civil service employees we have at NASA, of which you are one.
We’ve seen that competence on display over the past few days as a crew of seven NASA astronauts has worked to service the Hubble Space Telescope to extend its ability to conduct productive science. At the same time, three crew members are orbiting overhead in the International Space Station, with their own set of complex tasks to carry out. We’re seeing multiple examples of the value of NASA scientific research that has helped us better understand both climate change here on Earth and events in the far reaches of the universe. And we’ve seen NASA-funded aeronautics R&D transform the nation’s commercial and military aviation capabilities over the past five decades.
Yet it’s become clear in recent years that the resources given to NASA haven’t kept pace with the tasks that the nation has asked it to carry out. That’s why this Committee and ultimately Congress as a whole passed the NASA Authorization Act of 2008, which authorized a significant increase in funding for NASA.
I’m very pleased that the Obama Administration has responded to that congressional consensus by supporting augmented funding for NASA in both the Recovery Act and in the FY 2010 NASA budget request. It’s a welcome recognition that NASA is relevant to addressing the nation’s societal needs and is an important contributor to our scientific and technical competitiveness. That’s good news.
However, more needs to be done if the positive steps taken by this Administration are going to be sustained. For example, it is clear that the flat-funding proposed for NASA after FY 2010 would make it very difficult to make progress on a number of important programs, including the exploration initiative that was endorsed by Congress in the last two NASA Authorization Acts. While I hope and expect that the Human Space Flight Review that is going to be conducted under the very able leadership of Norm Augustine will help clarify what is needed to keep that important initiative on track, I think the basic situation is already clear. Either the nation is going to have to give NASA enough funding to meet the dual challenges of carrying out its current and planned missions and of revitalizing the agency’s human and physical capital…Or, the nation is going to have to agree on what it wants NASA to cut.
As the overwhelming bipartisan support for the NASA Authorization Act of 2008 demonstrated, Congress believes that NASA is an important contributor to America’s future wellbeing, and worthy of our increased investment in it. At the same time, I don’t view investing in NASA as a blank check—this Committee is going to be vigilant in seeking to ensure that NASA is a good steward of taxpayer dollars. Indeed, the first hearing of Chairwoman Giffords’ Space and Aeronautics subcommittee earlier this year was on NASA’s cost management practices, and I have no doubt the Committee will continue our oversight of those issues in the months ahead.
We are going to be reauthorizing NASA this year, and we need to have a good understanding of the issues and opportunities facing the agency in the wake of the President’s budget request. Today’s hearing is the first step in that process, and I again want to welcome Acting Administrator Scolese’s participation. We look forward to your testimony.
Witnesses
Panel
0 - Mr. Christopher Scolese
Acting Administrator NASA NASA
Download the Witness Testimony