Commerce, Justice, Science, And Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2010

Floor Speech

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Mr. CALVERT. I would point out, Mr. Chairman, those were Texans that were coming up on Little Round Top against Colonel Chamberlain that day, but I did want to point that out.

But I want to appreciate the subcommittee chairman, my good friend, Alan Mollohan, for the hard work him and has staff have done while drafting this bill. It's not an easy job being the committee chairman, but I know you've done a great job to balance these many priorities.

That being said, I just want to echo my comments, my colleague from Texas, John Culberson, in regards to the current level of funding for NASA. And hopefully we can, as you said, we'll work with you to make sure that the $700 million, which obviously would be devastating to NASA if that cut stayed in, to make sure that we get that money back in the 2010 Commerce, Justice spending as enacted.

As you know, as has been pointed out, the challenges that we have with other countries that are making major investments in space--China, India, Japan, Pakistan, Russia. And certainly we don't live in a world today where we're the only ones involved in outer space.

So I support the chairman and what he's trying to do with the Augustine panel to wait to find out what the report is. But I'm optimistic we'll work this out with our fellow NASA supporters in Congress to provide necessary funding and the rules and tools it needs to realize the agency's human space exploration under President Obama.

And so I would again thank the chairman for your hard work on that.

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