Short Changing the Future: How the Congress Evicerated Space Exploration Funding

The US Congress has passed an Omnibus Appropriations bill funding most domestic programs for the rest of the current fiscal year, but at the last fiscal year's levels. In so doing, the Congress threatens to severely damage the US space effort, especially the program to return astronauts to the Moon. It is an example of bi-partisan irresponsibility disguised as fiscal austerity.

The problem started in the wake of the mid term elections, when the Democrats took over control of Congress. The Republican leadership of the previous Congress decided to be too clever by half by punting the appropriation bills that had not yet been passed to the current, Democratic controlled Congress. The idea was to occupy the Democrats in finishing up those bills, leaving them less time to deal with their own priorities.

Unfortunately, the Democratic leadership of current Congress refused to play. They decided to fund the parts of the government for which appropriations bills had not been passed, about four hundred sixty three and a half billion dollars in all, in a catch all Omnibus Appropriations bill that would hold spending at last year's levels. No amendments were allowed that might slow down the passage of the bill.

Under the bill, NASA will receive about a half billion dollar less than was expected, most of which is coming out of the exploration systems account. Since no amendments were allowed, members of Congress who might support adjusting this level upwards had to either swallow the cuts or to vote against the entire bill, risking a government shut down.

This means that it is virtually certain that the development of the Orion space craft and the Ares launch system will be delayed and the overall program stretched out. That means that the "gap" between the end of the shuttle program and the start of Orion, already four years long, will increase. A return to the Moon by the end of the next decade is also placed in jeopardy. The overall cost of the return to the Moon program will therefore increase.