So, the House attempted to compromise with the Senate over the NASA bill. Only, they decided to do it the Republican way - with land minds and a "You'll compromise by accepting what we want." Which means that the House is still pushing the failed Bush program called Constellation.
Join me over the fold
The entirety of the bill can be seen here.
The "tweaked" version of HR5781 results in us continuing to be dependent upon Russia for access to ISS. It does this by
- mandating 24 separate restrictions on the development of commercial crew. (I will grant some aren't bad, but there are some that are really bad - see sections 401-405)
- combining the funding for Commercial Crew & Cargo together, resulting in a major cut to the Commercial Crew program (51% reduction from the President's request, and 33% reduction from Senate proposal). In fact, if you look at the runout, commercial crew could be cut by as much as 80% of the President's proposal.
Further, it attempts to bailout the defense contractor ATK. It does this by:
- changing the heavy lift language of the Senate proposal, so that Ares I can continue to be developed, thus keeping alive the failed Bush program Constellation.
- requiring NASA to give Congress 30 days notice before a Constellation contracts can be terminated or allow to lapse. And, it gives special dispensation to the defense contractor ATK, for its solid rockets.
Why the hell is a Democratic Congress giving this kind of a handout to defense contractors, and red states like Utah?
This is unacceptable.
Finally, its not even clear that the Senate is backing this compromise
Call your Representative. You can get them through the switchboard at 202-224-3121. Tell them to vote no on HR 5781. Encourage them to contact House leadership, and tell them that they have constituents who oppose the bill. If you want to contact Steny Hoyer, you can call him at 202-225-3130, and tell him you oppose it, and if he has to bring a bill to the floor, bring the Senate bill. The Senate Bill isn't perfect, but its way better than HR 5781
