Congress Daily (subscription required) reports that the Senate is not likely to complete its consideration of the FY2010 Commerce-Justice-Science appropriations bill (H.R. 2847) today. The controversial issues that slowed action are not related to the space program. The publication quotes Senator Mikulski as saying that action probably will not be completed until next week.

The full text of today’s debate will be available in the Congressional Record that will be published tomorrow, but Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) issued a press release with the text of his floor statement. He called on President Obama to provide $3 billion more for NASA in FY2010 from stimulus funding, a position taken by most of the Texas congressional delegation in a letter to the President earlier this week. He also expressed support for commercial space companies.

During Senate debate on the FY2010 Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) appropriations bill (H.R. 2847) yesterday (October 7), Senator Mikulski (D-MD), who chairs the CJS subcommittee, added a personal element to the discussion. From her wheelchair, she extolled the benefits of the “space boot” she is wearing to protect a fractured ankle. She cited it as an example of technologies that have come from the space program.

Overall, the portion of the floor debate that concerned NASA (see the Congressional Record) was strongly supportive of NASA’s existing Constellation program and fully funding the President’s FY2010 request for it. By contrast, the House cut the funding by about $600 million in its version of the CJS bill pending the Augustine committee report. The Senate will continue debate on the bill today.

The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) teamed with The Space Show to host a panel discussion on the Augustine committee report. A podcast of the discussion is available at: http://www.thespaceshow.com/detail.asp?q=1236.

Panelists were former astronaut Frank Culbertson, currently Senior Vice President of Orbital Sciences Corp; Elliott Pulham, CEO of the Space Foundation; Scott “Doc” Horowitz, former astronaut and former NASA Associate Administrator for Exploration Systems; John Klineberg, former Director of NASA/Goddard, former President of Space Systems/Loral and former CEO of Swales Aerospace; Jim Muncy, President of PoliSpace and a long-time proponent of entrepreneurial space; and Bob Dickman, Executive Director of AIAA.

The Senate is scheduled to resume consideration of the FY2010 Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) appropriations bill today (Wednesday) at approximately 10:30 am under a unanimous-consent agreement that was reached yesterday. The bill was brought to the floor on Monday, but only two opening statements were made–by Senator Shelby (R-AL), ranking member of the CJS subcommittee, and Senator Conrad (D-ND), who presented the Budget Committee’s scoring of the bill.

As part of his remarks (available in the Congressional Record), Senator Shelby once again defended the Constellation program as he did during a hearing on NASA’s budget earlier this year. The Senator, addressing the President of the Senate, said “Mr. President, I am baffled by NASA’s path forward on the Constellation program.” Criticizing the Augustine committee, he said that some of its findings “would guarantee that other nations, such as Russia, China and India will be waving to us as they fly by the space station on their way to the moon and other planets.” He wants NASA to continue with the Constellation program — “the program that has the greatest likelihood of success.” The text of his floor speech is also available on the Senator’s website.

Most members of the Texas congressional delegation sent a letter to President Obama urging him to spend up to $3 billion more in stimulus funding on NASA for FY2010. Congress already allocated $1 billion for NASA when it passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (“the stimulus bill”) earlier this year.

In the letter, Senators Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn along with 26 of the 32 House members who represent Texas noted that only 15% of the $787 billion in stimulus funds had been spent as of last month. Citing the Augustine committee’s summary report, the congressional delegation argued that “a robust space program that enables us to explore new frontiers is critical to maintain America’s proud tradition of exploration and its leadership in space.” They also highlighted the importance of the NASA civil servant and contractor workforce “in today’s global competitive economic environment.”

As reported in the Houston Chronicle, “The two senators and 19 Republican House members who signed the letter voted against the economic stimulus in February; the seven Democrats who signed the letter voted for it.”