Congress Sends FY2010 Supplemental to the President, Constellation Language Included

Congress passed the FY2010 supplemental appropriations bill (H.R. 4899) and sent it to the President yesterday. The final version is the same as that which passed the Senate on May 27 according to documents posted on the House Appropriations Committee’s website. That version includes further direction to NASA to continue the Constellation program in FY2010.

The primary purpose of the bill is to fund war operations. Secretary of Defense Gates has been anxious that Congress complete action on the bill, but passage was slowed by debate over whether it should fund other “emergencies” such as keeping teachers employed. The House added such funding, but the Senate rejected it. House Appropriations Committee chairman David Obey (D-WI) cast a “no” vote saying he believed the bill would serve only as a “recruiting incentive for those who most want to do us ill” and called it a bill that is “a good indication of the tensions and false choices that we face,” funding the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq while neglecting domestic emergencies in education and border security.

As passed, the bill includes the Senate-added language that reinforces direction in the FY2010 Consolidated Appropriations Act that NASA must continue to fund the Constellation program until directed to do otherwise in a subsequent appropriations act. The new language states that funds that were provided by Congress for Constellation in FY2010 and prior years remain available to be spent on Constellation, and Constellation contracts “may not be terminated for convenience” by NASA in FY2010.