NASA, NOAA in House Committee Spotlight Next Week

The House Science, Space and Technology Committee will hear from NASA and NOAA next week about their FY2013 budget requests.

NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden will testify at the NASA hearing on Wednesday, March 7, at 2:00 pm in 2318 Rayburn House Office Building.   NASA’s FY2013 budget request is $17.71 billion, a slight decrease from the $17.77 billion provided by Congress for the current fiscal year, FY2012,  but a sharp contrast with the $18.7 billion that had been requested for FY2012 and projected for FY2013.  Committee chairman Ralph  Hall (R-TX) complained to Presidential science adviser John Holdren at a February 17 hearing that NASA was singled out for “unequal treatment” in the FY2013 budget.  All the agencies under the committee’s jurisdiction would receive increases in FY2013, Hall said, except for NASA.   He and ranking member Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) criticized cuts to the robotic Mars exploration program in particular.

The committee’s energy and environment subcommittee will hold a hearing on NOAA’s budget request a day earlier.  NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco, who will testify at the hearing on NOAA’s behalf, and Mary Kicza, head of the part of NOAA in charge of weather satellites, were each apologetic in budget briefings over the past two weeks about the significant percentage of the NOAA budget allocated to satellite programs.   Twenty NOAA activities are being terminated while funding for satellites increases significantly.