NASA Wins Accolades from House Appropriators Worried About Space Race With China

House Republican leadership may be proposing dramatic funding cuts for agencies like NASA, but the Republicans — and Democrats — on NASA’s appropriations subcommittee seem much more concerned about staying ahead of China. At a hearing on NASA’s FY2024 budget request, the praise for NASA and the agency’s Administrator, Bill Nelson, could not have been more glowing. What it all means for how much money NASA ultimately gets will be interesting to watch.

Rep. Hal Rogers (R-KY), the newly appointed chair of the Commerce-Justice-Science subcommittee, opened his hearing on NASA’s request for $27.2 billion in FY2024 by pointing out that the agency not only received $25.4 billion in regular appropriations for FY2023, but another $367 million in emergency funding for construction and environmental compliance projects.

His comments initially suggested he might be taking a stern look at the request, a 7 percent increase, but soon left no doubt that he is a space enthusiast, retelling the story of how as a young man at the time of Sputnik’s launch he was inspired to pursue a career in space before ultimately concluding his skills were more suited to law.

He sees NASA as continuing to be an inspiration to young people, including those at Morehead State University in his district.

Rogers may be new as chair of CJS, but he is the Dean of the House — the longest serving member — with 40 years experience on the appropriations committee. He chaired the full committee from 2011-2016. Elected to Congress in 1981, he and Nelson served in the House together for 10 years when Nelson was a Democratic Congressman from Florida.

He is not the only NASA enthusiast on the panel, especially with regard to the recently-announced Artemis II crew. Rep. Jake Ellzey (R-TX) is a former Navy aviator who flew F-18s with Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman. Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD) said Wiseman is his neighbor and Wiseman’s parents are “good friends of ours.” Rep. Mike Garcia (R-CA), whose district includes NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center, praised the selection of Hornet pilots (Wiseman and Glover) as well as  “our Canadian F-18 friend” (Hansen).

Other subcommittee members, including Ranking Member Matt Cartwright (D-PA) who chaired the subcommittee in the last Congress, heaped praise on Nelson and the agency on many fronts. The undisputable message was that they strongly support NASA on a bipartisan basis not only because of what it is doing today, but because it is key to maintaining U.S. leadership over China. Almost every member brought up China and the importance of funding NASA to stay ahead.

Rogers addressed it directly, asking Nelson if he is confident the FY2024 budget request will allow the United States “to stay ahead of international rivals, such as China, and maintain a technological edge to continue as a leader in lunar exploration.” Nelson replied “yes, sir.” Rogers then asked “are we in a space race with China” similar to the race with the Soviet Union during the Apollo era?

“Not the same as Apollo, but we’re in a space race with China. China has in the last 10 years established a very successful human space program. … They are only the second nation to successfully land a rover on the surface of Mars. They have successfully put together three different components into a Chinese space station in low Earth orbit. And they have publicly declared they are going with taikonauts to the Moon. So is that a space race? I believe it is.” — Bill Nelson

Ellzey, who is in his second term in Congress, made an impassioned speech about what he sees as NASA’s fundamental mission — inspiration and unification — and staying ahead of China.

“I had a whole bunch of questions that I had for you and they’re out the window. As I think about what I’m listening to today, what NASA’s mission is, at the end of the day it’s inspiration and unification. …

“We can talk about cuts and we can talk about inflation. None of that at the end of day matters. … All of those things are going to happen. But what I know is what’s going to happen is in November of 2024 you’re going to launch on another deep space mission around the Moon and I can’t wait to watch it. We belong in deep space. … Reid and Victor, and Christina and Jeremy, their names are going to be indelibly linked to the next generation of space exploration. And I’m so proud to have flown with Reid Wiseman and gone to his school with his brother, and I think it’s a fantastic time….

“From time to time we forget the great things that we can do and we get mired in the details of things that we don’t think we can do. The greatness of the United States is we can. So when I hear people back at home talking about whatever’s going on the country, and they’re scared, and they’re afraid of China. I’m not afraid of China. Somebody said the other day at another hearing if they play by the rules we can beat them. No, we beat them because we’re better than they are….  — Rep. Jake Ellzey (R-TX)

He urged Nelson to make sure the Artemis II launch, scheduled for November 2024, does not take place on election day, November 5. He wants it to be a week later when everyone on the panel will still be in Congress. And he wants to be at the launch and on the carrier when the crew returns home.

The only subcommittee member who pressed Nelson on where to cut spending was Rep. Ben Cline (R-VA). Even he said it is “critical” that NASA investments remain on track to counter China, but he is determined that NASA spend every dollar efficiently and effectively.

Competition with China and the human spaceflight program dominated the hearing with only brief discussions about a few other NASA activities like nuclear propulsion and planetary science.

Rogers ended the hearing with kudos both to NASA and Nelson.

“There’s a lot of reasons why NASA enjoys almost unanimous support here on the Hill and bipartisan support, nonpartisan support. The nation is lucky to have you… You are a dedicated public servant of longstanding as well as a personal friend, I guess, of almost everybody in the House and the Senate. Thank you for your service. Thank you for your enthusiasm for this exciting program that we all share and admire.”  — Rep. Hal Rogers

In any other year, such unbridled support from House appropriators and their Senate counterparts the day before would almost ensure a robust budget outcome.

But how all this will square with efforts by the House Republican leadership to dramatically cut government spending is a saga yet to play out.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) just introduced legislation that calls for cutting government spending back to FY2022 levels to reduce the federal debt. He plans for the House to vote on it next week. Though not specified in the bill, the expectation is that defense spending and possibly veterans health care spending will be exempted.

That would put an additional burden on non-defense spending to get the total down to FY2022 levels. The White House calculates it would result in a 22 percent cut to non-defense spending, the category that includes NASA.

Cartwright, the top Democrat on the panel, asked Nelson about the impacts of a 22 percent reduction. Nelson replied that either such a cut or a Continuing Resolution that keeps NASA at its FY2023 level would “cause a slowdown of programs at NASA across the board.”

“And how smart is that,” Cartwright asked, “given the fact that we do have to compete with the Chinese, whether it’s a space race or whatever you want to call it, we still have to compete with the Chinese. They’re going to the Moon aren’t they?”

“Any kind of slowdown or cancellation is going to be inimical, this country boy believes, to the interest of our country,” Nelson responded.

Last month Nelson sent a  letter to Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), the top Democrat on the full committee, to say the cuts would have “devastating” consequences for NASA. DeLauro had asked every agency to send her letters outlining the impact of the Republican-proposed cuts.

It’s great for NASA to have such solid support from the House and Senate appropriators who have to make the hard decisions about who gets what, but that’s no guarantee.

Somehow agreement will have to be reached on government spending or there will be one Continuing Resolution after another, a full-year Continuing Resolution, or a government shutdown. None of those are attractive options especially for a research and development agency like NASA.