Senator Inouye Introduces Omnibus Appropriations Bill

As expected, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-HI) today introduced a FY2011 omnibus appropriations bill that he hopes will replace the year-long Continuing Resolution (CR) passed by the House last week. It contains the Senate versions of all 12 regular appropriations bills. The National Journal (subscription required) cites Sen. Inouye as saying that he believes he has the votes needed to get it passed by the Senate. It then would have to be passed by the House, however, as the clock ticks down to expiration of the current CR. That law expires on Saturday, December 18. If no new legislation is passed by then, the government would have to shut down.

The Senate omnibus bill contains $1.108 trillion in federal spending for FY2011, compared to $1.089 trillion in the House bill. The Senate bill contains congressionally directed spending items — earmarks — while the House bill does not.

The total amount for NASA is the same in both bills, $18.9 billion, and the Senate version generally follows the House bill. A committee summary of the Commerce-Justice-Science portion of the bill that includes NASA says that it provides $825 million for an additional space shuttle flight, however that language does not seem to be in the bill itself. Also, the committee summary says that $1.2 billion is provided for the “Orion multipurpose crew vehicle” while the bill language does not specify Orion. Both the House and Senate bills specify that the new Heavy Lift Launch Vehicle must have an initial lift capability of 130 tons.