Here are our tidbits for March 22, 2018: House committee approves two space bills; Soyuz MS-08 crew on track to dock with ISS tomorrow; Cindy Hyde-Smith to become 23rd female Senator in 115th Congress. Be sure to check our website for feature stories and follow us on Twitter (@SpcPlcyOnline) for more news and live tweeting of events.
The House Appropriations Committee released its version of the final FY2018 “omnibus” appropriations bill Wednesday evening. It includes $1.857 billion for procurement, acquisition and construction of NOAA’s satellites. Included is a substantial increase for the second set of two new polar-orbiting weather satellites called the Polar Follow On (PFO) program compared to the Trump Administration’s request. A commercial weather data pilot program also would get more money than requested. NOAA is currently funded by a Continuing Resolution (CR) that expires at midnight Friday. Congressional leaders hope that the omnibus bill will be passed by then.
The House Appropriations Committee released its version of the final FY2018 “omnibus” appropriations bill this evening. It provides $20.7 billion for NASA, an increase of almost $1.1 billion over FY2017. Almost all of NASA’s programs would benefit from the increase, but science, education, and a second mobile platform for the Space Launch System are big winners. NASA is currently operating under a Continuing Resolution (CR) that expires at midnight on Friday. Congressional leaders are hoping the omnibus bill will be passed by then.
Gen. John Hyten, Commander of U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM), declined to endorse President Trump’s call for creation of a Space Force at a Senate hearing today. However, he is happy the President is talking about space as a warfighting domain and proposing increases in DOD’s space budget. Separately, he expressed strong support for a space-based sensor element of ballistic missile defense, but not space-based interceptors.
Results of an independent review of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and whether it will be able to meet its revised schedule could be announced next week according to the head of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. Last year, NASA delayed the launch from October 2018 to March-June 2019, but there are questions as to whether even that schedule can be met. If not, it would mean another cost overrun for the $8.8 billion program, which already is billions over its original estimate.
A bipartisan group of 61 members of the House of Representatives sent a letter to Senate leaders today urging confirmation of Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-Oklahoma) to be NASA’s new Administrator. Bridenstine was originally nominated by President Trump in September 2017, but he is reportedly opposed by all Senate Democrats and at least one and possibly more Republicans. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) has not brought the nomination to the floor presumably because he does not believe there are sufficient votes for it to pass.
The House Science, Space, and Technology Committee will mark up two space-related bills tomorrow (Wednesday) morning. The bills do not have numbers yet. [UPDATE MARCH 22: This markup was postponed to March 22 because the Federal Government in the DC area was closed on March 21 due to snow. Both bills were approved by the committee.]
Here are our tidbits for March 19, 2018: NASA’s Jim Green — it’s our time in the sun; Jeff Bezos visits NRO; an unsung hero – the Deep Space Network. Be sure to check our website for feature stories and follow us on Twitter (@SpcPlcyOnline) for more news and live tweeting of events.
Here is our list of space policy events for the week of March 18-23, 2018 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in session this week.
Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland) vowed today that he will fight to protect scientific integrity at NASA and to fund NASA’s programs, especially science. He is a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee’s Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) subcommittee. He added that he hopes the issue of finding a new NASA Administrator is resolved as soon as possible.