Replacing Old Political Pressures With New Political Pressures at NASA
House Science, Space, and Technology Committee Reviews Bill to Bring Stability to NASA, House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology
“The Space Leadership Preservation Act will improve our space program and improve morale at NASA centers by ensuring that we take the politics out of science and provide NASA with clear direction and guidance that outlasts the political whims of any one presidential administration and the political whims of Congress.”
Committee on Science, Space, and Technology Holds Hearing on Space Leadership Act
“Democrats on the Committee expressed numerous concerns with the bill: that allowing Congress to use a party-based formula to appoint Board Members would inject partisan politics into that Board; having the Board prepare a NASA budget at the same time as NASA would create wasteful duplication, confusion, and instability; and that establishing a fixed, 10-year term for the Administrator would increase instability, not mitigate it, especially if a new President plans to pursue a different policy agenda from his or her predecessor and doesn’t see that Administrator as being part of his or her “team”.”
Well, I hope before they come up with a long term stabilized plan, they come up with one that is workable. Right now NASA doesn’t have a stable supportable plan.
I like Culberson’s idea for a Decadal Survey, although it might be redundant. Every new President puts the previous President’s space policy under review anyways.
Oh, golly, kids, let’s put on a show!
Am I the only one sensing a contradiction in terms between calls for stability and ones calling for entrepreneurship in the space program?
You can mix oil and water, but it requires continual vigorous shaking to keep them mixed.
Not sure I get your point? We’ve been seeing a mix of private efforts, public efforts, and private/public efforts for some time now.
If anything the public efforts will diminish as we observe just how silly SLS looks when compared to certain private efforts. Even the porkers will see it.
I think you have a misplaced trust in the power of apparent silliness to direct money to more rational objectives. For a long, long time, the federal government has existed to shovel money to favored goals and interest groups. And the fact that I support one of the goals — space exploration — doesn’t prevent me from seeing how the system works.
Exploring space via small, clean, tight, economical engineering and programs fails the most basic, first-order principle of government funding: to spread the money around as widely as possible.
“I think you have a misplaced trust in the power of apparent silliness to direct money to more rational objectives.”
Why, I am outraged sir! Outraged!!
I shall complain to the Ministry of Silly Walks immediately!
You can spread it around to as wide of range as possible but you can also not be doing that as efficiently or effectively as possible and that doesn’t create the highest multiplier effects.
I wonder about that multiplier effect: is the effect greater when Sen. Shelby is in charge or when Mr. Musk is in charge?
(Aside from the benefits to Alabama, of course).
Private business does not do funding of startups with that in mind.
I think if this was posted on slashdot, it would be “from the good-luck-with-that dept.”
Stability = pork
Correct. This should be called the Pork Preservation Act.
The bill was introduced by a congressman who is a strong supporter of the planned Europa mission, and even put in language telling NASA to add a.lander. Without a lander and with a healthy ~175 million a year budget, that mission still would not launch before 2022. That’s one and a half presidential terms from now.
It looks like the committee is becoming even more partisan and politicized, as if that is possible.
http://democrats.science.ho…
Well, that’s fairly disfunctional. I’m not sure if a democratic government can function if the minority party is completely ignored in the legislature.
“..if the minority party is completely ignored in the legislature.”
You mean like Democrats did in 2007-2011? Where do I even start?
Payback’s a beotch.
On deficits, folks tend to look at percentages or totals as one favors one side or the other, but neither is particularly useful by itself. Take a moment to view the graph at the bottom of the link below. Tax cuts and the housing boom initially started to close the spending/ revenue gap, but all markets eventually ‘correct’, the recession kills revenues, and stimulus is often required to shift out of recession–which is verboten.
There is a tremendous amount of challenging work ahead other than decades old hardware–and much less likely to be cut. Cancellation was on their faces, BTW. NASARIFWatch2.
On backdoors, poison pill amendments, then follow up with stall/delay vs asteroids, depots, ISRU, adv prop., debris., Europa Mission but no SLS…decisions, decisions….
the http://www.businessinsider….
Tax cuts actually increase revenue. Where have you been?? Kansas??
Well, in point of fact, when the minority party thinks they are going get completely screwed over, the parliamentary system doesn’t work very well either. That happened in England in 1640 and Spain in 1936. I don’t expect anything nearly that serious in the modern US, but this situation doesn’t make me feel comfortable.
I think a 10 year term for NASA Director could work out. The FBI Director serves a 10 year term, up to two, and the President can’t remove him/her without cause – such as misusing department resources as Director Sessions did. Congress can also impeach. The advantage is that the sitting president has less opportunity to influence over a longer termed official than one who purely serves at his pleasure.
Possibly the best personal icon.
You should see the toys that go with it ?
Started before the current Administration. I remind you of the bipartisan deals between Mr. Clinton and Mr. Gingrich that resulted in surpluses.
I would also go out on a limb and say that it was imitated by single-issue voting primarily from the right by partisans who, to put it charitably, eat their young. Exacerbated by disgusting gerrymandering in states like Texas (see Tom DeLay) resulting in “safe” seats, seats that are more like a festering tumor than anything else.
And finally the notion that those holding disagreeable opinions are actually still Americans and have legitimate view points is just gone.
Paraphrasing Mr. O’Connell on January 20, 2008: let’s do everything we can to make him a one term President.
I’m disgusted by the shenanigans and by the false equivalence pervading political discourse as well as political reporting.
Well of course it is the same strategy they have been pursuing since Reagan. SLASH government revenues in the near term while at the same time increase government spending for Defense and pursue military adventurism overseas.. This causes instant deficits which you immediately blame on the “tax and spend” democrats as they call for tax increase to plug the deficit hole. Then start cutting social safety net and infrastructure spending.
Once the agencies efficiency starts falling from under funding you start calling for the elimination of the dept of educ, EPA, et cetera and say “see government just doesn’t work”
And move to privatize it. Like the prison systems as we watch judge after judge getting busted for selling prisons new prisoners because they need so many full beds to make a profit.