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Congress

Bipartisan Congressional Letter Of Support For Bridenstine

By Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
March 20, 2018
Filed under
Bipartisan Congressional Letter Of Support For Bridenstine

Letter From House Members to Senate Leadership Regarding NASA Administrator Nominee Bridenstine
Keith’s note: This letter was circulated by Rep. Babin and was signed by 61 members of the House – 12 of whom are Democrats. This would certainly seem to undermine Sen. Nelson’s contention that Jim Bridenstine would be too political.
“We are keenly aware of how valuable NASA is, not only to our nation, but also the entire world. It would be a travesty to America’s space program for it to remain leaderless at this critical time when America’s space industry is making rapid advances that will set the course of space leadership for decades to come. This is why it is vitally important that the Senate take up and approve Jim Bridenstine’s nomination. Jim Bridenstine has spent the bulk of his adult life in service to his country. His background is in naval aviation, flying the E2- C Hawkeye in Afghanistan and Iraq, and later the F-18 while also serving as an instructor at the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center. He has been responsible for coordinating command and control of the battlefield from an airborne platform, with thousands of lives and billions of dollars affected by his decisions. In this service to his nation he has demonstrated both the technical capacity and leadership experience necessary to lead NASA.”

NASA Watch founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.

12 responses to “Bipartisan Congressional Letter Of Support For Bridenstine”

  1. Michael Spencer says:
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    Well, let’s see. The current Administration was sworn in on January 20, 2017; today is March 20, 2018.

    These guys are worked up about 424 days? What the heck is the rush?

    • Vladislaw says:
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      I know right! There was no rush under President Obama .. https://uploads.disquscdn.c

      • Eric says:
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        The difference is this time the Republicans are blocking their own president’s picks. Last time I checked they still have 51 senators.

        • Vladislaw says:
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          The last article I read trump had only nominated 63 out of the 540 or so appointments.. it appears people are no longer returning trumps phone calls .. no one wants to jump into the middle of an investigation ..

          • Eric says:
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            There are 1212 positions that require senate confirmation. Most are nowhere near the White House so they would have nothing to do with any investigations. Some of the positions have no one appointed because Trump doesn’t want anyone in them. That’s actually not unusual. What is unusual is the number he doesn’t want filled. The appointments are tracked here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wi

            This page lists 206 that have been confirmed by the Senate and many more who are awaiting confirmation.

  2. Bob Mahoney says:
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    I suppose this belongs on an earlier thread, but has anyone given consideration to breaking NASA up completely into its separate field centers? How much did ‘headquarters’ influence NACA’s separate laboratories? Is it time to change things up in such a way?

    • Jakub Vlášek says:
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      The Aldridge Commission recommended turning the centers into FFRDCs back in 2004.

      • JadedObs says:
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        But not to gut the agency – they were seeking ways to make the Centers more flexible and innovative; JPL (an FFRDC) can expand or contract with its level of business activity; other centers are actually prohibited from laying people off if a program gets cancelled or re-scoped.

    • Al Jackson says:
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      Hi Bob, what’s your email now? Mine is still the same. Al Jackson

  3. JadedObs says:
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    To which the Senate no doubt responds: “Isn’t that cute, the Other chamber has an opinion on something.”

  4. RocketScientist327 says:
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    This is a joint failure in my opinion. Both sides in the US Senate are acting irresponsibly. There is no reason for this delay really. Between the two senators from Florida who are stonewalling this for their own, selfish reasons. Nelson is protecting SLS and Rubio is still hurt over the debates.

    The one thing that this proves is that spaceflight in America moves on. The free market system is superior. Sure am looking forward to BE-4 and Raptor next year. Falcon Heavy, New Glenn, and the BFR.

    We need to embrace the final frontier and the infinite economy, not regulate it for personal, selfish reasons.

  5. Vladislaw says:
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    Great tweet from Merrick Garland about not getting a vote..