GAO: Where Is That FY 22 NASA Actually Money Going?
Keith’s note: the GAO has done a quick study of the funds NASA got As part of FY22 appropriations that were subsequently assigned, earmarked, set aside, or otherse directed by members of Congress. In other words a fancy name for pork.
The GAO said: “As part of FY22 appropriations, Members of Congress could request to designate a certain amount of federal funding for specific projects in their communities. #NASA #IAC2022 While agencies often have discretion over how they award funds, Congress has directed them to distribute these funds to designated recipients. We’re tracking the funds to help ensure transparency. NASA’s FY22 appropriations included $22.7 million for 21 of these projects. This report looks at when NASA plans to distribute the funds and how it plans to ensure they’re spent properly.”
When the GAO asked NASA “What risks and challenges may the agency face distributing and monitoring these funds?”
The response: “NASA officials identified two challenges related to these funds.
First, officials said some projects directed by these provisions might not clearly align with NASA’s mission. To address this, NASA plans to evaluate each recipient’s proposal for mission relevance and work with the recipient to align the project as closely as possible with NASA’s mission.
Second, NASA officials said they had to reevaluate, reduce, or delay some agency- planned activities in order to make the funding specified in these provisions available for distribution to the designated recipients.”
In other words the money will be spent, NASA will spend more money (staff time) trying to understand what is being spent, but in the end NASA really has no say in where the money goes i.e. where it might be best spent. In other words this is a fancy name for pork.
More: GAO: Tracking The Funds: Specific Fiscal Year 2022 Provisions For NASA
5 responses to “GAO: Where Is That FY 22 NASA Actually Money Going?”
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Only 22.7 million? That is like $2.27 for rest of us compared to much more we spend on other items. While it looks like a few states get lion’s share, but also consider what some states get from bulk of NASA money. A center in Calif was able to get a few vending machines but many lawns are going brown.
In a way, this is a good sign. The money in question is specifically earmarked by Congress for a particular project. That’s the worst sort of Congressional micromanagement. So I’m glad it’s only $22.7 million. Of course there is a whole lot more pork, but it’s arranged by Congress letting NASA select the contractor while setting requirements which assure that there is only one qualified contractor.
I agree that as much as we can fairly grumble about it, it is heartening to hear the pure pork in NASA’s budget was kept to as little as it was. Then, again, the agency’s visibility is so high, that it makes it harder to hide anything. If you really want to tuck things under the proverbial rug, you have to put them where nobody’s looking. Out of curiosity, I pulled up a similar chart for HUD, which runs a budget roughly 3 times bigger than NASA’s. (https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-23-105902). They have $1.5 BILLION in earmarks for 1,014 projects.
Why does Texas and Florida get no pork when they have major NASA facilities?
FY 2022 budget=$24B, “pork”=$22.7M, or < 1/10 of 1% of annual budget.
Truly nefarious hiding so much in what amounts to a rounding-error percentage