Texas Insider Report: Washington D.C.Rep. Gene Green (TX-29) Rep. John Culberson (TX-07) Rep. Frank Wolf (VA-10) and Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger (MD-02) along with 58 of their colleagues from 18 states sent a letter to President Obama outlining compromise principles that would preserve NASAs human spaceflight program.
In February the President proposed cancelling NASAs Constellation Program and reducing the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate by $5.7 billion over five years. This proposal jeopardizes our countrys leadership in space and could put our national security at risk.
We hope the Administration is willing to work with us on the compromise" Rep. Green said. It is an important step in ensuring we save our valuable workforce
and keeps America as the leader in space exploration."
The bipartisan group of lawmakers urged the President to preserve the highly trained and skilled workforce connected with the manned spaceflight program through the immediate development of a heavy lift vehicle.
NASA has to date invested approximately $10 billion into the Constellation program and the immediate commencement of its heavy lift vehicle development and continued development of the Orion crew exploration vehicle will ensure the safe deployment of humans beyond low earth orbit in approximately 6 years along while preserving our workforce and defense industrial base.
This will further the Presidents own commitment to launching humans to an asteroid by 2025 and to Mars by the mid-2030s.
This is a good compromise with broad bipartisan support" Rep. Culberson stated. Im hopeful that the Administration will come to the table to preserve
Americas leadership role in space."
I urge the president to embrace these core principles to ensure continued U.S. leadership in space" Rep. Wolf said. The immediate development of a heavy lift rocket and crew capsule to take American astronauts beyond low Earth orbit is something that all supporters of NASA can unite behind."
Thousands of American space workers encompass the complete experience of this generations only human spaceflight program. The technologies discovered and developed from the spaceflight program have furthermore added to our national security. With the loss of this program America will lose an encouragement to high technology education and the pipeline of Americas best and brightest minds to our national security programs.
I am concerned we are in danger of losing the space race to countries like Russia and China if we dont continue our manned space program and make a serious investment in long-term research and development. I believe we can come to some sort of compromise with the Administration to save these jobs cut costs advance Americas presence in space and protect our countrys national security all at the same time" said Rep. Ruppersberger Chairman of the Technical and Tactical Intelligence Subcommittee.
Support for NASAs human spaceflight program has been received from industry experts and dozens of former astronauts including Neil Armstrong Jim Lovell
and Gene Cernan.
The complete list of cosigners:
- Arizona:
Trent Franks (R)
Ed Pastor (D)
- Ohio:
Steven LaTourette (R)
Michael Turner (R)
- Maryland:
Dutch Ruppersberger (D)
- New York:
Maurice Hinchey (D)
- Kansas:
Lynn Jenkins (R)
- Virginia:
Frank Wolf (R)
- Colorado:
Ed Perlmutter (D)
John Salazar (D)
- Louisiana:
Joseph Cao (R)
John Fleming (R)
Charlie Melancon (D)
Steve Scalise (R)
Rodney Alexander (R)
- Alabama:
Mike Rogers (R)
- Georgia:
Sanford Bishop (D)
- Florida:
Suzanne Kosmas (D)
Bill Posey (R)
Alan Grayson (D)
Adam Putnam (R)
Ander Crenshaw (R)
Jeff Miller (R)
Ron Klein (D)
Corrine Brown (D)
Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D)
C.W. Bill Young (R)
Mario Diaz-Balart (R)
Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R)
Tom Rooney (R)
- California:
Laura Richardson (D)
Ken Calvert (R)
John Campbell (R)
Buck McKeon (R)
- Oregon:
David Wu (D)
- Washington:
Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R)
- Pennsylvania:
Robert Brady (D)
- Rhode Island:
Jim Langevin (D)
- Missouri:
Todd Akin (R)
- Texas:
Gene Green (D)
John Culberson (R)
Sheila Jackson-Lee (D)
Henry Cuellar (D)
John Carter (R)
Al Green (D)
Ted Poe (R)
Mac Thornberry (R)
Mike McCaul (R)
Kevin Brady (R)
Ciro Rodriguez (D)
Ruben Hinojosa (D)
Solomon Ortiz (D)
Silvestre Reyes (D)
Joe Barton (R)
Charles Gonzalez (D)
Kay Granger (R)
Pete Sessions (R)
Michael Conoway (R)
Michael Burgess (R)
Louie Gohmert (R)
Kenny Marchant (R)
Lamar Smith (R)
