WASHINGTON — The U.S. House passed a NASA authorization bill late Wednesday that provides new direction for the space agency after months of fear over aerospace job losses and program uncertainty.
The compromise bill funds the International Space Station through 2020, schedules another space shuttle mission in 2011 and dedicates $1.3 billion over the next three years to spur commercial development of a low-Earth orbit vehicle for astronauts and cargo.
"From a community standpoint, from a NASA standpoint, it’s very good news," said Bob Mitchell, president of the Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership.
Early estimates pegged the potential job loss in Houston at 7,000 jobs. Economists tell 11 News the budget compromise means the vast majority of those jobs could be spared. Local layoffs, they said, could top off at around 2,000 jobs.
"What it’s stopping is future layoffs toward the end of the year and in the first quarter of next year," said Mitchell. "It’s our desire that the ones that get laid off in the next couple of days we’ll be able to pull those people back in the first quarter of next year. So it’s a tremendous help to this community."
The House passed the bill on a 304-118 vote.
"This important change in direction will not only help us chart a new path in space, but can help us retool for the industries and jobs of the future that will be vital for long term economic growth," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said.
"The men and women who work for NASA and the Johnson Space Center have worked for too long under a cloud of uncertainty as a result of insufficient funds, constantly changing goals and a government that has too often second-guessed the past instead of embracing a clear vision for the future," Congressman Pete Olson, R-Sugar Land, said. His district includes the Johnson Space Center.
"This moment would not have been possible without the strong, bipartisan commitment to NASA that exists in the House," Olson said. "I also applaud the efforts and commitment of Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in getting an authorization bill through Congress.
The bill also brings major changes to NASA’s space agenda: It dismantles the Constellation program under which former President George W. Bush sought to return astronauts to the moon.
The bill relies mainly on the still-nascent commercial space industry to transport astronauts to the space station over the next five years. But in a nod to lawmakers concerned about NASA employees being laid off, it also continues to fund the shuttle program through the end of the current budget year a year from now. That would allow one last space shuttle mission following the mission planned for February.
NASA administrator Charles Bolden Jr. said the bill, which approves more than $58 billion in spending over the next three years, would foster the president’s goals of extending the life of the space station, launching a commercial space transportation industry, fostering new technology and creating thousands of new jobs.
Obama, in pushing for the end of the Constellation program, said it was implausible under current budget restraints and that NASA was siphoning off funds from other programs. He told NASA workers at Cape Canaveral, Fla., in April that he was committed to manned space flight and envisioned sending astronauts to near-Earth asteroids in the near future as a prelude to trips to Mars in the coming decades.
His plan met resistance from the space industry, former astronauts and lawmakers who said it was risky to put too much reliance on commercial flights while NASA develops a next-generation heavy-lift rocket to carry people to those asteroids and Mars.
The compromise bill approved by the Senate last month goes along with most of Obama’s goals while extending the life of the shuttle and directing NASA to move immediately to develop the next heavy launch vehicle.
The chairman of the House Science and Technology Committee, Rep. Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., said he was accepting the Senate version to ensure stability and clarity to the NASA workforce, but he had several concerns, including the cost of extending the shuttle program and the lack of a timetable for a government backup capability to commercial flights.
He said he would continue to press his views as the House determines actual spending levels for the 2011 fiscal year that begins Friday.
Local officials said they were pleased by the bill.
"As part of a generation that was challenged to dream beyond our earthly confines, the action taken by Congress allows NASA to look further than the moon in exploring our complex Universe," said Houston Mayor Annise Parker.
"The passage of the Senate bill means we have found a way to keep the Shuttle flying longer while making a stronger commitment to the NASA infrastructure we have in place," said Sylvia Garcia, Harris County Commissioner. "I want to say thank you to the entire Texas delegation in Washington for their efforts in finding a compromise bill that funds NASA and saves jobs here in Harris County. I am one of many Houstonians who have put in countless hours supporting their work to rewrite the original White House proposed budget."
President Barack Obama will next review the bill. He is expected to sign the legislation.
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