Rep. Tim Roemer, D-Ind., will take another run at shutting down the international space station after the August congressional recess.
This time he is teaming up with a conservative budget hawk, Rep. Mark Sanford, R-S.C., in the hope of using the pressures of the budget caps and proposed cuts in the fiscal year 2000 VA-HUD spending bill to accomplish his long-sought goal. The VA-HUD bill includes funding for NASA.
As reported out of the House Appropriations Committee, the $68.6 billion VA-HUD bill is $1.2 billion below the FY99 non-emergency spending level. And while the full committee added back funds the VA-HUD Appropriations Subcommittee had cut from veterans health care and NASA-providing $20 billion and $12.7 billion for fiscal 2000, respectively-the bill still reduces NASA funds by $1 billion from fiscal 99, although it would increase veterans medical care by $1.7 billion.
Roemer and Sanford will try to harness the lobbying muscle of veterans' groups and win over supporters of the aerospace industry with an amendment that would redirect $1 billion from the space station primarily to veterans and other NASA accounts. They would cut a total of $2 billion from the space station program.
A Sanford aide said the two wanted "to change the dynamics" of the annual space station debate "to make it less about our policy on the space station and more about overall budget priorities," particularly when Congress is struggling to adhere to strict spending limits.
In recent years, Roemer's space station amendments would have applied the budget savings from defunding the program to debt reduction. But this year's version would leave $300 million of the $2.3 billion proposed for the space station to close out the program, cut almost $1 billion entirely, and redirect the remaining $1 billion as follows: $350 million to veterans medical care; $50 million for revitalization of severely distressed public housing; and $675 million to NASA's science, aeronautics and technology account.
A Roemer aide assessed the amendment's chances as "better than they've been in a long time," given that the public is simultaneously hearing about the need for budget cuts and reading about projections of large budget surpluses.
Another factor both Roemer's and Sanford's offices cited in their favor is the recent instability of the Russian government, which aides said could make even space station supporters question the wisdom of pouring so much money into the joint venture with Russia at this time.