Trump signs NASA bill, hands Ted Cruz the pen

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump handed out pens after signing a NASA authorization bill, and a half-dozen lawmakers from Texas and Florida got one.

But only Sen. Ted Cruz got the actual pen he'd used to sign the document. The others just got Oval Office souvenirs.

If it was a peace offering, it came at an important time. Trump badly needs Cruz's support for the Obamacare repeal measure that he hopes will clear the House on Thursday.

Lawmakers from both parties flanked Trump, with Cruz just to his right, with House Science Chairman Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio, and Rep. John Culberson, R-Houston — chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee that controls NASA's funding — also nearby.

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"They love NASA, they love everything it stands for," Trump said, touting the bill as a job bill that will not only support human space exploration and space science, and ongoing medical care for astronauts, but will also generate "a lot of jobs, and these are great jobs."

Trump marveled at the courage it takes to go into space and teased Cruz and Rubio, in particular, as to whether they'd be interested. (Sen. Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat standing nearby, actually has been to space but Trump didn't mention that.)

"You could send Congress to space," quipped Cruz.

"What a great idea," Trump joked.

Relations between the president and his runner-up for the GOP nomination last year have been growing increasingly warm, and Cruz has visited the White House a number of times. But so far he's kept some distance from the GOP health care plan that Trump is pushing. Cruz visited top Trump advisers at the president's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Saturday but was reportedly rebuffed in his press for some conservative tweaks.

He hasn't committed to supporting the measure.

But that's a separate issue from NASA, a top priority for the Texas senator, and he was effusive when Trump invited him to weigh in after he signed the bill.

"This means a great deal for the nation's space exploration, and it means a great deal for the state of Texas, and it continues America's leadership in space," Cruz said.

The bill authorized deep space exploration, with a manned mission to Mars by 2033. (More here.)

Said Culberson, "Just as Americans remember that President Eisenhower was the father of the interstate highway system... future generations will remember that President Donald Trump was the father of the interplanetary highways system."

First, Trump said, he wants to make sure the nation's actual highways get fixed.