spacetoday.net: House subcommittee boosts NASA budget

Posted: Wed, Jul 11, 2001, 11:37 AM ET (1537 GMT)
NASA

A subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee voted Tuesday to add more than $400 million to NASA's 2002 budget proposal. The VA-HUD subcommittee, whose jurisdiction includes NASA, voted to add $415 million to the fiscal year 2002 budget proposed earlier this year by President Bush. The bulk of that increase, $275 million, will go to the development of a crew return vehicle for the International Space Station, a project cancelled under the original proposal. Additional funding will go into ISS research projects as well as upgrades to the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center. The subcommittee also transferred $283 million in space station research funds out of the space station budget and into separate research accounts to prevent NASA from using the funds to cover ISS overruns. The increase boosts NASA's budget for 2002 to $14.9 billion, an increase of over $600 million from 2001. Tuesday's action is only the first step in the long budget process: the budget must be approved by the full Appropriations Committee and the full House of Representatives, as well as the Senate.