Posted: Fri, Jul 13, 2007, 8:15 AM ET (1215 GMT)
The House Appropriations Committee passed on Thursday an appropriations bill that includes $17.6 billion for NASA, nearly $300 million more than originally requested. The full committee approved the Commerce, Justice, and Science appropriations bill during a hearing Thursday in largely the same form that an appropriations subcommittee approved in June. The bill fully funds key exploration projects like Orion and Ares 1, but adds additional money for space science, education, and aeronautics programs. The bill is somewhat different from the Senate's version, which the Senate Appropriations Committee passed in late June; the Senate's version increases NASA's overall budget by $150 million and has different funding levels for specific programs. Both the full House and Senate have yet to act on the spending bills, which will later have to be reconciled in a conference committee.

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