spacetoday.net: House passes NASA authorization bill

Posted: Thu, Jun 19, 2008, 8:24 AM ET (1224 GMT)
US Capitol

The House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a NASA authorization bill on Wednesday that would require NASA to add an additional shuttle mission to the manifest. The House passed the NASA Authorization Act of 2008 on a 409-15 vote late Wednesday after debating the bill late last week. The bill authorizes $20.2 billion for NASA in 2008, significantly above the $17.6 billion requested by the administration; however, appropriations bills currently being considered by both the House and Senate would fund NASA well below that authorized figure, at about $17.8 billion. A provision in the authorization bill would require NASA to fly two "contingency" shuttle missions to the ISS currently on the manifest as well as add a mission that would carry the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer experiment to the station. That particular provision generated strong opposition from the administration in a statement last week because of the potential impact that additional mission would have on the retirement of the shuttle fleet and development of Constellation. The legislation will now be taken up by the Senate.