Posted: Sun, Feb 13, 2011, 11:29 AM ET (1629 GMT)
The House Appropriations Committee released late Friday proposed legislation that would cut NASA's budget by over half a billion dollars from the administration's request for 2011. The continuing resolution, which would fund NASA and other federal agencies for the remainder of fiscal year 2011, cuts the administration's proposed $19-billion budget for NASA by $579 million, or $303 million below what the agency got in 2010. NASA's science, exploration, and aeronautics and space technology accounts would each get cut by over $500 million each, while space operations, which covers the shuttle and ISS, would get an increase over the proposed 2011 budget to account for continued shuttle operations through at least the middle of this year. The bill includes a provision removing language from a 2010 appropriations act that prevented NASA from canceling elements of Constellation, and another provision that prohibits NASA from spending any funds on cooperation with China. The legislation will be taken up by the full House in the next week, although key members of the Senate have criticized the legislation, indicating its passage is not assured. NASA and the rest of the government have been running on a series of stopgap spending bills since the fiscal year began last October 1, which continues agency programs at 2010 spending levels.
