spacetoday.net: House appropriators retain JWST cut

Posted: Thu, Jul 14, 2011, 8:32 AM ET (1232 GMT)
James Webb Space Telescope (NASA)

The full House Appropriations Committee approved a 2012 spending bill Wednesday that would provide no funding for NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. Members offered an amendment to the Commerce, Justice, and Science appropriations bill that would transfer $200 million from NASA's Cross-Agency Support budget to JWST, but the amendment was rejected on a voice vote. Members also rejected an amendment to increase funding for NASA's commercial crew development program from $312 million to $400 million. The committee's proposal to effectively kill JWST is the highest profile cut in its proposed budget for NASA, which reduces the agency's overall budget from the $18.7 billion proposed by the administration to $16.8 billion. Advocates of JWST have promised to seek to restore funding for the space telescope, which they say holds tremendous scientific promise but has suffered from cost overruns and schedule delays, when the spending bill goes to the full House for a vote. The Senate has yet to begin work on its 2012 appropriations legislation.