Henry Vanderbilt is reporting that HR 5781 will not be put on the calendar this session:
HR.5781 is not on the House calendar for this week. Our sources tell us that at least in part due to a significant number of constituent calls late last week, the House Leadership does not (currently) intend to put HR.5781 on the calendar this session (at least not in its current form.) We hear that negotiations with Senate Authorizers continue, with the outcome (if any) now more likely to be based on the Senate bill. So, the battle is going well – to everyone who made a contact so far, thanks! But the battle over this NASA Authorization continues. We need to keep the pressure on, with the general message being, NASA Exploration R&D (including Commercial Crew and Cargo) is a good thing to fund, while NASA in-house booster developments (see numbers in the Generic reason below) are very likely to be massive wastes of scarce funds. Those of you who’ve already contacted your Representative might want to contact your Senators now too. Those of you who haven’t yet made a contact, why not? More when we know more.
The worst has been avoided, but the outcome could still be bad. Stay tuned.
Henry Vanderbilt says it’s time to call your Congressperson again. This is fairly urgent.
[Update a while later]
I would add that other partisan spin for the Republicans is that the House bill would ensure our continued dependency on the Russians for ISS support for the indefinite future, and force us to continue to waive the requirements of the Iran/North-Korea/Syria Non-Proliferation Act (INKSNA), letting them evade their responsibilities to follow its dictates.
[Friday update]
Folks, you can say you want to support the Senate bill if you want (per comments) but the key thing is to oppose the House bill.
I know that it’s old news, but this is the first time I actually sat down and listened to this hearing excerpt. Alan Grayson is an ass and a jerk, but I can understand his frustration with Bolden, who doesn’t realize that the Augustine panel made no recommendations, who doesn’t know what the word “commercial” means, didn’t know whether or not Flexible Path included Constellation (it didn’t necessarily), isn’t able to articulate what the plans are, and doesn’t generally seem to know what’s going on at all.
…for NASA reform. Contact your representative while they’re in the district. Next week, when they come back, there will be another attempt to pass the ruinous NASA authorization bill in the House.
I don’t think that just renaming the agency will work. And can we please stop repeating the myth about Fisher pens and pencils? There are good reasons not to use a pencil in a space vehicle.