[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 42 (Thursday, April 10, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E639]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      INTRODUCTION OF LEGISLATION

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. DANA ROHRABACHER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 10, 1997

  Mr. ROHRABACHER. Mr. Speaker, today I am proud to introduce H.R. 
1275, the Civilian Space Authorization Act. This bill authorizes 
appropriations in fiscal years 1998 and 1999 for, and provides policy 
direction to, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the 
Office of Commercial Space Transportation in the Federal Aviation 
Administration, and the Office of Space Commerce in the Department of 
Commerce.
  This is an aggressive but responsible bill. Based on the Committee on 
Science's Views and Estimates, which calls for strengthening our 
Nation's research and development investment while pursuing the 
bipartisan goal of balancing the budget, this bill provides a slight 
increase in funding for NASA above their fiscal year 1997 level, while 
holding the other two agencies essentially constant.
  This bill reflects priorities set by the Science Committee and its 
Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee over several years, under both 
parties' leadership. We strongly support human spaceflight, space 
science, and the aeronautics and space technology efforts which will 
keep American industry No. 1, and open the frontier of space to 
commercial enterprise.
  With a few exceptions, we have approved the President's budget 
request for NASA. It is a greatly improved budget submission than the 
one he made in fiscal year 1997, especially with regard to the 
outyears. In two areas, we have added the funds necessary to achieve 
important goals. In others, we have made small reductions or 
limitations on the use of funds.
  After preserving the safety of the Space Shuttle Flight Program, NASA 
Administrator Goldin has repeatedly stated to the Congress and 
audiences all over the country that his most important goal is 
dramatically reducing the cost of transporting people and cargo into 
space. NASA has made an excellent start in that direction with the X-33 
program and its smaller sibling, the X-34. We are fully funding those 
programs, and indeed specifically funding the X-33 amount. 
Unfortunately, the NASA budget only has funds to develop and flight-
test one concept for the X-33. NASA has indicated, both in testimony 
and direct conversations with me and staff that they wish to pursue 
additional X-vehicles in the future to continue pushing down the cost 
of space transportation. They also wish they could have funded more 
than one X-33 concept. This bill uses most of our increase over the 
President's request to fully fund a different, competitively chosen X-
vehicle concept using the most advanced technologies possible. This 
will provide technical redundancy to the X-33, enable downstream 
competition in the reusable launch vehicle industry, and accelerate the 
drive toward cheap access to space.
  Another important goal of the subcommittee is preserving steady 
funding for Space Science. We are providing some small increases to the 
Space Science accounts in this bill, particularly for analysis of the 
data coming back from science missions, and also for important 
initiatives like asteroid detection and NASA participation in the Air 
Force's Clementine II asteroid intercept mission.
  Perhaps the most well known program in this bill is the International 
Space Station program, which we are fully funding at the President's 
request, so it will enable important science and help open new 
frontiers to American free enterprise. Of course, the station program 
is currently facing the challenge of lack of funding from the Russian 
Government for their share of the hardware. The Subcommittee on Space 
and Aeronautics held an excellent hearing on April 9 which discussed 
both the problems with the Russian partnership and the great importance 
of completing the space station on schedule for scientific and 
commercial reasons. I am hopeful that the White House will work with us 
over the next week so that when this bill is marked up in the full 
Science Committee on April 16, we can address the problems with Russia 
in this legislation.
  Now, this bill doesn't just fund NASA. As commercial space activities 
continue to grow, creating high wage, high technology jobs here in 
America using private capital, it is vital that the Government provide 
a stable and streamlined regulatory and positive business environment 
for this emerging industry. That's why President Reagan created the 
Office of Commercial Space Transportation and the Office of Space 
Commerce. This bill funds and directs the Office of Commercial Space 
Transportation, now part of the Federal Aviation Administration, to 
license commercial space transportation vehicles and spaceports. We 
also fully fund and permanently establish, the Office of Space 
Commerce, which promotes the growth of current, and the emergence of 
new, commercial space activities.
  As I said earlier, this bill provides significant policy direction as 
well as authorizing appropriations. That direction boils down to two 
important themes: ensuring NASA's accountability in spending nearly $14 
billion each year in taxpayer funds, and improving the cost 
effectiveness of all government civil space spending.
  Regarding accountability, this bill gives NASA four major directives. 
First, in the International Space Station program, the Congress should 
be better informed as to the thinking behind, and the commercial impact 
of, the international hardware barter agreements NASA is negotiating 
with various foreign entities. Second, we want to make sure that as 
NASA consolidates its nonshuttle operational contracts and moves those 
activities more into the private sector, that NASA fully consider and 
inform the Congress regarding the issues of competition and fixed-price 
versus cost-plus-fee contracting. Third, we direct NASA to pursue 
independent cost analyses of its programs which include all costs to 
the taxpayer. And finally, we direct NASA to provide the Congress with 
a detailed report on the status of the Earth Observing System's Data 
Information System.
  Of course, all of us on the committee and in this body want to ensure 
that our constituents' tax dollars are spent as effectively as 
possible, particularly as we drive toward a balanced budget in 2002. So 
for civil space, like all other so-called discretionary programs, the 
Congress and administration must work hard to continually improve and 
reform the cost effectiveness of all Federal space activities. To that 
end, this bill does several things to improve both the efficiency and 
effectiveness of the taxpayers' investment. We include an initiative to 
improve NASA's procurement of new technology. We direct NASA to 
actively pursue the greatest possible commercial participation and use 
of the International Space Station program. We direct NASA to purchase 
space science data from commercial providers. We fund a continuing 
program at the Stennis Space Center to purchase commercial remote 
sensing data to more cheaply meet the needs of the Mission to Planet 
Earth program. We strongly state our commitment to move from 
government-operated space launch vehicles to the purchase of 
commercially provided launch services, including the possible option of 
a privatized Shuttle fleet. And we place in statute a very important 
provision of the President's National Space Policy mandating the 
purchase of, and preventing NASA competition with, commercially 
available space goods and services.
  So, Mr. Speaker, this is quite a bill. We fund vital Federal space 
activities in three agencies, and set a positive policy direction for 
the future of American enterprise, as well as Government projects, in 
space. I look forward to speaking on the floor for its adoption as soon 
as possible after the Committee on Science reports it to the full 
House.