[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 105 (Thursday, July 30, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1466]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




DEPARTMENTS OF VETERANS AFFAIRS AND HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, AND 
             INDEPENDENT AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 1999

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                               speech of

                        HON. FORTNEY PETE STARK

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 23, 1998

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 4194) making 
     appropriations for the Departments of Veterans Affairs and 
     Housing and Urban Development, and for sundry independent 
     agencies, boards, commissions, corporations, and offices for 
     the fiscal year ending September 30, 1999, and for other 
     purposes:

  Mr. STARK. Mr. Chairman, today I join with Congressman Tim Roemer and 
Congressman Dave Camp to take a stand for common sense and fiscal 
responsibility when it comes to our budget.
  When Congress first approved the International Space Station in 1984, 
the original price tag was $8 billion. A recent General Accounting 
Office [GAO] report projects the station's total operating costs at 
$95.6 billion. Congress keeps throwing taxpayer dollars into this money 
pit, and we have no tangible benefits to show for it.
  Since its conception in 1984, the station has been redesigned three 
times. The latest model would accomplish only two of its eight original 
scientific missions. Furthermore, many of the remaining goals 
envisioned for the station could be accomplished aboard unmanned 
satellites or aboard the space shuttle for a small fraction of the 
cost.
  Furthermore, the station's rising costs are a threat to other 
promising projects. Already, NASA has shifted $200 million from other 
programs like space shuttle safety and space education grants to pay 
for station cost overruns. This year, NASA has requested the authority 
to shift an additional $375 million. As the station experiences more 
cost overruns, the space station budget will literally consume the NASA 
budget at the expense of proven programs like probes within our solar 
system, the Space Shuttle, earth sciences, and aeronautics.
  Every year we pour billions upon billions of dollars into NASA and 
the International Space Station at the expense of schoolchildren, the 
elderly and the infirm. We cannot afford the price of the space station 
when we have such pressing needs here on planet Earth. If we choose to 
look to the stars, we must first have our feet planted firmly on the 
ground.

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