[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 118 (Monday, September 13, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1849]
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, 2000

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                               speech of

                             HON. JIM KOLBE

                               of arizona

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 9, 1999

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 2684) 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, 2000, and for other 
     purposes:

  Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Chairman, I rise to give voice to the concerns of 
scientists and other citizens of southern Arizona who have grave 
misgivings about the funding decisions in this bill. As an appropriator 
and a subcommittee Chair myself, I understand and sympathize with the 
gentleman from New York on the difficulty of writing a bill under the 
caps by which we are currently governed.
  However, as the elected representative of some of this country's pre-
eminent scientists, I must speak on their behalf and relate to you the 
impact these funding cuts for basic research could have.
  Many of you followed the success a year ago when the Mars Pathfinder 
mission landed on the Martian surface on the 4th of July. The camera 
that provided the stunning images of that new world was built at the 
University of Arizona and the world was watching. in that project we 
proved we could do significant science for a fraction of the cost and 
it was the front-page story around the world.
  This project was a dramatic example of the core, basic research 
accomplished by our nation's universities and grant based research. 
Many of these programs are funded under NASA's Science, Aeronautics and 
Technology Account. In this bill, that account is funded at $628 
million, more than half a billion dollars below last year's budget.
  Competitively awarded space science grants in every state in the 
nation will be drastically cut, with the biggest cuts coming in 
California, Maryland, Arizona, Colorado, Texas, Alabama and 
Pennsylvania.
  In addition to cuts to space science programs, the subcommittee's 
decision to cut $150 million from the Earth Observing System (EOS) 
program and an additional $50 million from the EOS Data Information 
System (EOSDIS) significantly impairs our ability to understand our 
environment.
  These cuts will make it difficult, if not impossible, to process data 
we are collecting from Landsat 7 and that we will collect on the EOS 
series of satellites. It makes little sense to have spent billions of 
dollars building these satellites over the last decade and fail to 
provide the funds to analyze the data they collect.
  And the impact from this lack of data analysis will hurt important 
sectors of our economy; Farmers won't gain advance warning of oncoming 
severe weather like droughts or flooding; coastal areas like the 
southeastern U.S. won't be able to anticipate the severity of 
hurricanes.
  In summary, these cuts in NASA's science programs will set back our 
nation. They are not balanced. They pose a great threat to our future 
competitiveness in research and technology.
  Mr. Chairman, I am supporting some of the amendments to this bill 
which will help restore some of the funding cut by this bill. However, 
I am still concerned about the level of funding and ask the chairman of 
the VA-HUD Subcommittee to continue to work to find funds to fully 
support basic, core research.

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