[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 151 (Wednesday, November 20, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11690-S11693]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    NASA'S FISCAL YEAR 2003 BUDGET AMENDMENT AND A NONPARTISAN NASA

  Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, I have been making a series of 
speeches about NASA, and I rise again today to speak about this little 
agency. It is a favorite agency of mine, the National Aeronautics and 
Space Administration.
  Last week, the White House submitted a budget amendment to its 2003 
budget request for NASA. The budget amendment, which also retools 
NASA's 5-year budget plan, amounts to a watershed point for NASA.
  In this budget amendment, the administration has requested a 
significant change in its 2003 NASA priorities. Instead of funding a 
program to replace the space shuttle, this amendment seeks to scale 
back funding for the space launch initiative to a more realistic 
development time line.
  This budget amendment, in my opinion, signals a revamping of NASA's 
integrated space transportation plan. The new plan incorporates the 
space shuttle, a new orbital space plane, and technology for future 
reusable launch vehicles into one comprehensive plan to provide for the 
advancement of human space flight. It is about time we had such a plan, 
and I applaud the administration's efforts to move in this direction.
  The new plan includes an increased shuttle launch rate to better meet 
the research needs of the space station. Under this new budget plan, 
both the shuttle and the station programs will be funded on a much more 
sustainable and long-term level, while also seeking to develop a new 
orbital space plane. This new spacecraft would be used to provide 
astronauts regular access to the international space station without 
always needing to rely on the aging space shuttle fleet.
  The new budget plan provides for a much-needed infusion of cash to 
start to provide for space shuttle safety upgrades and infrastructure 
repairs and modernization. These repairs and improvements will help us 
fly the shuttle much more safely through the middle of the next decade 
and possibly even longer.

  This funding is a welcome reprieve for the neglected and decaying 
human space flight infrastructure that is literally falling apart at 
NASA centers around the country.
  The new budget plan also responds to the concerns of a new study. 
This study, called the ReMAP study, concluded that the space station in 
its currently planned form would not be able to conduct even a minimum 
level of science research to call it a science program.
  NASA's 2003 budget amendment seeks to fix some of these concerns by 
providing additional funding to increase the research capabilities 
onboard the space station. I welcome this decision. I have been into 
the mockup of the space station at the Johnson Space Center, and the 
capability for science, for research, is there if we can have the crew 
members who can be dedicated to the research while in orbit.
  With this budget amendment, I am pleased with the administration's 
restructuring of NASA's budgetary priorities for fiscal year 2003, and 
I congratulate administrator Sean O'Keefe. In this budget amendment, 
the administration, with Administrator O'Keefe,

[[Page S11691]]

and his deputy administrator Fred Gregory, have provided more funding 
for the shuttle program, including an increased flight rate and more 
funds dedicated to safety and supportability upgrades, as well as 
improvements to the ground-based infrastructure.
  These areas are in dire need of additional financial support. The 
space shuttle simply cannot continue to fly safely if NASA does not 
dedicate additional resources to the orbital fleet.
  The one missing piece from this plan is the formal cooperation with 
the departments dealing with the Nation's defense. NASA's new plans to 
upgrade the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle--everything has an 
acronym at NASA--or the EELV--to meet the human-rated requirements may 
also yield great efficiencies and reliabilities for defense launch 
needs. An orbital space plan could also meet some of our defense needs, 
and the Air Force has also had on the books for many years plans to 
develop such a vehicle.
  The defense establishment should be part of this effort. DOD, NASA, 
and other agencies need to pool their resources to develop these high-
risk, expensive technology programs. NASA cannot be expected to do this 
alone. Our country will be better served by jointly developing the 
technology needed for exploration and use of space.
  I congratulate the agency and its leadership on what I think is a 
budgetary watershed point and one that is a shift in the right 
direction, and I encourage the defense-related agencies to start 
cooperating with NASA to develop these new technologies.
  Mr. President, there is another area in which I have concern and I 
want to express it. NASA has a proud history of staying outside the 
partisan nature of our political arena. As one of the largest 
independent agencies, NASA has a unique role in the structure of our 
executive branch. Its leader does not assume a Cabinet-level position, 
and yet its policies and practices have a significant impact on the 
strength and future of our Nation's science and technology programs and 
sector.
  No other independent agency has as much influence on our country's 
innovation capabilities in science and technology, outside of the 
medical field. Yet unlike the Departments of Commerce or the Department 
of Education, NASA does not usually get brought into partisan battles 
or political struggles of Congress. Rather, NASA's nonpartisan approach 
is more akin to the nonpartisan style of the Department of State and 
the Department of Defense. There are clearly occasionally disagreements 
within these Halls about the future of this little agency, but never 
have the differences come down to simply a question of to which party a 
Member belongs.
  The Nation's space program is not a partisan program. It is an 
American program, and that is the way the Senators of this body treat 
it.
  In recent weeks, constituents, newspaper columns, editorials, and 
NASA employees have brought to my attention at least two incidents of 
partisan political activity on the part of the agency's head, who may 
have been acting at the direction of the White House itself.
  In October, NASA's Administrator made a decision that could stand to 
challenge this agency's traditional bipartisan and nonpolitical status. 
Administrator Sean O'Keefe flew to Alabama to campaign for a candidate 
for Governor, and then he publicly announced his plans to travel to 
Florida to hold a space townhall meeting for a nonincumbent 
congressional candidate. He also participated in a fundraiser in 
Alabama.
  Now, in this last announced trip, were it not for a mechanical 
problem that delayed his flight beyond the candidate's reasonable 
timeframe, Administrator O'Keefe would have been on the ground in 
Florida conducting political campaign events.
  I am troubled about the implications of this public decision. At 
present, I have the good fortune of cooperating on space policy issues 
with dozens of my colleagues in both parties. Senators who share my 
love and enthusiasm for space exploration include Senators Trent Lott, 
Don Nickles, Orrin Hatch, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Conrad Burns, George 
Allen, Richard Shelby, Barbara Mikulski, John Breaux, Mary Landrieu, 
and Bob Graham.
  When it comes to supporting our favorite little agency, we agree 
wholeheartedly and together happily roll up our sleeves and work on 
furthering the Nation's space-faring capabilities, despite what other 
issues might separate us, or despite the partisanship in which we 
sometimes engage in this body.
  In the other Chamber, NASA's supporters come from both sides of the 
aisle. Representatives Tom DeLay, Dana Rohrabacher, Ken Calvert, Dave 
Weldon, Nick Lampson, Ralph Hall, Bart Gordon, and Bud Cramer are but a 
few who have repeatedly gone out on a limb for NASA.
  By announcing his plans to participate, being perceived as acting in 
his official capacity as the head of NASA, Administrator O'Keefe 
diminished the spirit of bipartisanship. Well, thank goodness for an 
airline mechanical problem on that last occasion.
  So I rise to make a public request of our Administrator, which 
follows the private request I made of him prior to his scheduled trips, 
and that was a private one before the fact. My request now publicly is 
do not ruin the spirit of bipartisanship and bipartisan cooperation 
that NASA and its supporters enjoy.
  When it comes to political campaigns, just stay out of them 
altogether and keep the long-standing tradition that NASA 
Administrators stay out of partisan politics.
  This is a speech in which for the first two-thirds I praised the 
Administrator of NASA for the change in direction that I think is a 
good change, and I think shows his good leadership, but it is a speech 
also with a heavy heart that since he would not take my advice, or that 
of many others privately, it needs to be stated publicly that there is 
a great and long-standing tradition that NASA Administrators stay out 
of partisan politics.
  I ask unanimous consent that supporting documentation be printed in 
the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                  [From Florida Today, Oct. 23, 2002]

                  NASA Head Stumps for GOP Candidates

                    (By John Kelly and Kelly Young)

       Sean O'Keefe is taking time off from his day job, as 
     administrator of NASA, to campaign for Republican political 
     candidates in two states with high-profile NASA centers.
       O'Keefe took time off Monday and went to Huntsville, Ala., 
     to endorse the Republicans' candidate for governor at a space 
     museum near Marshall Space Flight Center. Monday, he will be 
     at the Cocoa Beach Hilton with Tom Feeney, the GOP nominee in 
     the 24th Congressional District that includes Kennedy Space 
     Center.
       NASA is not paying for the trips and O'Keefe is not doing 
     official business, agency spokesman Glenn Mahone said. He is 
     not flying on NASA planes or taking government aides along. 
     O'Keefe and the candidates are paying any costs, Mahone and 
     the GOP campaigns' officials said.
       High-ranking presidential appointees often hit the campaign 
     trail for party candidates. A search of news archives and 
     interviews with longtime NASA watchers yielded no examples of 
     former administrator Daniel Goldin politicking so openly or 
     endorsing specific candidates. If Goldin ever did make such 
     an appearance, ``I'm reasonably sure he would have been the 
     first,'' said Howard McCurdy, an American University public 
     affairs professor.
       McCurdy, who has written books about NASA, said the 
     practice is becoming more common. Goldin could not be reached 
     for comment.
       ``It's certainly expanding in the federal government as a 
     whole,'' McCurdy said. ``It's not unusual to see the head of 
     the parks services doing the same thing.''
       There are no rules against it as long as government 
     resources are not used and O'Keefe carefully distinguishes 
     his appearances as personal rather than official.
       ``As long as he's not trying to say four out of five 
     astronauts agree, and I assume he's not, then he's OK,'' said 
     John Pike, a defense and space policy analyst with Virginia-
     based globalsecurity.org. ``Now if I was a partisan Democrat 
     with an interest in these races, I wouldn't have to work very 
     hard to come up with a cheap shot.''
       Mahone said everyone knows O'Keefe is a Republican, and he 
     has rights as an individual to support candidates like anyone 
     else.
       ``He did not endorse them as the NASA administrator, but as 
     Sean O'Keefe, a Republican and a member of the 
     administration,'' Mahone said. ``He is Sean Q. Citizen.
       Apparently, that's not how U.S. Rep. Bob Riley saw it. His 
     campaign material clearly identified ``NASA Administrator 
     Sean O'Keefe'' among the people who've endorsed him.
       ``Bob Riley is an enlightened leader who understands the 
     critical nature of research investment, and Alabama's economy 
     will prosper under Bob Riley's leadership,'' O'Keefe said at 
     the event, according to a

[[Page S11692]]

     campaign news release. ``Bob Riley is the right man with the 
     right plan for Alabama.''
       The release quoted Riley: ``Having NASA's administrator fly 
     down from Washington to endorse my campaign for governor 
     illustrates the viability of my plan to build a new high-tech 
     research-based economy in Alabama. Administrator O'Keefe's 
     strong endorsement highlights his confidence that Alabama can 
     become a vital part of the new economy if given the right 
     leadership.''
       Riley campaign spokesman Dave Acbell said O'Keefe in 
     interested in Riley's plan to develop Alabama's economy like 
     North Carolina's Research Triangle.
       The Hunstville Times quoted O'Keefe in Tuesday's edition 
     saying his two appearances were not about bipartisanship but 
     leadership ability. The paper reported that when asked if he 
     would endorse Democrats with similar leadership abilities, 
     O'Keefe said, ``These are the only two opportunities I had to 
     be involved with.''
       Feeney's campaign is stressing that O'Keefe is appearing in 
     an ``unofficial capacity.'' But the campaign is billing the 
     event as a ``Space Town Hall Meeting'' at which space 
     industry officials selected by the campaign will get to ask 
     the men about NASA and other space issues.
       In debates and other space-related appearances in the 
     district, which includes Kennedy Space Center, Feeney has 
     said his close relationship with O'Keefe and President Bush 
     will help the area.
       His press secretary, Kim Stone, made the same case Tuesday. 
     Harry Jacobs, the Democrat candidate running against Feeney, 
     is not invited. Questions asked of Feeney and O'Keefe will be 
     screened by the campaign, she said.
       Jacobs' spokeswoman Azalea Candelaria said such events are 
     not unusual and President Bush's aides and appointees have 
     been helping Feeney from the start. She said she hoped 
     O'Keefe and NASA were equally willing to provide the Democrat 
     candidate with access to tours and to face-to-face 
     discussions with the administrator.
       ``Harry Jacobs has lots more support than the Republicans 
     expected so Tom Feeney rang the alarm and a series of 
     dignitaries are coming down to campaign for him,'' she said. 
     ``When the president of the United States is a Republican and 
     you're not, you can't get that campaign help.''
       Neither Mahone nor Feeney's spokeswoman said they knew 
     whether O'Keefe will endorse Feeney.
       O'Keefe has long served Republican administrations, 
     including that of President Bush's father. The younger Bush 
     moved O'Keefe over from the Office of Management and Budget 
     to head NASA on orders to clean up the agency's money woes.
       Pike said previous NASA administrators have been ``space 
     cadets'' who were at NASA because it was their dream job. 
     O'Keefe is more of a career political appointee, so it's not 
     surprising he is politically active, Pike said.
                                  ____


               [From the Orlando Sentinel, Oct. 23, 2002]

   NASA Chief O'Keefe To Join Feeney at Campaign Stop in Cocoa Beach

                (By Gwyneth K. Shaw and Sean Mussenden)

       NASA chief Sean O'Keefe will campaign with House Speaker 
     Tom Feeney in Cocoa Beach next week--a highly unusual foray 
     into politics for the head of an agency that has tried hard 
     for its 44 years to stay above the partisan fray.
       O'Keefe's appearance will occur eight days before voters 
     decide whether to send Feeney or opponent Harry Jacobs to 
     Congress.
       District 24, a new district essentially hand-drawn for 
     Feeney, includes parts of Volusia, Orange and Seminole 
     counties. It also encompasses much of northern Brevard 
     County--including Kennedy Space Center, one of NASA's 
     highest-profile sites and the workplace of thousands of 
     constituents.
       The Feeney campaign and officials with the National 
     Aeronautics and Space Administration insist the visit Monday 
     is simply a gesture of friendship from O'Keefe and that he is 
     appearing with Feeney as a private citizen, not as the 
     nation's top space policy-maker. They also say the trip will 
     not cost taxpayers: O'Keefe is taking the day off, and the 
     campaign is paying for his commercial airline ticket.


                        O'Keefe is a Republican

       Glenn Mahone, NASA's associate administrator for Public 
     Affairs, pointed out that O'Keefe is a Republican as well as 
     a political appointee named by a Republican president.
       ``He was invited by Speaker Feeney to come down and attend 
     an event on his own time, and he graciously accepted,'' 
     Mahone said. ``He is going not as NASA administrator, but as 
     a friend of Speaker Feeney.''
       On Monday, O'Keefe traveled to Huntsville, Ala.--home of 
     NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center--to endorse U.S. Rep. Bob 
     Riley, R-Ala., who is running for governor.
       O'Keefe could not be reached for comment.
       Alex Roland, Duke University professor and former NASA 
     historian, called O'Keefe's political visits unprecedented in 
     the annals of the agency. NASA administrators, who often 
     complain about interference from Capitol Hill, typically do 
     not get involved in elections, he said.
       Roland said it's ironic that O'Keefe has chosen to step in.
       ``It's one thing to be politicized, in the sense that the 
     agency represents a set of policies with which some elected 
     official may or may not be in agreement. But it's entirely 
     different to be partisan, because those members of Congress 
     that decide about this can be of either party,'' he said, 
     ``This is a member of a federal agency saying a 
     representative of one party is better able to serve NASA's 
     interests than the representative of another party. That's 
     just none of their business--how the elected 
     representatives get there.''
       Bill Allison of the Center for Public Integrity, a 
     Washington-based nonpartisan ethical watchdog group, said the 
     situation is clearly more than just a friendly gathering. 
     ``It's obviously a favor being done to elect a member, a 
     Republican, to Congress,'' he said. ``This is somebody trying 
     to use the prestige of his position to further the political 
     interests of a candidate.
       Mahone said that if O'Keefe were invited by other 
     Republicans he knows to campaign with them between now and 
     the elections, he would be open to it if his schedule would 
     allow it.
       ``Is it unusual for a NASA administrator? Well, we have a 
     new NASA administrator, and this NASA administrator has 
     decided this is something that he wants to do,'' Mahone said.
       Jacobs, the Altamonte Springs lawyer challenging Feeney in 
     the Nov. 5 election, said if he wins, O'Keefe's decision to 
     help Feeney would not make it more difficult for him to work 
     with the agency.
       ``NASA is not Sean O'Keefe and Sean O'Keefe is not NASA,'' 
     Jacobs said. ``NASA will be there before or after Sean 
     O'Keefe.''
       Asked whether he thought it was improper of O'Keefe to 
     break with the neutral tradition of his predecessors, Jacobs 
     said, ``That's a question for Sean O'Keefe.''


                           District split-up

       When Feeney's top lieutenants in the Legislature were 
     carving out District 24, they swiped Kennedy Space Center 
     from a Brevard-based seat now held by U.S. Rep. Dave Weldon, 
     R-Palm Bay. Weldon was able to keep the adjacent Cape 
     Canaveral Air Force Station, site of the military's space 
     operations.
       The split, Feeney and others have said, ensured that 
     Central Florida would have two sets of eyes in Washington 
     focused on space.
       O'Keefe's visit Monday is Feeney's latest attempt to court 
     the votes of the area's space workers--something he has done 
     with promises to funnel more money into developing the 
     region's space industry and his tours of key public- and 
     private-sector facilities.
       Feeney also frequently mentions that his wife, Ellen, works 
     at KSC--reminders that are exceeded only by his frequent 
     descriptions of his ``close'' ties with President Bush and 
     O'Keefe, two people with extraordinary power over NASA's 
     budget. The implication is that Jacobs does not have the 
     connections needed to bring the bacon back to Brevard.
       Jacobs, in response, has said that Democratic leaders in 
     Congress have promised him a seat on the committee that 
     oversees NASA's budget.
       But Feeney's partisan ties have granted him access that 
     Jacobs has not enjoyed. Although KSC officials invited Jacobs 
     on a tour of NASA facilities, Feeney was a guest of O'Keefe 
     at a shuttle launch earlier this month. Jacobs was invited to 
     the same launch by U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., but was 
     unable to attend, a Jacobs spokeswoman said.
       Ralph Gonzales, Feeney's campaign manager, said the town 
     hall meeting at the Hilton Oceanfront in Cocoa Beach is ``not 
     really a political event.''
       The 90-minute meeting, which begins at 4 p.m., is by 
     invitation only, campaign spokeswoman Kim Stone said, with a 
     a host of Republicans and about 100 people from the space 
     community, including Democrats, Republicans and independents, 
     on the list.
       Allison said it has become fairly common in recent years to 
     use administration officials, from the President on down, to 
     lend a hand to candidates.
       And Feeney has been a beneficiary several times over: In 
     August, Vice President Dick Cheney raised an estimated 
     $250,000 at an Orlando cocktail party. Last month, Veterans 
     Affairs Secretary Anthony Principi and Commerce Secretary 
     Donald Evans campaigned with Feeney.
       But O'Keefe's visits do stand out, Allison said.
       ``It definitely muddies the water,'' he said. ``A NASA 
     administrator is supposed to be running NASA. He's not 
     supposed to be intervening in politics.''
                                  ____


                  [From Florida Today, Oct. 29, 2002]

                Plane Trouble Cancels NASA Town Meeting

                            (By Kelly Young)

       Cape Canaveral.--NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe canceled 
     plans to attend a Space Coast event with Republican 
     Congressional candidate Tom Feeney after airplane problems in 
     Washington on Monday.
       The administrator took some personal time off from his 
     normal duties to fly down to Florida to appear with Feeney, 
     who is running for a District 24 seat in the U.S. House of 
     Representatives. The joint event was billed as a town hall 
     meeting where space industry officials could ask O'Keefe and 
     Feeney questions about NASA.
       After O'Keefe was delayed at the airport for about an hour, 
     Feeney's office decided to cancel the event when they 
     realized he would not make it to the Cocoa Beach Hilton by 
     the scheduled start time at 4 p.m.
       The cockpit door wouldn't close, said Feeney spokeswoman 
     Kim Stone. O'Keefe

[[Page S11693]]

     was traveling on a commercial flight to Orlando and paying 
     his own way.
       Other passengers got off the plane and boarded another 
     flight. O'Keefe stayed in Washington, said NASA spokesman 
     Glenn Mahone.
       O'Keefe probably will not make it back to the Space Coast 
     before elections next Tuesday, but Mahone said a later visit 
     was not unreasonable.
       ``If invited and if time permits, he'll be more than happy 
     to go down because he thinks very highly of Speaker Feeney,'' 
     Mahone said.
                                  ____


         [From Aviation Week & Space Technology, Oct. 28, 2002]

                       Mr. O'Keefe, Stick to NASA

       Breaking with a long-standing tradition that NASA 
     administrators do not directly participate in partisan 
     politics, Sean O'Keefe has taken to the hustings for 
     Republican candidates and participated in a state party fund-
     raiser. Last week he turned up in Huntsville to endorse U.S. 
     Rep. Bob Riley in his bid to become governor of Alabama. This 
     week, O'Keefe is scheduled to appear at a political event in 
     Cocoa Beach with Tom Feeney, the speaker of the Florida House 
     of Representatives, who is running in the congressional 
     district that includes Cape Canaveral. O'Keefe will insist he 
     is making these efforts purely as a private citizen. But that 
     is a thin reed to grasp--and one not recognized by the 
     candidates. In a press release, Riley gushed about ``having 
     NASA's administrator fly down from Washington to endorse my 
     campaign for governor.''
       Even more disturbing than running out onto the campaign 
     trail, O'Keefe participated in an Alabama Republican party 
     fund-raising dinner in Huntsville in February. It was billed 
     as a tribute to the aerospace and defense industry, but at 
     $250-a-plate, the dinner might more honestly have been 
     labeled an occasion for the Grand Old Party to extract 
     tribute from NASA contractors. Want some face time with Sean? 
     Fork over your check.
       Lest anyone accuse us of being naive or disingenuous, we 
     are not ``shocked, shocked'' to learn that O'Keefe is a 
     staunch Republican. Nor do we think there is anything illegal 
     or immoral about a presidential appointee taking part in 
     party affairs, provided it is done on his own time and does 
     not involve government resources.
       But that doesn't make these campaign swings and party fund-
     raisings a good idea. Throughout its history, NASA has 
     depended on bipartisan support. It's support that some have 
     characterized as a mile wide but only an inch deep, so 
     O'Keefe should be careful not to drain much off this 
     reservoir of goodwill. In politics, what goes around comes 
     around. And while none of the Democrats running against the 
     candidates O'Keefe is endorsing is likely to turn against 
     NASA should they win, the administrator should not be 
     surprised if Democrats seek a payback and, in so doing, 
     disrupt his plans for this storied government agency.

  Mr. NELSON of Florida. I wish all of the Senate, all of our 
colleagues in Congress, as well as the American people, Happy 
Thanksgiving.
  I yield the floor.

                          ____________________