[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.
____________________