[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 33 (Tuesday, March 9, 2010)]
[House]
[Pages H1212-H1213]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     THE NECESSITY FOR FUNDING NASA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas. Just a few minutes ago, Mr. Speaker, I 
stood on the floor of the House to introduce H. Res. 1150, which 
addresses the National Aeronautic and Space Administration as a 
national security asset and interest.
  I served for 12 years on the Science Committee and as a member of the 
Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee. I visited almost every NASA center 
around the country. I have visited our science laboratories. I am very 
engaged with the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Program, to 
help educate America's children to ensure that we remain at the cutting 
edge of science and technology and inventiveness, and as well to be 
able to build jobs for the 21st century. We are in that century now.
  I have interacted with NASA and many of the astronauts over the 
years, watching them as they have launched into space, experiencing the 
tragedies of Challenger and Columbia, the loss of life of those brave 
souls who were willing to risk their lives to explore on behalf of the 
American people.
  I want to work with the administration, because I believe they are 
knowledgeable about the value of human spaceflight. However, the 
approach to commercialize this important national security interest is 
not appropriate for now.
  We live in a world that has changed. I chair the Subcommittee on 
Homeland Security dealing with transportation security and the 
protection of our infrastructure. Our infrastructure includes the 
buildings that we are in

[[Page H1213]]

today, hospitals and schools, private-sector buildings, mass assets of 
the Federal Government, and, yes, the NASA centers and the NASA shuttle 
and all of the equipment that goes into providing for human 
spaceflight.
  Lending that space technology to commercial exploration and private-
sector businesses on the basis of profit is not appropriate now. It 
will put us in a noncompetitive position with China, India, and Russia.
  So this resolution is simple. It declares the National Aeronautics 
and Space Administration as a national security interest and asset. It 
indicates that the United States has invested in the human space 
program since May 5, 1961. We all can remember the words of our 
President, John F. Kennedy, that challenged this Nation when he asked 
the question, Not why, but why not? Although those words came from his 
brother, he captured it in the early 1960s when he asked and demanded 
what we could do not for ourselves, but what we could do for our 
country.
  At that time, we established the United States as a leader in the 
role of space exploration, and as well in the advancement of scientific 
research, and therefore that equals a national security interest. It 
does so because science provides security, and the penetration of the 
scientific knowledge that we have lowers the security of this Nation.
  My Committee on Homeland Security deals with protecting the 
infrastructure. Infrastructure is security. Infrastructure involves the 
science labs. Infrastructure involves the many space centers we have 
around the Nation. The States that are involved are Florida; 
Huntsville, Alabama; Texas; and the various sites in California as 
well.

                              {time}  1945

  And so I would ask that this legislation be moved quickly in the 
United States Congress and in this House because the 2010 NASA budget 
funded a program of space-based research that supports the 
administration's commitment to deploy a global climate change research 
and monitoring system. That research can be done better on the 
international space station. That international space station needs to 
be supported. It needs to be able to carry astronauts and scientists 
there to continue the research to make the quality of life for 
Americans and the world better. In the early stages of the 
international space station, research was done involving HIV/AIDS, 
stroke, heart disease, and cancer. That research has created 
opportunities for a better quality of life, and it saved lives.
  Let us not miss the opportunity, the treasure of being able to 
explore in space; the genius of America to allow us to be at the 
cutting edge of science; and, yes, to protect a natural security 
interest, which is the National Aeronautics Space Administration and 
all of its assets.
  And so I look forward to working with General Bolden, an astronaut 
and a very able appointee of the President of United States, to see how 
we can save NASA and the Constellation program that will allow us to be 
at the cutting edge of science, not in America, but around the world.

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