Rep. David Wu–Obama’s Plans for NASA Won’t Get Off the Launch Pad

Rep. David Wu -- Brent Wojahn/The Oregonian

Uh oh, this can’t be good news for NASA’s leadership and White House staffers trying to snatch victory out of the jaws of defeat. According to OregonLive.com, Rep. Wu, Chairman of the House Technology and Innovation Subcommittee, is working with other geeks in the House to over-turn the President’s proposed 2011 budget for NASA, as noted in, David Wu and space-geeks of Congress fight Obama’s NASA plan.

Representative Wu isn’t concerned so much with jobs in Texas or Florida as he is with the “potential dampening effect NASA’s new vision would have on its ability to be a catalyst for new technologies that can be broadly applied. Spurring innovation — not just in space but across society — is what Wu says he wants for a legislative legacy.”

This is not about Florida and Texas,” he said in an interview. “This is about whether Chinese or English is spoken as the dominant language of astronauts a hundred years from now. — Rep. David Wu

To say that the reception to the Administration’s plans for NASA has been…well, chilly, would be an understatement.

I cannot understand how the administration can propose such an ill-conceived decision to cancel the Constellation program without providing a compelling alternative plan with measurable goals and adequate resources.

This committee has been the most ardent supporter of NASA in the House, and yet senior agency and administration officials have managed to surprise, frustrate and anger those of us who have been your greatest advocates. — Rep. Ralph Hall of Texas

I think that what you’re doing is taking a shot in the dark. You have no way of knowing if any commercial entity will ever be able to put a man in orbit, no matter how much money you throw at them. What you’re doing is, you’re taking NASA’s manned space program and making it a faith-based initiative. — Rep. Alan Grayson

(Via OregonLive.com.)

One Comment

  1. “This is not about Florida and Texas”

    He is right. And Wu is from Oregon.

    Number of NASA facilities in Oregon: 0
    Number of NASA contractors in Oregon: 0

    And this guy is a Democrat.

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