Political Action Alert on Commercial
Crew, Space Technology
Action Needed By Monday, 3/19/12
We’ve been busy putting
together our next Space Access conference (April 12-14 in Phoenix, latest
details at space-access.org/updates/sa12info.html)
and our comprehensive Update on this year’s new government space-funding
politics season has been on hold.
The real world, as usual, didn’t wait – your first opportunity to push Congress
to support a couple of genuinely useful space programs starts now, and runs
through this coming Monday March 19th.
Background
NASA’s Commercial Crew and Space Technology programs both got useful increases
in the initial White House FY’13 budget request. That initial request is
only the start of the FY’13 budget-making process, however. Now it goes to
Congress for a months-long process of chopping and changing.
Early signs are that both Commercial Crew and Space Technology are being
targeted by people who’d rather spend that money elsewhere, and in the case of
Commercial Crew, who actively oppose its goals as a threat to their pet pork
projects.
A key stop on the Congressional funding process is the House Appropriations
Committee. This key funding committee has a procedure that allows House
members in general to recommend programs for Committee action – full funding, defunding, or anything in between. Those
recommendations from House members in general – from *your* Congressman, your Representative in the House –
need to be made by early next week.
Action
Your Congressman is a lot more likely to recommend to the Appropriators full
funding for NASA Commercial Crew and Space Technology if you (and preferably a
bunch of your fellow local constituents, AKA “voters”) contact them
and ask them to.
Some of our colleagues who stayed more on top of this thing than us already
have a letter out, describing the process in detail, including step-by-step
instructions on how you can go about making the contact. You’ll find a copy at
Rand Simberg’s site, http://www.transterrestrial.com/?p=41149
We strongly recommend that you follow that link, read the letter, then follow
through by making the contact it asks. This country spends a large amount
on space. Help us see that at least a modest fraction of those billions
is spent in ways that actually support cheaper space access.
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