The 2011 NASA budget is $19 billion, $276 million more than 2010.

We also want to be sure that we do not lose our technology, no matter what the cancellation or transition is.

I think you get a flare here. When it comes to the space program, we have really been a bipartisan group.

This subcommittee stands in recess until Thursday, April 29 at 10 a.m.

I take my advice and consent responsibilities very seriously and the opportunity to recommend to a President of the United States a nominee for the Federal bench is indeed a great honor, but it is a great responsibility.

I hope that the Committee unanimously reports them out, and I hope that we can confirm them expeditiously.

I need good answers, and so does Senator Bennett, but----

Senator Hutchison presented a really doomsday scenario.

I think the threat to the industrial base casts doubt upon your ability to do something in 2015 if the President decides, or whatever President it is decides they want to go back to solid rocket motors.

My criteria are that any nominee must have absolute integrity, judicial competence and temperament, a commitment to core constitutional principles, and a history of civic engagement in our own State of Maryland.

We need to find the will and the commitment as a Congress, and as a nation, to 'Go for launch.'

I believe if we all focus on where we want America to be in space, and how we protect Americans who we ask to do things we will be able to find solutions to how we work through these complex challenges.

I am puzzled by this. How have you been reminding contractors of their obligation to have reserve funds?

When she said it, actually, I thought, 'Oh, my gosh, she is so right.'

We cannot reinvent NASA every 4 years. Every new President can't have a new NASA agenda.

It is time to retire the space shuttle, and the President provides for that at the end of calendar 2010.

We need a destination. NASA has been a mission-driven agency since its creation.

I want to also bring to the Committee's attention that it is not just my opinion or even your opinion, Mr. Chair, but the opinion of the American Bar Association.