it is imperative that this Congress should carefully consider and understand all of the potential ramifications of the proposed changes

Thank you, Colonel.

Relying on Russia to fill the gap is equally, in my opinion, unreliable and unsupportable.

I think, prematurely stop the Constellation Program and not move forward very firmly on keeping the Space Station... is not good, common sense.

Unless we make every effort to close the gap in U.S. human spaceflight, we will have no choice but to face the reality that we will be totally dependent on Russia for access to space.

But, you felt fairly confident in getting cargo up on commercial vehicles.

I passed the first Commercial Space Act, back in the 1980s, and I never intended for the FAA to be getting into this.

How would you suggest for us to determine whether or not $6 billion is too much, too little, or just right, as we start the budgetary process?

Is that going to happen with the rest of these folks?

But, I don't want to get this into a situation where we've just got extra layers of bureaucracy to go through just to get a crew up to the International Space Station.

If you were told, 'Go,' how long would it take you to do a CEV?

I have yet to see any convincing evidence that this proposal is viable, or that it will lead to anything other than the ruin of our proud space program.

How can we, the taxpayers, be guaranteed that the seats are going to be purchased at a fair market price?

Mr. Gass, what would happen if the Congress decided, since the Congress controls the purse strings, that we wanted to take the $6 billion projected by the President over the next 5 years, and use that, not for human certification of the…

I think that's a capability that we should continue to build on, not only just to provide cargo, but to provide other support for the Station and other markets that come along.

I think I'll stop there, probably having shot myself in the foot more times than I want to count.

the President's policy that he's proposing to us... is that the trips to and from the Space Station... can be done cheaper and more quickly by letting the commercial sector compete.

he is recommending a $6-billion increase for NASA over 5 years.