Political Quotes

“First and foremost, I would like to thank Chairman Hall for the great leadership that he's provided to our committee, and also Mr. Costello, who will be voluntarily leaving this body, and he has done such a fine job. Both of these gentlemen deserve accolades for the wonderful job they've done for America's science and space programs, as well as for our country as a whole. So, thank you both very much. I rise in support of H.R. 6586. It extends the commonsense limitations on liability exposure for commercial space launches. A few years ago when I was the chairman of the Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee, the FAA was directed to provide an ongoing analysis of the rationale for and potential unintended consequences of this indemnification provision. According to the analysis, the two options before us then were to extend this liability provision, which has never cost the American taxpayer a dime, or option number two--though unintended--would be to give a competitive advantage to China and other foreign launch providers. This, of course, is the same choice that we are making today. If we give foreign rocket companies such an advantage, then we are costing American jobs while undermining both our economy and our national security. Back in 2004, I authored the current regulatory regime for human spaceflight, which has worked well beyond our expectations. Recently, in cooperation with our majority whip, Mr.…”