Dana Rohrabacher: “Let me just note that my amendment simply suggests that NASA should put on its priority list seeking cooperation between…”

“Let me just note that my amendment simply suggests that NASA should put on its priority list seeking cooperation between the United States and our European and Russian friends to try to have an international effort to detect and deflect near-Earth objects. What that means is, if there are asteroids or comets that might be out there and might threaten the Earth, perhaps threatening millions of lives, that my amendment simply says the United States should not bear the entire burden and cost of identifying them and tracing their trajectory to see if they threaten the Earth, but we should be trying to recruit our friends and make it an international effort. I just recently came back from Berlin and Moscow, where this idea received a very, very warm response from these other spacefaring nations, and they're really anxious to work with us. This instructs NASA to take advantage of that spirit of cooperation, take the burden off the American taxpayers a little bit, and make sure this job gets done.”