Dana Rohrabacher: “first as the chairman of the Subcommittee on Space Aeronautics, I would like to personally thank the gentleman from…”

“first as the chairman of the Subcommittee on Space Aeronautics, I would like to personally thank the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Gordon), my ranking minority member on the committee, for the great spirit of bipartisan spirit that we have shown in working together. As the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Hall) just stated, this would be the first authorization bill that we will pass, the first NASA authorization bill that we passed since 1992, and let us all hope that we do this and get this through the system. But it has only been possible because of the goodwill and the spirit of compromise and honest disagreement, but also honest spirit of compromise that we have had working with the Members of the other party. Let me thank especially the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Hall). He is sort of a treasure in this institution, a bipartisan treasure, let me add, in that he has an institutional memory that has served us well on this subcommittee and in our full committee, Committee on Science, and his good sense has helped guide us along here. And also, of course, the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Sensenbrenner), who is the chairman of this subcommittee. He has provided me personal guidance in this job as chairman of the Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics and helped us be successful in our mission. The bill before us now, H.R. 1654, the NASA authorization bill, offers the taxpayer a true choice in advancing America's leadership role in space.”