Jerry Brown: “Mr. Speaker, let me just comment briefly about the remarks of the gentleman from Wisconsin [Mr. Sensenbrenner], my…”

“Mr. Speaker, let me just comment briefly about the remarks of the gentleman from Wisconsin [Mr. Sensenbrenner], my distinguished colleague and my friend. I agree with the thrust of what he has said. There is no question but what the NASA budget over the next several years is going to be under considerable pressure from any budget that I have seen up to the present time, and it is necessary that we exercise extremely good judgment in how these reductions are going to be allocated. There are not reductions in the rate of growth, these are actual dollar reductions of a substantial amount. The fears which the gentleman from Maryland [Mr. Hoyer] expressed are reasonable when understood in context. The Mission to Planet Earth budget line in the NASA Program is a very large item. It was subjected to approximately a 20 percent cut, which I think is more than the science budgets and others. And I will interpret Mr. Hoyer's comments as merely asking that there be reasonably comparable treatment to all of these budget lines and not that the Mission to Planet Earth be given any special consideration.”