Ed Perlmutter

I urge my colleagues to support this bill. It is the product of a lot of hard work over the last 3 years. It helps our laboratories and our private industry stay at the forefront of science. I thank Chairman Smith of Texas for bringing…

I have no other speakers, so I am going to reserve the balance of my time. Mr. SMITH OF Texas. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Weber), who is the chairman of the Energy Subcommittee of the Science, Space…

I like 3086 better than my substitute amendment, but reality is that this is what we agreed on.

Thanks, Mr. Chairman. And I can't dispute the Ranking Member's complaint that things really did accelerate over the course of the last few weeks, but on the other hand, we have been negotiating.

Thanks, Mr. Chairman. I have an amendment to the substitute amendment at the desk.

I'm confident we can take the two versions of this legislation and agree on a final text, which will pass the House and the Senate.

We found in the hearing--it showed that the commercial sector, the academic sector, and the Federal sector were all working kind of in silos.

This legislation will better coordinate Federal research investments with forecasters who provide warnings to affected industries.

Had an observed July 2012 space weather event actually hit the Earth, we would still be picking up the pieces.

My Ranking Member makes a lot of good points, but no.

My amendment would allow the rush to be blindly fall in line--would slow the rush to the--blindly fall in line behind this Administration's plan and instead let us make sure the independent and objective analysis of the National Academies.

Only after it has been done--it has done its own work on the issue and examined the Administration's proposals in depth can Congress make informed decisions about the best way to proceed.

I appreciate the majority's willing to work with us in this manager's amendment.

I think this is an important bill.

Because we should not simply rubberstamp the Trump Administration's proposal to have the Department of Commerce be the lead agency any more than we should simply adopt the interagency consensus reached in the Obama Administration that FAA…

I think this is a--really a good approach. I'm prepared to support it.

I think there are some other sections we do need to talk about so that they aren't counterproductive.

We have to have management of the traffic up there.

This bill would allow that director of that laboratory to enter into contracts of a million dollars or less without going through a whole bunch of levels of approval.

It does give the opportunity to the directors of the labs to have authority and some discretion in dealing with contracts.

I'm going to offer this and then withdraw it pursuant to the Chairman's committing to the fact we can negotiate further as this bill moves along in the process.

The missing piece to this puzzle right now is a requirement for NASA to efficiently plan on how we would take advantage of this opportunity in 2033.

Because this endeavor is not going to be just NASA or just the United States, we're going to need public-private partnerships and the international community and all work together to get this done.

I just want to assure you we still have plenty, and you're welcome to come to my office and get them for your cars.

I agree with you 100 percent that Mr. Bridenstine ought to be confirmed by the Senate.