Bill Nelson: “I have been making a series of speeches about NASA, and I rise again today to speak about this little agency. It is a…”

“I have been making a series of speeches about NASA, and I rise again today to speak about this little agency. It is a favorite agency of mine, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Last week, the White House submitted a budget amendment to its 2003 budget request for NASA. The budget amendment, which also retools NASA's 5-year budget plan, amounts to a watershed point for NASA. In this budget amendment, the administration has requested a significant change in its 2003 NASA priorities. Instead of funding a program to replace the space shuttle, this amendment seeks to scale back funding for the space launch initiative to a more realistic development time line. This budget amendment, in my opinion, signals a revamping of NASA's integrated space transportation plan. The new plan incorporates the space shuttle, a new orbital space plane, and technology for future reusable launch vehicles into one comprehensive plan to provide for the advancement of human space flight. It is about time we had such a plan, and I applaud the administration's efforts to move in this direction.”