Political Quotes

“Madam President, we had a hearing in the Commerce Committee yesterday about the future of NASA. We had the President's science officer, the head of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, Dr. Holdren; and the Chief Financial Officer of NASA, Dr. Robinson. We pointblank asked both of them if they intended to follow the new law, the NASA authorization bill, that sets out a visionary course for the future of our manned and unmanned space program. They both indicated they would absolutely follow the direction of policy within the administration; they would follow the law. Clearly, this has the President's stamp of approval. For once, we passed the bill unanimously in the Senate and by a three-quarters vote in the House of Representatives. The President then signed the bill into law. It is the President's policy. It is a policy that balances a number of things. We continue the International Space Station at least until the year 2020, a space station, by the way, that is just now being completed after over a decade of construction. It is designated as a national laboratory, but a host of nations are all participants in the International Space Station, and cutting-edge research will be done utilizing the unique property of zero gravity of orbit as the space station orbits the Earth at 17,500 miles an hour. We will start to develop new rockets that, as we speak, are being developed to carry cargo to and from the International Space Station.…”