Bill Nelson

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you gentlemen for being here today.

But condition alone will only be part of it because mission requirements would be equally or, in many cases, more important?

Obviously, we're in this together. We want to find a way to make it work for, as Dr. Billington says, the United States of America.

So, you have given me a lot of information to make it even harder to think about cutting.

As we all are aware of the fiscal constrains, if additional funding isn't provided and if you're funded at the fiscal year 2010 enacted level, what would it take within your budget to absorb that kind of a budget cut?

You've done an outstanding job in leveraging nonappropriated funds over the last several years.

One thing that I've found not just in this position, but also as Governor is that the more I knew about a program, the harder it was to cut.

Do you see the opportunity, then to be able to continue to grow at the same level that you've enjoyed in the last couple of years?

We want more information, but we want to pay less for it.

Well, clearly, cutting mid-term has ramifications that could be draconian.

Is it possible that there are some other things that could be held back, pushed into the future, to address a lower request for 2012?

Dr. Billington, you mentioned that if you have subscriptions and you stop them for 1 year, it's not as though you lost 12 volumes, or, 12 issues, but it's an even bigger impact than that.

I think that it's important to point out that every agency of Government is going to be faced with the problem of how to continue to operate during the next 6 months.

We're our own worst enemy in that regard.

I am looking for help.

This is an extraordinary and alarming finding. It is almost impossible that that could occur by chance alone and it deserves urgent attention.

MSA passed based on the data being current, accurate and up to date and that NMFS is using MSA in a way not intended by Congress.

I just want to say this. We had talked earlier about the need for clean energy, therefore the reduction of our dependence particularly on foreign oil.

I would love to get $18.7 billion for NASA.

We are facing, in the House position, significant cuts.

My bottom line is I want a space program that is robust.

Well, fine but I bring it---- to your attention, because it has been the conventional wisdom of what--and talked about in the press, what you just said and what we are told in practice is exactly the opposite.

I for one would have been happy had we been able to do more across a wide range of government programs, but fiscal responsibility is a big part of the message that we are all working with at this juncture.

I hear the Secretary of Education saying this all along.

The President's budget has a 3.8 percent increase for STEM education, in NSF.