David Weldon: “I rise to take part in this traditional rite of spring, to oppose the Roemer amendment and speak out in support of the…”

“I rise to take part in this traditional rite of spring, to oppose the Roemer amendment and speak out in support of the future, in support of our children, in support of the space station. I would like to address several of the arguments that have been made by the people who would favor killing our space station. One of them is that they bring out articles and quotations from bench researchers that say, no, do not spend the money on space station, spend the money on my research. I have done bench research. I have done life sciences research. I can tell my colleagues they could go into any university anywhere in the United States and say, 'Would you rather we spend $17 billion on the station or on more bench research?' And they would gladly say, 'Give us the money for more bench research.' The question before us is, is that the more appropriate use of our resources? Another point that is being made by the opponents of the space station is this $90 billion figure. The space station is costing $17 billion to construct.”