Timothy Roemer: “Mr. Chairman, I would start off by explaining to this prestigious body what this amendment does do and what it does not…”

“Mr. Chairman, I would start off by explaining to this prestigious body what this amendment does do and what it does not do. First of all, what it does not do: it does not eliminate funding for the Space Station. This is not a killer Space Station amendment. As a matter of fact, Mr. Chairman, this amendment is a fencing, a capping amendment. This simply states, and it reiterates what they have done in the United States Senate, language offered by Senator McCain, and passing the Senate, that there will be $25 billion allocated for the life of the Space Station for construction costs, $17 billion for Space Station shuttle launch costs, for a total of $42 billion, $42 billion. Mr. Chairman, where I come from and where most Americans come from, that is a lot of money. That is not a killer amendment. That is just simply saying, you guys have to build the Space Station for this cost, and you cannot continue to go over it with inefficiencies and delays and overruns, because that hurts other precious programs: housing programs for our poor, feeding programs for our hungry, education programs for our children. We are going to be fighting for every dollar we can get this fall in our budget. I would say to the Members, $42 billion, is that enough? Is that enough, when we have 18 percent of our children in this country in poverty? When we have some soldiers who are on food stamps, is $42 billion enough? We will see.”