Sam Brownback

I think he is just a really solid American.

It is a demonstration to demonstrate that they can get the vehicle to low-Earth orbit.

I am troubled about how it feels like we are losing control or it feels like we are losing leadership in the manned space arena.

NASA paid $250 million to each SpaceX and Orbital as part of a Space Act agreement.

So the first one will go to the space station in 2015?

NASA is going to be paying for initial flights in late 2011 by SpaceX.

I think there is great opportunity to have a space program that leads the world.

I am taken by Captain Cernan's comments, which is we do not seem to have a plan now.

This is the kind of hearing we ought to have all the time.

What Senator Nelson indicated, the word 'exploration,' I agree that is the nature of what Americans have always been.

I am a strong supporter of NASA, as I mentioned, and of the commercial space industry.

We have a tight budgetary atmosphere and we have got to be able to fit our goals and our dreams.

So we need growth. We need jobs. That is what I hope for more than anything.

Chair Maloney, I want to thank you for scheduling today's hearing to examine the particularly vexing problem of long-term unemployment: the causes, consequences and solutions.

Job one, two and three is getting jobs back to the United States. We all know that.

We have lost over 8 million jobs in this downturn.

478,000 acre-feet of water?

So you've got still roughly what, $42 million that hasn't been obligated?

Should we be considering amendments in Congress on this to give some alleviation?

Nearly half a million acre-feet of water pulled out of the system, is that correct?

The bills we have under consideration this afternoon intend to address a very serious issue facing certain regions of this country--the supply and availability of our water resources.

As drought is expected to persist in the Southwest, it is of the utmost importance that we put in place infrastructure and other measures that will reclaim and recycle this precious resource.

Can you quantify that for me?

I guess the point I want to make sure that I get to, if you've got $42 million that's unobligated at this point, but you're opposed to all of these projects based on funding, I take it, where's that $42 million going to go?

It seems like some flexibility here might be prudent, at least for a period of time.