Ed Markey: “I am here to join Ranking Member Nelson and my colleagues to voice my opposition to James Bridenstine, who has been…”

“I am here to join Ranking Member Nelson and my colleagues to voice my opposition to James Bridenstine, who has been nominated to be the next Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA is an agency that has been at the center of our Nation's modern history and impacts the daily lives of millions of Americans. The world watched in awe as Neil Armstrong took that first step onto the surface of the Moon in July of 1969, wearing a NASA patch on his spacesuit. Today, we marvel at photos of Pluto's surface, captured by NASA's New Horizons mission in July of 2015. From the closest to the farthest reaches of our own solar system, NASA is always there. NASA is at a critical point in its history, and that is because the United States is poised to unleash the next great feat of human innovation as we look to unlock the true possibilities of space. To accomplish these goals, we need a solid foundation, and that starts and ends with the science conducted at NASA every single day. NASA's mission involves not just revealing faraway worlds but investigating the realities of our own. In order to truly do that, we need continued scientific research of the highest caliber. The scientists working at NASA today are among the very best in the world. NASA, in partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, produces and analyzes the most robust data we have on our planet's changing climate.…”