Marty Walsh: “I rise to strike the requisite number of words and speak in opposition to the amendment. Mr. Chairman, the committee and…”

“I rise to strike the requisite number of words and speak in opposition to the amendment. Mr. Chairman, the committee and the subcommittee recommendation already cuts NASA funding more than any other program within this bill, with the exception of AmeriCorps and Selective Service. The committee, while severe in the minds of some, still allows NASA to operate its core programs. This amendment would make it next to impossible for NASA operations to be conducted and it may jeopardize other programs within NASA. The proposal to delete $2 billion of the funding for the International Space Station would effectively cause us to waste an investment of over $20 billion already expended in the program at a time when we are so close to making real progress on assembly and utilization of the on-orbit facilities. The figure of $100 billion has been mentioned a couple of times. But, in fact, the General Accounting Office, as recently as August of 1999 suggested the total shuttle costs, including assembly, development, and all the science and research that have gone into this and the operation, GAO's estimate is $53 billion, not $100 billion. And so, almost all the major components of this station have been manufactured.”