Barbara Mikulski

I thank the subcommittee for supporting BVPA funding in the past and ask that the program be funded at or more than the level recommended in the President's fiscal year 2013 budget, or $24 million.

We spend a lot of our time keeping it focused and on line because it continually comes to us with underestimates.

I think there is growing frustration and skepticism about this.

We need to justify it to the taxpayer, and we need to show it in the scientific community.

We feel that with the JWST, we are continuing to secure America's pre-eminence in astronomy and astrophysics.

It cost us $50 billion to build ISS.

If anything gets screwed up, I can't pull a rabbit out of the hat. I don't have a rabbit, and I don't have a hat.

I think anyone would say--and we have not taken a hard look at the results, what would be the result of a sequester, but we all know that it would be a significant cut to the NASA budget.

So we need that, but we need to look ahead also to what is the science today and what is the science of the future.

There was much promised, and the launch pad, it was going to be a new day for Spaceport Wallops.

First of all, this $17 billion-plus budget request is pretty much the same as what it was when President Clinton and Vice President Gore were in the White House.

While I am a realist, I'm probably the world's greatest optimist, and I am confident that this Congress will avoid that.

NASA is committed to making this national resource available to broader research communities.

This request supports an ambitious civil space program.

Your leadership in the appropriations action brought all of us together.

Frugal times demand a frugal space agency.

How is NASA putting America to work out-innovating, out-educating, and out-building?

I want to make sure that NASA has what it needs to carry out its mission, explore the universe, understand and protect our planet, and create new technologies that lead to new breakthroughs creating jobs of the future.

I'm very frustrated by this.

I happen to support the commercial endeavor for both cargo and crew. I think it's bold, I think it's promising, but I'm concerned that it's behind schedule.

You couldn't be an astronaut without being an optimist.

You have been one of the Congress' strongest proponents for a space station.

NASA has to do better.

I'm troubled that the budget does not invest adequately in future missions, the highest science priorities that are identified by the National Academies in their decadal surveys.

I really look forward to it.