Political Quotes

“today again, I wish to express my strong support of the amendment offered by the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Roemer] and the gentleman from Iowa [Mr. Ganske] to eliminate authorization for the space station. In 1984, the Reagan administration proposed to construct a manned space station that would be in service by 1994 at a cost of $8 billion. Today, after several redesigns, we have spent $11 billion and unfortunately have very little to show for it. Current cost projections now estimate that the total cost to build and operate the space station will be at least $70.8 billion. While I do not believe we can afford the space station at this time, I do believe we can, and must, afford to wisely invest Government resources in research and technology development. Unfortunately, the space station has taken funds away from many worthy projects such as the Earth Observing System, the National Aerospace Plane, as well as the unmanned space program. In this time of tight budgets, I believe we must invest Federal funds in cost-effective science and technology programs that produce real results--expanding our scientific understanding and increasing our commercial competitiveness in international markets. I would like to emphasize that a ``yes'' vote on the bipartisan Roemer-Ganske amendment is not a vote against NASA.”