Martin Hoke: “Since 1993, the agency has conducted 12 different financial and management analyses of these consolidation proposals and…”

“Since 1993, the agency has conducted 12 different financial and management analyses of these consolidation proposals and still has not been able to show convincingly that the consolidation is going to save NASA money or that it is programmatically wise. In fact, NASA's own inspector general, the agency's last line of defense against questionable policies, has repeatedly warned that the proposed consolidation is "neither cost effective nor programmatically sound." Just 3 weeks ago, on June 4, the IG recommended in a widely circulated draft report that, "NASA should reevaluate its decision to implement the current aircraft consolidation plan because it is not cost effective." Mr. Chairman, in the June 4 draft report, the IG has estimated that it will take 72 years to break even on the aircraft consolidation plan, even though the agency believes that it can save money on the plan. That, of course, does not even take into account the catastrophic impact on the agency's research or the scientific community that it helps support.”