Brian Babin

I think that we can all agree that NASA's infrastructure is critical to its overall mission success, but it needs to be incorporated and prioritized in the formal budget process, not as an off budget wish list.

The deferred maintenance backlog was estimated to cost $2.1 billion. Well, now it is going to cost us $2.66 billion.

It costs up to three times more to repair or to replace equipment after it has failed.

83 percent of NASA's facilities are beyond their designed life.

The purpose of today's hearing is to address NASA's complex infrastructure issues.

Expanding and enhancing all our ports here in Texas is a critical investment that is key to our global competitiveness.

President Biden's first budget--you've already addressed some of this, but I'd just kind of like to get it on the record.

I found it rather ironic that we are--you know, our goal is to end segregation and enter into a time period in the future where we have full integration, yet the individual committees actually do their work relatively segregated.

I think is absolutely right on, very critical, but also shows the need for the committee here as well to ensure that the FAA's--and FAA's safety mission--has a place in these discussions as we move forward.

Additional regulations at this point would stifle innovation; export technology, talent, and tax dollars overseas; and undermine American leadership in space.

Going forward, the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will play an important role in further enabling the integration of commercial space activities into the National Airspace System.

The Department of Transportation plays a very important role in enabling American leadership and innovative industries like the commercial space launch industry.

I have the distinct honor of serving as the ranking member of the Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee.

The industry has not advanced as fast as it was assumed when this learning period was implemented, which has led to additional extensions to gather this necessary data.

I want to say thank you, to begin with, Chairman Larsen and Ranking Member Graves, for letting me join your hearing today.

The Biden Administration has proposed increasing NASA's Earth science budget by $300 million, which is a 12.5 percent increase above fiscal year 2021-enacted levels.

Our nation once again experienced a collective '7 minutes of terror' as the Perseverance rover descended to the Martian surface.

NASA's planetary science missions exemplify the American spirit of exploration.

President Biden has made it his priority to accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles nationwide.

But joining the Federal grid is not the solution, and would have far-reaching consequences.

We must recognize the limits of energy sources such as wind and solar.

Our energy sources must be predictable, dependable, and affordable.

We must address the failures and subsequently support policies that make sure that this catastrophe never happens again.

I firmly believe that market-based solutions would better ensure increased grid resiliency.

In order to actually decrease worldwide pollution, countries like China and India have got to be held accountable for their emissions.