Kay Bailey Hutchison: “I rise to talk about the VA/HUD bill which has a number of good parts to it. I know the managers have worked very hard…”

“I rise to talk about the VA/HUD bill which has a number of good parts to it. I know the managers have worked very hard to divide up the dollars. It is always hard when there are not as many dollars as projects. I specifically want to talk about the issue of NASA. I know of the great concerns, because it is very obvious from the bill, and, frankly, they are valid concerns, about the management of the space station and the cost overruns. I also understand there are concerns about the overruns hurting other programs within NASA. When you are doing something new, when you are pushing the envelope of technology, you cannot always be precise. This is not to say some of the overruns have been invalid, incomprehensible in some ways, and I don't understand some of them myself. I do not think you can set an exact budget when you are experimenting. We all know you have to have some freedom in science in order to be able to make a mistake, learn from the mistake, and do something else. I appreciate the $150 million cut in the original Senate bill was halved to $75 million in the conference. I hope NASA can work within that $75 million and the rest of the budget for the space station to continue to move ahead. I am told by the people at NASA it will delay the space station, but it will certainly not kill it.”