Kay Bailey Hutchison: “the conference report on the authorization of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is in its final stages…”

“the conference report on the authorization of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is in its final stages of being approved. There are some things that are still to be worked out, but I am proud to have been the subcommittee chairman of the NASA Science Subcommittee that produced--along with the House, of course, and the full Commerce Committee--what I think is an excellent authorization of our National Aeronautics and Space Administration. I worked with my colleague, Senator Nelson of Florida, to produce a bill that does envision the flight to space, the flight to the moon again, and then to Mars. It is the vision laid out by President Bush in January of 2004. It is incumbent on Congress to lead the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and also to support it fully so that we will continue the vision that John F. Kennedy had when he said: We will put a man on the moon. Now we can take it the next step and put a man on Mars, a woman on Mars. It is important that we understand that this is important not only because it is a huge feat and victory for the world that we can do this but also because we get so much basic science from making this commitment. It improves our quality of life right here on Earth. This conference committee report does authorize funding for NASA at $17.9 billion in 2007 and $18.7 billion for 2008.…”