Political Quotes

“Thank you very much, Congressman Olson, and to the colleagues that have joined you tonight and who recognize the importance of this hour, albeit how late it might be, to really emphasize the uniqueness of America's space program and the uniqueness of, if you will, the human space exploration. As I was listening to the debate, I was very much convinced that we do have an opportunity to save this valuable asset. I think we know that the NASA budget actually, as I understand it, has seen an increase in 2011. And I think all of us would admit--and thank the President-- that's a good thing that the budget itself has increased, but we know that the program that deals with exploration to the Moon and Mars have suffered a blow. So I would say that we have an easy fix, a reprogramming of the moneys to allow for a program that has now had a sufficient start to be able to redesign itself, to be able to focus on what's important about human space exploration. But the main thing is to save it, because when we save it, we not only save jobs of today--Johnson, Huntsville, Mississippi, Florida, and places around the Nation--but we save the jobs for 2020, 2030, 2040, and beyond. I think it's important for our colleagues to know that we built the space station. I was on the Science Committee. That space station is barely a decade old--it is a decade-plus. We put it together piece by piece. And when our friends, the Russians, were delayed, they had bad economic times, we moved on.…”