The question before us today is are we willing--is NASA willing--to own the challenges, face them head on, and undo any problematic decisions if necessary?

NASA needs to provide us with an updated plan, precise timeline and a realistic budget.

I am encouraged by that and by the fact that the International Space Station partnership has been successfully preserved through periods of geopolitical stress in the past.

We won't get to the Moon and Mars with imprecise budgets and vague deadlines.

I'm tired of the narrative that Congress isn't giving NASA the money it needs.

WMATA initially withheld some information required for this audit from the Safety Commission, and misleading statements regarding the Safety Commission's work...

I want to thank the witnesses for their important work and look forward to their testimony.

Expanding access to and diversity and inclusion of the astronomy and astrophysics community is a key to achieving the ambitious goals that this decadal survey lays out.

The health of our astronomy and astrophysics enterprise is important to the nation's overall industrial and scientific base.

We live in a time of extraordinary discovery and progress in astronomy and astrophysics.

Thank you for co-chairing it.

I thank the chairman for his extraordinary leadership on the Ways and Means Committee in putting this together, and I urge all of my colleagues to support the Build Back Better Act. Mr. Speaker, this bill finally makes it clear that our…

Thank you very much. And Chairman Bowman, thanks very much for holding this hearing. This is the most exciting hearing I've seen in 2021 in terms of the potential.

Well, thank you. Yes, I get discouraged by how slowly we move here, so my new legislative strategy is build, try, break.

I keep talking about, you know, we have a little more than $1 billion for fusion energy coming out of a--blessed by the Science Committee and included in Build Back Better, and in a bill that could be approaching $2 trillion, this is the…

Space nuclear propulsion can produce thrust far more efficiently than conventional chemical systems, allowing for shorter trip times to Mars.

Today we're talking about one bold effort that could get us much closer to achieving that Mars goal, space nuclear propulsion.

If we're serious about deep space exploration to Mars with humans, which I am serious about, and I know everyone on this Committee is, we need to take bold steps to make it happen and make it sustainable.

If the United States is serious about leading in a human mission to Mars, we have no time to lose.

How do we make sure that we keep our science open, and what percentage of all the research and work that they're doing really represents a national security threat to us?

Every Democrat and every Republican talks about--willing to keep these great new Ph.D.'s in our physical sciences here. How come we can't pass the equivalent of the STAPLE Act in the U.S. Congress?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, very much.

The ISS partnership is a beacon of, and vehicle for, peaceful, international cooperation in outer space.

It's essential that we prioritize investments in NASA infrastructure, especially at a time when Democrats and Republicans across the country are coming together on a commitment to new infrastructure.

the elephant in the room is why not less plastics?