Political Quotes

“today I wish to say a few words about the bill that we are currently considering and, in particular, a very worthwhile program funded by this bill that I believe is critical to moving our Nation forward. One very important agency funded by the fiscal year 2012 Commerce- Justice-Science bill that has not been getting much attention in the debate this week is NASA. Senators Nelson, Hutchison, Rockefeller, and others worked incredibly hard to get a balanced reauthorization bill passed last year, and I commend them for their hard work in getting it signed into law. One aspect of that bill that I worked particularly hard on was ensuring that we are doing what we can to advance NASA's mission while also promoting the development of the commercial space sector. In negotiations on that authorization bill, Senator Nelson and I arrived at what I believe is a fair compromise that will allow us to pursue advances in the commercial cargo and commercial crew fields and harness the innovation and cost savings that the private sector can provide. In a recently released study, in fact, NASA estimated that the Falcon 9 launch vehicle being developed by the private sector company SpaceX will cost less than half what it would cost for NASA to develop the launch vehicle itself.…”