House Budget Looking Better for NASA

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: ABC’s Schoolhouse Rock

The Planetary Society has provided a nice summary of where the NASA funding battle is at this moment. Here is its latest summary of events:

  • The House budget bill that includes NASA funding just cleared a key hurdle, advancing out of the Appropriations Committee. This is the first funding bill for FY 2027 to be released and reach this stage, establishing congressional intent and rejecting the worst of the Office of Management and Budget’s proposed cuts to NASA.
  • The bill keeps NASA funding flat with the currently enacted budget, but reprioritizes funding levels across the agency, including a 17% cut to Science to offset increases elsewhere.
  • A number of science missions proposed for cancellation by the OMB see their funding protected by this bill, including OSIRIS-APEX, New Horizons, and the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. New programs initiated by Administrator Isaacman that were absent from the OMB proposal, like Space Reactor-1 Freedom, also see their first dedicated mention in the proposal.
  • The full House still needs to vote on this, and the Senate is expected to release its own proposal within weeks. Congress will then work to develop full-year funding, in anticipation of the start of FY 2027 on Oct. 1, but will likely require a short-term funding patch, which comes with its own hurdles.

I recommend you read the entire statement, House Appropriators Advance Key NASA Funding Bill, to fully understand the rigors of this Hill battle. Fortunately, both the House and Senate continue to be supportive of NASA’s work and Administrator Isaacman’s new direction for Artemis. It helps to have someone full time at the helm of the agency.

I was especially pleased to read that missions such as New Horizons and the Chandra X-Ray Observatory are being saved and key programs like the James Webb Space Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope are no longer facing drastic cuts. It is unfortunate that the White House was so willing to destroy generations of space-related work – what have been called the crown jewels of our space program.

The budget battle is not over, but we are seeing that when good legislators push back, good things can happen.