House Appropriators Approve FY2015 CJS Bill with $435 Million Increase for NASA

House Appropriators Approve FY2015 CJS Bill with $435 Million Increase for NASA

The House Appropriations Committee today approved the FY2015 Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) appropriations bill.   It includes $435 million more for NASA than requested by President Obama, a total of $17.896 billion compared to the $17.461 billion requested.  It is about $250 million more than NASA’s current budget of $17.647 billion.

No substantive amendments to the NASA portion of the bill were adopted during full committee markup, so the bill is as it was during subcommittee markup last week.  A few highlights include the following.  Compared to the President’s request, the bill —

  • adds money for space science, including for SOFIA and Europa (total of $5,193 million, which is $221 million more than the request) and states that it does not agree with the Administration’s proposal to terminate SOFIA
  • adds money for Orion (total of $1,140 million, which is $87 million more than the request)
  • adds money for the Space Launch System (total of $1,600 million, which is $220 million more than the request)
  • provides $785 million for commercial crew, which is more than FY2014 but less than the request of $848 million, and says the funding will support “one industry partner’s advancement” to the next phase of the program (NASA wants at least two)
  • limits NASA’s spending for the Asteroid Redirect Mission to activities that are applicable to other current or future NASA programs (no dollar amounts are specified)
  • requires an independent assessment of the Mars Flyby 2021 concept to send astronauts to flyby Mars (not to land on or orbit the planet ) in 2021 via Venus
  • adds money for aeronautics (total of $666 million, which is $115 million more than the request)
  • cuts Space Technology (total of $620 million, which is $85.5 million less than the request)
  • cuts Space Operations by a small amount (total of $3,885 million, which is $20 million less than the request), but directs that it come from ISS operations and not research or transportation and expresses concerns about the cost of ISS operations
  • adds money for Education (total of $106 million, which is $17 million more than the request)

More details are in previous articles we have posted:

The bill now must be voted on by the full House.  The Senate must go through a similar procedure and the two sides then have to reconcile their differences and the President must agree and sign the bill into law, so there are many more steps to come.

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