spacetoday.net: Senate committee adds $1 billion to NASA budget

Posted: Fri, Jul 14, 2006, 7:59 AM ET (1159 GMT)
US Capitol

The Senate Appropriations Committee approved an amendment to a NASA budget bill Thursday that will add one billion dollars to the space agency's 2007 budget. The committee met Thursday to approve an appropriations bill that funds NASA and a number of other agencies. Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee that deals with NASA, introduced the amendment along with Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), saying the money would partially reimburse NASA for the costs it incurred returning the shuttle to flight. The amendment, designated as "emergency" funding to get around budget caps, was approved by the full committee despite the objections of a few senators, who thought it was a stretch to call NASA's situation an emergency. The appropriations bill must still be approved by the full Senate, and then be reconciled with the House version passed last month without the emergency funding provision.