Washington – May 19, 1999 – After a day of political wrangling, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a three year budget bill for the civil space program late Wednesday. But Democrats failed to attempt a restoration of the Triana satellite project or the TransHab inflatable space station module, both of which were removed from the funding authorization before Wednesday's floor action. The final vote was 259 to 168.
Action on the NASA bill now moves to the Senate, where a Senate Science
Committee has already approved a NASA bill with both projects retained.
This will almost certainly set up a political showdown between
Republican critics of the space projects and its Democratic supporters
in a House-Senate conference committee later this summer.
While Democrats expressed disagreement over the deletion of the Triana
program, no member moved to restore the project in an amendment to the
bill.
Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX) said that conference attendees would try to restore Triana before the final version of the space budget heads to the White House this autumn for a Clinton signature.
Both NASA administrator Daniel S. Goldin and Democratic supports of Triana have urged the president veto the legislation if sent to the executive without the satellite included.
The final vote Wednesday was delayed by attempts at purging the Russians
from the International Space Station project.
In an unusual turnabout, both Science Committee Chair R. James Sensenbrenner (R-WIS) and Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), space subcommittee chair agreed to the move, despite Democrats rallying around the station project.
The attempts on three amendments to delete the Russians failed. So did attempts at capping the station project's cost.
The bill, H.R. 1654, funds $41.2 billion for NASA from Fiscal year 2000 through Fiscal year 2002. A similar bill in the Senate is likely to reach the full Senate floor by next week, or shortly after the Memorial Day recess, Congressional sources said.
Triana's Science Mission Opinion Piece
