House Panel Cuts Funds for Space Station Project

WASHINGTON —  In another blow to the nation’s embattled space station Freedom, the House Appropriations Committee on Monday approved a spending bill that eliminates nearly all funding for the controversial program.

The decision follows a similar subcommittee vote and sets the stage for a major battle on the House floor later this week. Senior White House aides have said that they will recommend a veto of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration appropriations bill unless it includes money to pursue the space station program.

“What it came down to was we could fund the space station, and virtually nothing else, or we could cancel the station,” said Rep. Bob Traxler (D-Mich.), chairman of the subcommittee that unexpectedly slashed the space station budget three weeks ago.

Supporters of the program, which NASA estimates will cost $30 billion through the year 2000, said that they will introduce an amendment Thursday on the House floor that would restore most or all of the $2 billion that was cut from NASA’s 1992 space station budget.

“NASA has stated in the strongest possible way that manned space flight is the priority for the future,” said Rep. Bill Lowery (R-San Diego), one of three Appropriations Committee members who will lead the fight to save the space station on the House floor. “If we abandon (the) station, we would put off and risk the entire manned space program. . . .”

Lowery said that he and his allies, Reps. Jim Chapman (D-Tex.) and Joseph M. McDade (R-Pa.), did not move to restore space station funding in the Appropriations Committee because they believe that they will have a better chance of victory in the full House.

A strong showing might be enough to help persuade the Senate to approve funding for the space station and then get the appropriation through a House-Senate conference committee, Lowery said.

The budget for NASA, which includes the space station program, is part of the $80.9-billion appropriations bill that funds the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and a host of independent federal agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency. The bill was approved by the Appropriations Committee on a voice vote.

When Traxler’s subcommittee cut the funds for the space station, its members increased proposed spending for veterans’ medical care, public housing programs and other NASA science programs.

Critics of the space station on the subcommittee argued that, in difficult economic times, Congress must spend more on social programs and less on “big science.” But Lowery and others said that the United States will lose its lead in manned space exploration if the nation abandons the space station.