Cap on Space Station Funds Favored

A Senate committee voted Thursday to cap spending for the financially troubled space station and to provide $2 billion next year for cleanup costs of natural disasters.

With NASA conceding that the space station is experiencing huge cost overruns, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved a spending bill that includes $2 billion for construction, research and other activities--about $100 million less than President Bush requested. The committee also voted to cap space station spending at $6.7 billion over the next five years.

Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.), chief author of the spending measure, complained that NASA has “a culture of permissiveness” that tolerates “overrun after overrun after overrun.” She said the station’s huge costs have drained needed funds from other space and science programs.

Construction costs alone of the space station, initially estimated at $8 billion when it was proposed in 1984, are now approaching four times that amount. By some estimates, the station’s total price tag could reach $94 billion. Earlier this year, NASA conceded that the $7 billion it has budgeted for the station over the next five years could fall $4 billion short.

On Tuesday, the House Appropriations Committee voted to provide Bush’s full request for the station, which is under construction by astronauts 240 miles above the Earth.

The space station funds were part of a $113.4-billion measure financing veterans, housing, environment and science programs for fiscal 2002, which begins Oct. 1. The Senate panel voted, 29 to 0, to approve it and a separate $39.3-billion measure financing the Commerce, Justice and State departments.

The Senate panel included $2 billion for the next fiscal year to replenish the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which responds to natural disasters. The money will be available if Bush declares any emergencies.