Schiff, Republican colleague call proposed NASA cuts ‘serious mistake’
Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) and John Culberson (R-Texas) penned an op-ed piece in the latest issue of Space News, arguing that “slashing” NASA’s budget would be a “serious mistake” that would erode the nation’s long-held position as the world’s leader in space exploration.
Proposed cuts to NASA‘s budget would drastically scale back the agency’s efforts to explore Mars and likely lead to hundreds of lay-offs at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge, officials say.
Included in the more than $17.7-billion budget proposed for the space agency in 2013 is a $300-million reduction in planetary science funding that would hit JPL particularly hard.
The Mars exploration programs would be suffer particularly hard.
Culberson’s district includes Houston, Tex., another major NASA hub.
“The administration’s proposal would compromise a program painstakingly built up over decades and jeopardize a work force that, once dissolved, would be difficult, if not impossible, to reconstitute,” the congressmen wrote.
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-- Jason Wells, Times Community News
Twitter: @JasonBretWells