Yesterday, I wrote that Congress may slash NASA’s Moon and Mars budget. The House voted today, and the amendment to do this was voted down.
Phew!
Curiously, the vote was more bipartisan than I would have expected. According to House records, 55 Republicans voted for it, and 168 voted against it. 89 Democrats voted for it, and 106 voted against it (one Independent voted for it). The final tally was 145 to 274, the amendment was voted down, and the Moon/Mars initiative was saved for now.
My own Representative, Lynn Woolsey, voted for it. She’ll be hearing from me.
Incidentally, I may have implied in my previous post that NASA would have lost this money. That’s not the case; instead, they would have been prohibited from using it on funding a manned mission to Mars.
Either way, this was a dumb, dumb amendment, and I’m glad it’s gone.
