FARNBOROUGH, England — The leaders of a Senate appropriations subcommittee say they will increase NASA’s budget and protect the Artemis lunar exploration campaign in an upcoming spending bill even as another senator criticized a “wrongheaded” process.
The Senate Appropriations Committee is scheduled to mark up a commerce, justice and science (CJS) spending bill for fiscal year 2025 on July 25. It is one of four bills the committee will consider that day after skipping a traditional subcommittee markup.
“We’re very pleased to have reached agreement on our bill,” said Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), chair of the CJS appropriations subcommittee, during a July 22 press conference organized by the Aerospace Industries Association during the Farnborough International Airshow. Shaheen is co-chairing a congressional delegation attending the event.
“We have increased funding for NASA,” she said, but did not discuss specifics about the bill, which the committee has yet to release. NASA requested nearly $25.4 billion for fiscal year 2025 after receiving $24.875 billion in 2024. She didn’t say what the increase would be with respect to.
“Despite the challenging fiscal year because of the Fiscal Responsibility Act,” which caps non-defense discretionary spending in 2024 and 2025, she said, “we feel like we have made a great downpayment on the investments we need to make to ensure that America continues to stay on the cutting edge in space.”
She did not discuss any specific programs, but Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), ranking member of the CJS subcommittee and the other co-chair of the delegation, mentioned Artemis. “I would emphasize that in last year’s appropriations bill and in this year’s appropriations bill, it’s been a goal of mine and others to make sure that Artemis is protected and that our plans to be on the moon are advanced,” he said.
He specifically mentioned competition with China, which has plans to land astronauts on the moon by the end of the decade. “We do not want to be a country that is watching China advance their space exploration program at our disadvantage.”
The senators did not describe how their bill might different from one the House Appropriations Committee advanced July 9. It provided nearly $25.2 billion for NASA, $205 million below the request, fully funding exploration programs while keeping science programs flat.
The House and Senate bills will have to be reconciled, likely as part of an omnibus or “minibus” bill that combines some or all separate spending bills. That process will be complicated by the November election that could change party control of the White House and both houses of Congress.
Another member of the delegation criticized the process. “What you’re going to see over the next few months in the Senate, in my judgement, is a lot of playacting,” said Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), who serves on the CJS appropriations subcommittee.
“We’re marking up bills without knowing how much money we have to spend. That, in my opinion, is a very wrongheaded way to try to put together a budget,” he argued, with a new president next year and a new Congress. “All those numbers are going to change.”
Sheheen defended the process. “I would agree that it’s a long way from being put together, but the reality is that, as appropriators, out responsibility is to get a budget done, and the most important thing we can do for the industry is to provide budget certainty.”
