Opponent Calls Ideas "Outrageous"
An incumbent US Congressman from
Houston, TX is campaigning for re-election by suggesting a total
overhaul of NASA, getting rid of bureaucracy and putting the
scientists and engineers back in charge of the overall vision for
the space program.
The Houston Chronicle reports that on Tuesday last week,
Republican John Culberson told an online town hall meeting NASA
has, "...failed us miserably," and, "...wastes a vast amount of
money." He then announced on Thursday he was considering
introducing legislation which would recast NASA in a form similar
to that of the National Science Foundation, an independent federal
agency led by a director and a 24-member board appointed by the
president.
"NASA needs complete freedom to hire and fire based on
performance; it needs to be driven by the scientists and the
engineers, and it needs to be free of politics as much as
possible," Culberson said.
Culberson is a member of the House Appropriations Committee,
says that even after spending more than $156 billion in the past
decade, NASA has given up "a 40-year advantage" in space
exploration, relying on liquid-fueled rockets with technology
dating back to "Robert Goddard-era rockets" of the 1920s.
As is often the case in political campaigns, Democrats are
directing attention away from any merits of the incumbent's
argument... and dumbing-down the debate to paint Culbertson as an
enemy of NASA, and the 20,000 jobs it represents in the Houston
area. Culberston's election opponent, Michael Skelly, says, "It's
outrageous to suggest that the agency that put a man on the moon
has somehow failed us. I will always be a strong supporter of
NASA."
Like many space program observers, George Washington
University's Space Policy Institute Director John Logsdon gives
NASA credit for making the best of a difficult political
situation.
"It's easy to beat up on them because they're at the end of the
shuttle program, and they've been given inadequate funding by the
administration and Congress to move forward with the new program
for manned spaceflight," he said.
Culberson responded to the furor by restating to the Chronicle
that his comments were aimed at political bloat and financial
waste, not NASA employees. "It was never my intention to demean the
fine people of NASA, who are working their hearts out to do their
best with the constraints of a crippling bureaucracy that wastes
money inexcusably."
Culbertson added his thoughts have not yet been put in the form
of a formal House bill.