HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES : Funding for Space Station

By a margin of one vote, the House rejected an amendment to terminate the space station Freedom by eliminating its funding from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration budget (HR 2200). The bill authorizes $12.7 billion over the next seven years for the project, which is designed to yield scientific breakthroughs and energize the U.S. space program. About $9 billion already has been appropriated toward putting Freedom aloft by the end of the century.

Amendment sponsor Tim Roemer (D-Ind.) said, “We cannot afford to go on spending money in a callous and cavalier manner” on the space station.

“Without the space station, our nation’s long commitment to the manned exploration of space will be at an end,” opponent George E. Brown Jr. (D-Colton) said.

The vote was 215 for and 216 against. A yes vote was to kill the space station. How They Voted Rep. Becerra (D): Yea Rep. Dixon (D): Nay Rep. Roybal-Allard (D): Nay Rep. Waters (D): Nay