Senate committee moves to cancel most of Trump’s proposed NASA budget cuts
Like pigs at the trough
We’ll just print it! Though disagreements prevented the Senate’s appropriations committee from approving the 2026 bills covering the commerce, justice, and science agencies of the federal government (including NASA) , the committee yesterday appeared poised to cancel most of Trump’s proposed NASA budget cuts and even add more spending across the board.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland), the top Democrat on the CJS subcommittee, said this morning the bill would fund NASA at $24.9 billion, slightly above its current $24.8 billion level, with the Science Mission Directorate (SMD) remaining level at $7.3 billion.
By contrast, the Trump Administration wants to cut NASA overall by $6 billion, from $24.8 billion to $18.8 billion. SMD’s portion would drop 47 percent, from $7.3 billion to $3.9 billion.
The disagreements centered not on NASA, but on the Trump administration’s effort to cancel a very expensive new FBI headquarters building in the Maryland suburbs and instead shift the agency to an already existing building in DC. Van Hollen opposed this, and the ensuing political maneuvering forced the committee to cancel the vote.
This bill would once again continue full funding for SLS, Orion, and Lunar Gateway. It also includes funding for NASA’s very messed-up Mars Sample Return mission (which comprises the large bulk of the money added back in for science). From this it appears that the Republicans in the Senate are quite willing to join the Democrats in spending money wildly, as they have for decades. They have no interest in gaining some control over the out-of-control federal budget, in any way, as Trump is attempting to do.
What remains unknown is this: Who has the support of the American people? The election suggests the public agrees with Trump. History suggests that this support for cutting the budget is actually very shallow, and that while the public says it wants that budget brought under control, it refuses to accept any specific cuts to any program. “Cut the budget, but don’t you dare cut the programs I like!”
It is my sense that the public’s view is changing, and it is now quite ready to allow big cuts across the board. The problem is that the vested interests in Congress and in the DC work force are quite powerful, and appear to still control the actions of our corrupt elected officials.
Thus, the more of that work force that Trump can eliminate as quickly as possible, on his own, the more chance he will have to eventually bring this budget under some control.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Like pigs at the trough
We’ll just print it! Though disagreements prevented the Senate’s appropriations committee from approving the 2026 bills covering the commerce, justice, and science agencies of the federal government (including NASA) , the committee yesterday appeared poised to cancel most of Trump’s proposed NASA budget cuts and even add more spending across the board.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland), the top Democrat on the CJS subcommittee, said this morning the bill would fund NASA at $24.9 billion, slightly above its current $24.8 billion level, with the Science Mission Directorate (SMD) remaining level at $7.3 billion.
By contrast, the Trump Administration wants to cut NASA overall by $6 billion, from $24.8 billion to $18.8 billion. SMD’s portion would drop 47 percent, from $7.3 billion to $3.9 billion.
The disagreements centered not on NASA, but on the Trump administration’s effort to cancel a very expensive new FBI headquarters building in the Maryland suburbs and instead shift the agency to an already existing building in DC. Van Hollen opposed this, and the ensuing political maneuvering forced the committee to cancel the vote.
This bill would once again continue full funding for SLS, Orion, and Lunar Gateway. It also includes funding for NASA’s very messed-up Mars Sample Return mission (which comprises the large bulk of the money added back in for science). From this it appears that the Republicans in the Senate are quite willing to join the Democrats in spending money wildly, as they have for decades. They have no interest in gaining some control over the out-of-control federal budget, in any way, as Trump is attempting to do.
What remains unknown is this: Who has the support of the American people? The election suggests the public agrees with Trump. History suggests that this support for cutting the budget is actually very shallow, and that while the public says it wants that budget brought under control, it refuses to accept any specific cuts to any program. “Cut the budget, but don’t you dare cut the programs I like!”
It is my sense that the public’s view is changing, and it is now quite ready to allow big cuts across the board. The problem is that the vested interests in Congress and in the DC work force are quite powerful, and appear to still control the actions of our corrupt elected officials.
Thus, the more of that work force that Trump can eliminate as quickly as possible, on his own, the more chance he will have to eventually bring this budget under some control.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
“World Record for Hogs Eliminated in less than 30 Seconds”
https://youtu.be/eOYjvJFTXf4
This is why our debt will continue to grow until it eventually topples over like a Jenga block stack.
Sent strong words to Ted Cruz about whole space funding mess; but don’t expect much from the Ted-ster, He is burrowed into DC like the average Senate or House tick.
Term Limits are the only way to stop the feeding frenzy. We need 34 states to call a Constitutional Convention of States. Yes, there are dangers but they can be mitigated.
https://conventionofstates.com/take_action
Texas HAS voted FOR a Convention of States
In the meantime praying, working, giving to try to expand Republican majority in both Houses as stop gap to mitigate complete virtue signaling insanity.
I feared this would happen, and I said so; and so it has. And this scrum over FBI headquarters (however it ends up being resolved) is not going to avert the rest of this pork being retained in the final bill when it happens.
The NASA PBR that Russ Vought’s OMB assembled — whatever you think of it – was always going to be a tough sell on the Hill, and maybe not least because there were some….er, I might say, cuts that were more obviously open to critique than others. But be that as it may, the real problem is that the administration has not articulated any broader program of reform for which these cuts are the opening salvo, let alone invested any political capital or time in trying to sell. What we got instead looked like just Vought digging for a few billion to save in a smaller government agency budget.
I do not know whether Jared Isaacman would have been a successful man in the job, but had he been kept as NASA administrator . . . he would have a had a hard time closing that sale, too, but at least he would have been the guy in the appropriate job to make the attempt. And we know now that he broadly supported the budget, so we can assume he would have made the effort, and maybe even articulated some larger program of reform to which it was a necessary premise. And the confirmation hearing process did suggest that he was, at least, someone that Cruz’s and Babbin’s committee members (even some Democrats) would have *listened* to, if not heeded.
Instead, there has been no one in the job at all to even make that effort — just poor Janet Petro as the temporary functionary dutifully swinging the axe and giving town hall pep talks. Now, with Sean Duffy, there is . . . sort of. He can get Trump on speed dial, and he is a de facto political appointee, which gives him more clout with Republicans, but . . . he also has a day job. And, frankly, it is probably too late now anyway, at least for the FY 2026 budget.
I am afraid that the pork farm will continue until some administration actually makes the effort, spends the political capital, to stop it. In the mean time, we are left to hope that a growing commercial space industry makes it all at least modestly less important to our future in space.
AS I understand it, if there is a NASA project that does not have a specific line item in the budget, the President can cancel it tomorrow.
If Trump was serious about those cuts, he can cancel those projects immediate.
If he doesn’t then maybe the cuts were nothing more than a starting position.
I’m wondering about this also…. I think for once we are all on the same page regarding canceling SLS, Lunar gateway, and perhaps putting MSR out for tender makes nothing but sense, but surely the pure science based NASA stuff that does so well could continue to be funded from the savings? ( Remember Bob… A bill like this could have killed the Hubble at several time points).
It’s you guys budget, and you will rightly do as your government sees fit, but it would be a crying shame to see Space science cut at the expense of essentially pointless missions.
Is it even possible to cut the nonsense and reappropriate the funds to the good stuff, including hiring private enterprise for manned space flight, inside this budget bill? I will admit to having no great knowledge of how your budget works…. I understand each state with a finger in the pie will be keen to keep it there, but beyond that I have no clue how it all works.
Any (as brief as possible) explanation appreciated, ( and please.. links to reputable sites encouraged, but no links to YouTube, you will be wasting more of your own time than mine )
Lee S writes:
“A bill like this could have killed the Hubble at several time points”
Hubble has a specific line item in the budget . That means the project cannot be funded below the value specified unless Congress changes that. It’s protected.
”…I have no clue how it all works. Any (as brief as possible) explanation appreciated…”
The US federal budget is broken down into three categories: mandatory entitlement spending ($4.1 trillion in 2024), discretionary spending ($1.8 trillion), and interest on the debt ($881 billion).
The $4.1 trillion mandatory spending is for those social programs that you repeatedly tell us that we don’t have: $1.5 trillion for Social Security (old-age pensions), $865 billion for Medicare (healthcare for the elderly), $618 billion for Medicaid (healthcare for the poor), $370 billion for various income security programs (food stamps, disability payments, unemployment compensation, childhood nutrition programs, and family support programs such as foster care and the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program), and $752 billion for other mandatory spending (military and government pensions, veterans benefits, ObamaCare, payments for illegal aliens, etc.).
Note that this isn’t the total spending for those categories. Medicare, ObamaCare, and unemployment insurance collect premiums for their policies. This is just the spending over and above those premiums. In addition, the 50 states spend a great deal of money for Medicaid and other social programs out of their own budgets that do not come from the federal government.
The discretionary category includes $850 billion in defense spending and $960 billion in non-defense spending. This latter category includes NASA, foreign aid, air traffic control, the Coast Guard, federal law enforcement, federal education spending, federal transportation spending, more veterans benefits, and more income security programs.
Note that almost all actual education spending is at the local level, not the federal or state levels. The schools, community colleges and trade schools, libraries, ambulances, police departments, fire departments, jails, courts, city streets, water mains, and sewers are all under local control with local funding paid for by local taxes. The states fund most highways and universities and add education funds to poor districts to help balance educational opportunities out. They also fund a whole lot of additional social programs. None of this state or local funding is included in the federal budget.
The way the process works is that every February the president submits to Congress a budget request to cover the discretionary spending only. The rest is paid automatically without Congressional action or control. (Note: this request has not happened yet this year except for a few agencies such as NASA for which the Trump administration sent a budget request to the Congress in June.)
Then each house of Congress breaks the budget request into thirteen individual budget bills and sends them to the appropriate subcommittee of each house’s appropriations committee. Those subcommittees use the president’s budget as a guide but re-write the budget bills with their own preferences. Those subcommittees then “mark up” their individual bills and send them to the full appropriations committee. That committee modifies the budget bills and then sends them individually to the full House or Senate.
The House and Senate then each amend and pass their versions of each of the thirteen individual funding bills. Once that happens, a joint House-Senate committee blends the two versions into a single bill for each of the thirteen bills which then must be passed by both the House and Senate without modification. Finally, each of the thirteen bills goes to the president for his signature or veto.
If all of this doesn’t happen by the beginning of the fiscal year on October 1st then things get squirrelly. Something for another day perhaps.
Still more on the Elephant in the Room. (I think that it’s important to talk about this, but does anyone else think so.)
At this moment, the Trump Administration is in the midst of thoroughly discrediting itself through its insistence that there is nothing to the whole sordid Epstein affair. The critical question, at least as I see it, is just how much credibility the Trump Admin. can afford to squander on maintaining the lie that this is the case. Nothing to see here; please move along. If they will lie about this, what else will they lie about, and why should they be trusted?
For much of the non-MAGA electorate, it was the collapse of the credibility of the Biden Admin. that finally decided the outcome of the election in November. Now, watching Ms. Bondi I’m reminded of Jen Psaki and Karine Jean-Pierre, and this is not a good look for Mr. Trump and his friends. Quoting one observer’s comment, “They know that we know they’re lying to us, but they don’t care.”
The problem with all of this is that the same question of credibility applies to the proposed budget for NASA, and where are the votes going to come from — both in Congress and in the midterm elections — to sustain whatever policy initiatives the Trump Administration may present to us. As Robert observes, in the long term it may be more important to just allow the private sector to do its own thing and go its own way than to worry overmuch about whether or not we have a rational — or credible — national space program*. It would be nice, however, if whatever kind of “program” that Official Washington ends up supporting would at least not conflict with or impede what the private sector is trying to accomplish.
*At this moment, what *does* the Trump Administration support? Does it still support cutting funding for SLS / Artemis and the Mars Sample Return Mission, or — after Mr. Musk has been shown the door — are they now returning the magical thinking of the Bush, Obama, and Biden years?
Given the Trump Administration’s break with Mr. Musk, however, and this emerging, self-inflicted challenge to its credibility, it’s hard to know what the politics of space might be by the end of this year. Likewise, how the private sector will react to all of this. As the song says, “new boss, same as the old boss,” but many of us had hoped for better.
mkent wrote: “…, discretionary spending ($1.8 trillion), …”
Note that “discretionary spending” encompasses all the actual functions of government as stated in the Constitution, plus a few non-constitutional items, listed by mkent. Somehow, safety-net* welfare (mkent called it social programs) spending is seen by government as “mandatory spending.” The only portions of this that are entitlements are Social Security, Medicare, and veteran benefits, which were earned by almost all the recipients as part of their productive gainful employment.
So, how did the required constitutional items become “discretionary” and the unconstitutional** items become mandatory?
I don’t know, but a major problem with modern governmental function is that the U.S. government is assumed as the sovereign, not the individual states. This probably comes from the hierarchy of the laws, where federal law supersedes state laws. However, the Tenth Amendment shows that the federal government is not sovereign, but The People and the States are the sovereigns. The Preamble to the Constitution shows that We the People are the sovereign in this country. Even the Declaration of Independence acknowledges that governments are instituted to secure The People’s rights. To emphasize the point: We the People are the sovereign in this country.
___________
* Unfortunately, the safety net feature of welfare is now seen by many recipients as a hammock for resting in for long periods of time, even for lifetimes, rather than the intended purpose to keep people fed and housed until they become gainfully employed again. We have created generational welfare families, whose children have no concept of going to work every day and no concept of being productive members of society. Our EBT cards (modern version of food stamps) are accepted in the darnedest places, even Disneyland, one of the more expensive places on earth (not just the happiest place on earth).
** Read the Tenth Amendment:
The items not stated explicitly in the Constitution are not allowed to be funded by the United States (the federal government). Such funding gives power to the federal government that it is not allowed to hold — and the federal government exercises its usurped power by telling the States and the local governments that it will withhold funding if these governments do not do as the federal government directs them. Thus, the power illegally migrated from the State and local governments to the usurping federal government.
Almost all the “mandatory” items are not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, including Social Security and Medicare. Even veteran benefits are not among the powers delegated to the United States, thus they are at best State powers.
”Note that ‘discretionary spending’ encompasses all the actual functions of government as stated in the Constitution, plus a few non-constitutional items…”
Oh, I know. But I was writing for a foreign audience, in particular one who denies we even have the social programs I was writing about. And that was really a side issue to the question about process that he was asking. It was already getting pretty long, and I didn’t want to get so far down the rabbit hole that he (and others) would not follow.
”…a major problem with modern governmental function is that the U.S. government is assumed as the sovereign, not the individual states.”
I agree with this as well. I was going to write more about the three levels of government and why the top level is called the “federal” government instead of the “national” government, but it was already getting rather long for a blog comment. Perhaps another day. We’ll see if he re-engages or if he disappears again for a few weeks like he did after I posted economic statistics comparing the United States and Europe.
@mkent,
Thanks for the “clarification” of how government spending works… It’s one of those situations where I understand less after reading than before! I will have another go when I have some peace and quiet, but thank you for putting in the time!
Your jabs at my viewpoints were noted ;-)
I have never said the US has no social net, but have many times pointed out that for such a wealthy country I believe it could be better. But let’s no go there today.
Also, I never leave a conversation thru fear of debate, but there can be days between me being able to check BtB, so very often the thread has disappeared off into the distance and it’s just not practical to scroll thru pages and pages. I know there is a “latest comments” thingy at the very bottom, but ( are you listening Bob! ) it would a fantastic asset to be able to filter by latest comments. If I could do this you would have much more of my pinko commie ranting!
As an aside, the consensus even amongst the lefter leaning space community is happy to have someone in charge over at NASA, even if temporarily… As much to send out coherent messages as what those messages are. ( Remarkably reasonable for the left wouldn’t you say! ;-)