Hearing Of The House Committee On Science And Technology - Decisions On The Future Direction And Funding For NASA: What Will They Mean For The U.S. Aerospace Workforce And Industrial Base?

Statement

Thank you for yielding time to me, Mr. Chairman. I would like to start by welcoming our witnesses to this morning's hearing. This hearing is the latest in a series that the Committee and the Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee have convened over the past several months on the critical factors that the Administration and Congress will need to consider when we make our decisions on the future direction and funding for NASA, and in particular for NASA's human space flight and exploration activities.

We decided to hold those hearings, including last week's hearing on human space flight safety, because it is important for Congress--and the White House--to understand what is at stake. I personally believe that a great deal is at stake--not just in the near-term, but for decades to come. And I believe that we need to keep that long-term perspective front and center when we look at the potential impact on the workforce and the space industrial base of pending decisions on NASA's future. Because it's not just a question of the number of jobs, although our witnesses will testify that tens of thousands of jobs will be impacted by those decisions, it's also the quality of the jobs that should be a significant consideration.

As we will hear today, aerospace jobs are high-paying, high-skilled jobs--jobs that will enable us to compete…and lead…in the 21st century, not just in space but back here on Earth too. They are the jobs that we would like to have more of, and they are certainly the kind of jobs that we don't want to see go away, as is already happening across the country. Finally, they are the jobs that can excite and inspire our young people to pursue careers in science and engineering, something that this nation needs to have happen. Yet if those jobs go away, even for awhile, it can be very difficult to get the best of those young people back. So the health of the workforce and of the space industrial base is important, because the commercial sector is critical to the success of NASA's missions.

Contracts with the commercial sector account for more than 80 percent of NASA's budget. Those contracts encompass work done by large established aerospace firms, work done by emerging companies that offer the promise of new capabilities to meet the agency's needs, and products and services provided to NASA by non-aerospace companies both large and small. Given that, it is clear that support for NASA is also support for the commercial sector and for the jobs that sector creates and the innovations that it makes possible.

The president and this Congress thus have serious decisions to make in the coming weeks and months. We need to decide whether we as a nation are finally going to provide the resources NASA needs to carry out the important missions the nation has given it…or not. We need to decide whether we are going to maintain our commitment to a "robust program of exploration involving humans and robots" to use the words of the FY 2010 NASA budget request--a program that successive Congresses have authorized and funded…or not.

And if the president would recommend some manner of course change, we collectively would need to figure out how to make any such change in way that protects the American taxpayers' money, preserves crew safety and maintains America's position as the world leader in space.

Make no mistake about it. The decisions we collectively make about the future of our space program will have a lasting impact on our workforce, our industrial base, and our standing in the world. As a result, I want our witnesses to give us their views on what we need to consider when making those decisions so that the outcome will inspire our best and brightest to pursue careers in aerospace--careers that will be vital to our future competitiveness, national security, and quality of life. And I hope that they will also share their views on which outcome is going to best help maintain and strengthen critical skills and capabilities this nation will need if it is to remain a leader in space activities. I ask because I worry that if we make the wrong decisions and waver in our commitment, we will not be keeping faith with that generation of young people we are seeking to inspire.

As today's hearing will make clear, the decisions we will be making will also have a profound impact on the future health of our space industrial base. Several of our witnesses will discuss the ways in which investments in our space program--or conversely, cutbacks in our space investments--have a ripple effect on the health of an array of businesses, both large and small, that are scattered across the nation. Those impacts extend beyond the business community focused on civil space to include impacts on the continued viability of suppliers of capabilities critical to our national security.

As someone who also serves on the Armed Services Committee, I am keenly sensitive to the need not to take actions with our civil space program that could have an adverse impact on the industrial base that also supports our national security.

I thus would like our witnesses to give us their views on the weight we should give to space industrial base concerns as we decide whether to support and fund a meaningful exploration program at NASA or not. You know, it's become almost a cliché to quote the saying carved on the wall behind us: "Where there is no vision, the people perish." However, we quote it because it contains a profound truth. Thus, as the president and Congress consider NASA's future, we need to see the potential impacts of our decisions as clearly as possible.

This hearing and the ones that have preceded it are all aimed at giving this Congress--and hopefully the Administration too-the clarity of vision that we will need to make informed choices about the future of America's space program and its human space flight activities. Each of you who are testifying here today has an important role to play in that effort, and I look forward to your testimony.

With that, I yield back the balance of my time.

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