Reps. Pete Olson, Mike Coffman and Bill Posey: We should keep investing in space

We have faced many issues since the beginning of this Congress, but alarmingly the common thread amongst them has been spending. Government expansion, increased spending, and higher deficits have been the result of legislation meant to address our economic, energy, and now, health care, concerns.

As freshmen Republicans all, we are determined to counter this type of governing by blank check. Washington solutions are all too Washington-focused and fail to have the intended effect. In fact, most often, they have the opposite effect.

In September, the U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee (Augustine Committee) released a summary of their findings. This report, commissioned by the Obama administration, stated that our nation's human space flight programs' "means do not match aspirations."

So we should ask: What do we aspire to achieve and what means are needed? Today, space is one area in which the United States is undeniably and universally respected around the world. Decisions in the near future will determine if this will be the case for much longer.

NASA's current budget is $18 billion. The Augustine Committee reports that for NASA to have a viable program it will need an additional $3 billion both immediately and into the future. We do not take spending $3 billion lightly, but it is our strong belief that the failure to do so will be even more costly in the long run.

This request must be put into proper perspective. NASA spending as a percentage of the federal budget declined by nearly 20% between 2007 and today. Also, the funding shortfall between what NASA was promised when it began the Shuttle replacement program, Constellation, and what it has actually received is $20 billion (including the administration's proposed budgets through 2014).

It is further noteworthy that while NASA's budget is flat-lined cumulatively through 2014, under the President's proposed budget, spending across non-NASA accounts increases. Fifty years of accomplishments by NASA have shown that such an investment in the agency is justified.

From GPS to direct television services, satellite radio to telemedicine, natural disaster tracking to earth observation monitoring, America's space agency, and aerospace industry, impacts every American in their daily lives. The typical American home contains dozens of NASA-inspired technologies.

We can judge the significance through two recent pieces of legislation. First, the misnamed "stimulus package" was sold to the public as a vehicle to create jobs and fix our economy. Months later, our unemployment rate stands at 9.8%, a level far above the 8% ceiling that was promised when the "stimulus" was passed. We took to the floor and inquired, "Where are the jobs?"

In the case of the aerospace industry, we are talking not about creating jobs, but keeping them - an estimated 262,000 in the U.S. space industry across this country. The aerospace workforce on average is highly educated with higher pay than other private sector jobs. These are the very jobs the stimulus was supposed to create.

According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), less than 17% of the so-called "Stimulus" has been spent. We will seek ways, in the upcoming months, to redirect some of this uncommitted funding towards NASA and our nation's space future.

Secondly, prior to our time in Congress, a vote was taken to bail out the auto industry. We would have opposed such a measure, but how sad that it reached that point. Automobile manufacturing was an American invention and was the exclusive province of our nation for decades.

Our nation lost the dominance of that industry to foreign competitors. Currently, aerospace is an American-dominated industry. Other nations are nipping at our heels and will not stand and continue to cede leadership to us.

With a $57 billion U.S. trade surplus, aerospace is America's leading manufacturing export industry. Let us also bear in mind the national security implications at stake. Whoever dominates space will impact the security we have on earth.

We understand that NASA is not the sole economic driver of the aerospace industry, but it is the public face of a national commitment to exploration, discovery, and innovation. It is also an engine that drives innovation, invention and breakthrough technologies that foster our aerospace dominance.

The answer to the challenges that face us is not always more money, but when an agency that has proven that it can repeatedly deliver economic, educational, scientific, and not the least of which, inspirational, leadership to our nation and the world, it would be tragic if we failed to make such an investment and cede yet another inherently American industry to international competitors. 

We feel that the best way for industry to thrive is when government is smaller and spends less. If, however, this Congress continues its commitment to spending (which we will continue to fight), we suggest a wise investment is our nation's space program.

Rep. Pete Olson is from Texas, Rep. Mike Coffman is from Colorado, and Rep. Bill Posey is from Florida. All three are Republicans.