Rick
10-27-2008, 10:54 PM
http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081027/BREAKINGNEWS/81027035&template=printart
VIERA — Space Coast congressmen are watching next week’s presidential election with a healthy dose of skepticism: Will the winner cut NASA funding?
At stake is Brevard County’s economic lifeblood — particularly with thousands of job cuts looming in 2010, after the space shuttle program ends.
“John McCain is really a budget hawk,” said outgoing U.S. Rep. Dave Weldon, R-Indialantic, whose congressional district includes Central and South Brevard. “He likes to control spending. So, if he becomes president, getting more money out of him is going to be the challenge.”
“Barack Obama, I believe to be pretty liberal. And I don’t think getting more money will be the challenge. I think the greater problem will be to get him to spend it on the space program,” Weldon said. “He’ll want to spend it on other things.”
Weldon spoke Monday morning during a roundtable discussion in Viera on NASA’s uncertain fiscal future.
U.S. Rep. Tom Feeney, R-Oviedo, echoed Weldon’s sentiments, saying neither McCain nor Obama is predictable, and “we are leaping into the great unknown, politically.” Feeney’s congressional district includes North Brevard.
Latest in a series dating to last summer, the workshop was designed to help shape federal and state legislative priorities for the space industry.
Aside from a new president, Brevard County Commissioner Truman Scarborough listed other formidable short-term challenges:
Technical problems with the Ares rocket, part of NASA’s planned successor to the shuttle.
The global economic crisis.
A new Congress.
“Selling the space program as a jobs program is a loser from start to finish,” Feeney said of today’s climate in Washington, D.C. “If you were, pretend, a congressman from outside of Detroit with the auto industry collapsing, (you) are not terribly sympathetic with the plight of our job loss.”
“So it has got to be sold as a geopolitical challenge,” he said.
In that vein, Feeney said China is using its space program to “exploit” competitive international opportunities with other countries — including hostile nations like Venezuela and Iran.
Feeney and Weldon also raised the specter of Russia making dangerous inroads in space.
For the future, Weldon recommended that Brevard leaders continue to “play the Russia card.”
Bob Walker, the county’s Washington-based lobbyist on space issues, said the industry is abuzz with talk that the Ares launch vehicle “does seem to be on the chopping block.”
Walker said both candidates hope to increase communication among military, civilian and commercial space interests.
“I do think that with the new administration — whether it’s an Obama administration or a McCain administration — that you will see some efforts to recreate something akin to the old National Space Council,” Walker said.
Barney Bishop, chief executive officer of Associated Industries of Florida, said 47 out of Florida’s 67 counties boast at least one aerospace business.
Bishop said he worries that New Mexico, California, Colorado, Texas and Virginia may threaten Florida’s status as the leading space state.
VIERA — Space Coast congressmen are watching next week’s presidential election with a healthy dose of skepticism: Will the winner cut NASA funding?
At stake is Brevard County’s economic lifeblood — particularly with thousands of job cuts looming in 2010, after the space shuttle program ends.
“John McCain is really a budget hawk,” said outgoing U.S. Rep. Dave Weldon, R-Indialantic, whose congressional district includes Central and South Brevard. “He likes to control spending. So, if he becomes president, getting more money out of him is going to be the challenge.”
“Barack Obama, I believe to be pretty liberal. And I don’t think getting more money will be the challenge. I think the greater problem will be to get him to spend it on the space program,” Weldon said. “He’ll want to spend it on other things.”
Weldon spoke Monday morning during a roundtable discussion in Viera on NASA’s uncertain fiscal future.
U.S. Rep. Tom Feeney, R-Oviedo, echoed Weldon’s sentiments, saying neither McCain nor Obama is predictable, and “we are leaping into the great unknown, politically.” Feeney’s congressional district includes North Brevard.
Latest in a series dating to last summer, the workshop was designed to help shape federal and state legislative priorities for the space industry.
Aside from a new president, Brevard County Commissioner Truman Scarborough listed other formidable short-term challenges:
Technical problems with the Ares rocket, part of NASA’s planned successor to the shuttle.
The global economic crisis.
A new Congress.
“Selling the space program as a jobs program is a loser from start to finish,” Feeney said of today’s climate in Washington, D.C. “If you were, pretend, a congressman from outside of Detroit with the auto industry collapsing, (you) are not terribly sympathetic with the plight of our job loss.”
“So it has got to be sold as a geopolitical challenge,” he said.
In that vein, Feeney said China is using its space program to “exploit” competitive international opportunities with other countries — including hostile nations like Venezuela and Iran.
Feeney and Weldon also raised the specter of Russia making dangerous inroads in space.
For the future, Weldon recommended that Brevard leaders continue to “play the Russia card.”
Bob Walker, the county’s Washington-based lobbyist on space issues, said the industry is abuzz with talk that the Ares launch vehicle “does seem to be on the chopping block.”
Walker said both candidates hope to increase communication among military, civilian and commercial space interests.
“I do think that with the new administration — whether it’s an Obama administration or a McCain administration — that you will see some efforts to recreate something akin to the old National Space Council,” Walker said.
Barney Bishop, chief executive officer of Associated Industries of Florida, said 47 out of Florida’s 67 counties boast at least one aerospace business.
Bishop said he worries that New Mexico, California, Colorado, Texas and Virginia may threaten Florida’s status as the leading space state.