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From the Executive Director

Lobbying Congress - Our Day in Washington

June 2 , 2006

Click to enlarge > Louis Friedman, Executive Director

On May 25, we took our SOS campaign to Washington. With a petition, newspaper advertisements, a high profile event, and personal lobbying of the House and Senate, we made our case to Congress that funding for NASA science must be preserved.

The biggest event of the day was a presentation we organized in the House Science Committee hearing room. Titanic director James Cameron, Society Vice-President Bill Nye (the Science Guy), planetary scientist and Society board member Heidi Hammel and I, presented the virtues of space science and planetary exploration to scores of congressional staff. We thank Cameron, who gave an excellent presentation and featured his Europa exploration scenes from the IMAX documentary Aliens of the Deep. We also thank the House Science Committee for co-sponsoring the event.

Congressman John Culberson (R-TX) came into our presentation to strongly assert his objections to the Administration’s budget and his determination to add funding for a Europa mission. His speech was so strong, I wasn’t sure if we were lobbying Congress, or he was lobbying us.

While in Washington, we delivered petitions signed by 5,000 members and supporters, urging the Appropriators to restore the science funding that the Administration wants to eliminate. We delivered the petitions in person to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees.

We also cited our members’ signatures along with noted scientists (including three Nobel Laureates) in advertisements in the Washington Post and congressional Roll Call. The ads, with their attention-getting headline “Don’t Trash Space Science” and a graphic depicting the planets in a trash-can, had an impact.  I noticed it open on desks in several Congress and NASA offices, and many spoke to me about it.

Favorable reactions to our campaign spanned the political spectrum. Not only Culberson, a conservative Congressman from Texas, but also Barbara Mikulski, a liberal Senator from Maryland, expressed her strong support. Senator Mikulski invited three of us to a private dinner meeting in her office and described a proposal she has originated to seek emergency funds for the shuttle program to recover from the Columbia accident.  Emergency funds were provided after the Challenger accident, but no such funds were offered post-Columbia, despite the costly set of changes that have been made over the past three years.

Click to enlarge > The Planetary Society Presentation to Congress Titanic director James Cameron, Society Vice-President Bill Nye (the Science Guy), Louis Friedman, and Senator Barbara Mikulsky in Washington, D.C. after The Planetary Society presentation in the House Science Committee hearing room.

Senator Mikulski has long been the lead supporter of space science in the U.S. Senate. Despite being a member of the minority party in the Senate, she has wielded a powerful influence over the NASA program as the ranking minority member of the relevant Appropriations subcommittee. She has a long history of protecting funding for NASA science and robotic missions.

We made some good friends and allies in Washington. Their help will be critical in the weeks and months ahead. Despite widespread agreement about the value of space science and exploration on Capitol Hill, we face a difficult struggle ahead. The budget is stretched thin, and we are competing with many other agendas, all trying to secure funding.

There is no time to lose: the House Committee is expected to mark-up the NASA budget in the middle of June, and the Senate later in July. However, the final bill combining House and Senate will likely not be settled before the fall.

If we are to win this battle, Planetary Society members and supporters need to stay involved. Keep checking for more updates and actions right here at our campaign headquarters.