Tales of the Heliosphere

Back in April the Congressmembers in charge of committees responsible for America's space program sent a letter to the President inviting him to meet with them and others to discuss NASA's priorities and funding. (Here.)

The White House didn't ignore their request. In fact, three top Administration officials responsible for the budget and the space program offered to meet with the Congressmembers.

"The President agrees we need an open and candid dialogue on the path forward to sustaining a balanced, robust space program. With that in mind, we, along with Administrator Griffin, would welcome an opportunity to meet with you to discuss civil space and other important topics in coming weeks, as permitted by your schedule." (Here.)

The Democratic response is to complain that the President himself won't meet with them.

"We are deeply disappointed that the President has decided not to seize the opportunity to meet with Members of Congress to discuss how best to ensure that NASA will have the resources needed to carry out a balanced and robust program of science, aeronautics, and human space flight and exploration initiatives." (Here.)

Our tax dollars at work.

The posturing about personal face time with the President is a bit of a joke, isn't it? The Administrator of NASA and the Directors of the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Science and Technology Policy aren't high enough on the decision-making food chain to meet with the Committee Chairmen? All of them are underlings in their respective organizational charts of the executive and legislative branches. Get over it. Just meet already.

-tdr

Technorati: NASA, Congress.

Labels: NASA, Politics