Minority News

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), Ranking Member of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, today said NASA leadership was skirting the law to shut down the Constellation program after NASA leadership publicly announced a decision to reprioritize work on the program. NASA’s stated justification for these actions is the Anti-Deficiency Act (ADA), which prohibits spending funds beyond levels that are appropriated in a given year, or obligating the government to pay money before funds have been appropriated. There are a number of unanswered questions on whether the ADA would apply in this situation, and if it did, the recently passed Defense Supplemental legislation clarifies that regardless of any provision of law, work must continue on the Constellation program.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee today approved legislation (S. 1938), sponsored by Commerce Committee Chairman John D. Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and Ranking Member Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), to offer incentive grants to states that enact laws to combat distracted driving. Hutchison noted that the bill would impose no new mandates and would be funded through existing programs, spending no additional taxpayer dollars.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Leaders of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, Chairman John D. (Jay) Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and Ranking Member Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), today called for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Inspector General to launch an investigation into the sudden removal of the Constellation program manager.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), Ranking Member on the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, today made the following statement after it was announced that the Senate Commerce Committee and the House Energy and Commerce Committee would begin a process to update the Telecommunications Act of 1996: