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AL.com | NASA Administrator Charles Bolden says it's 'an essential thing' to solve sequestration

April 23, 2013

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden says it's 'an essential thing' to solve sequestration
By Mark McCarter | AL.com | April 22, 2013

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- NASA has never shied away from bold challenges. This time, rather than an exotic mission that breaks gravity, it's taking a different approach to a new force that's seemingly keeping everyone grounded: Sequestration.

"The assumption in our budget, to be quite honest, was that the Congress and the President were going to put their heads together and they're going to get us out of sequestration. That's a very huge assumption on the part of everybody," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said Monday morning.

If sequestration can't be solved, he acknowledged it could be "a whole new ball game."

Bolden was addressing a breakfast meeting of the 170-person delegation of business and civic leaders, elected officials and others at the annual visit to Washington sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce of Huntsville/Madison County and its partners.

With a nod to the area's long history with NASA, Bolden said, "The gateway to space has always gone through Alabama and Marshall (Space Flight Center)."

It is a group understandably concerned about the ripple effect sequestration can have on the north Alabama area as the policy impacts Marshall Space Flight Center and Redstone Arsenal.

"Every single 2014 budget is predicated on Congress and the President -- coming to their senses is not the right word, but it sorta is -- (to end sequestration)," Bolden said. "And that's the President's assumption. That's why he submitted the budget he did, that they're going to find a way to get out of sequestration."

As Bolden reminded the audience, "Sequestration is not a one-year deal. It's 10 years. So we've really got to get out of it. If we have to operate under sequestration, all the (ambitious goals NASA has set for deep space travel) are years from happening.

"We go from being a $17.7 billion agency -- right now we're operating at $16.7-16.8 billion -- we could go down to being a $15 billion agency," he continued. "And then it's a whole new ball game. We look at what that impact will be and our hope is that the Congress and the President will get together and find a way to get out it. That's an essential thing."

Because of existing hiring policies, Bolden said NASA has been able to avoid utilizing furloughs that have already been felt, dramatically so on Monday in the country's airports as TSA began its rounds of furloughs.

The Huntsville-area delegation will meet informally Monday night with Congressional representatives then hold meetings Tuesday morning with Sens. Richard Shelby and Jeff Sessions and Reps. Mo Brooks and Robert Aderholt.

Bolden had some suggestions for those meetings.

"Let me give you a couple of hints," Bolden said. "Advice from the Administrator: Preach patience. Tell 'em to believe in the people at Marshall and trust them. They know what they're doing. I know everybody is anxious to get tons of money into Huntsville and Madison County and all the places around, but there is such a thing as having more money than you can spend effectively and wisely."

He related the financial patience to the development of the heavy-launch vehicle being developed for deep-space travel, with more modest power immediately, for a 2017 launch of the unmanned Orion, then a more powerful vehicle later.

"We have what we think is a very, very good plan," Bolden said. "You've got to preach patience and trust in the team at Marshall and around NASA. Because we do know what we're doing. We've got an incredible NASA industry partnership and among all of us we're going to do right by all of you. We're going to spend your money wisely."

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