Senate NewSpace Authorization Vote May Come to the House Floor Wednesday

The Space Access Society says, "Today saw one extremely promising development: Representative Bart Gordon, Chairman of the House Science Committee and leading spokesman for the HR. 5781 House version NASA Authorization, has conceded that the only practical way of '"..providing certainty, stability, and clarity to the NASA workforce and larger space community..."' is to allow the Senate NASA Authorization, S.3729, to come up for a vote in the House this week [Wednesday].

Congressman says he "anticipate(s) that the House will consider the Senate version of the NASA reauthorization on Wednesday."

But the Senate version still needs to win a 2/3rds House vote, on the near-certain assumption it will only be considered under “suspension of the rules” fast-track procedures. That 2/3rds vote is no sure thing. The Space Access Society recommends calling your member of the House of Representatives immediately to enable the vote on the Senate measure.

Chairman Gordon is conceding this battle, but not the war. The very last sentence of Gordon’s Science Committee press release is “I will continue to advocate to the Appropriators for the provisions in the Compromise language.” (By "Compromise" here he means the most recent House bill.) " [More from Alan Boyle at The Cosmic Log.]