WASHINGTON, DC - U.S. Representative Adam Schiff fought an amendment today to the VA-HUD Appropriations Bill, which would cut critical NASA funding. The amendment - sponsored by Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) - would take $115 million from Project Prometheus, a project designed to improve our nation's solar system exploration. Much of this work, conducted by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, involves exploring the icy moons of Jupiter, fulfilling a recommendation by the National Academy of Sciences.
Rep. Schiff fought the Markey amendment on the House Floor and issued the following statement:
"I rise in strong opposition to the Markey amendment. I oppose taking funds away from the important work of JPL. The Markey amendment to the VA-HUD Appropriations Bill would take $115 million in funds from critical NASA funding for its innovative Project Prometheus, which will continue our nation's excellence in exploration of our solar system. Much of this work will be conducted by JPL, located in Pasadena, California, to explore the icy moons of Jupiter through a mission that has been rated as a top priority by the National Academy of Sciences.
JPL, which is managed by CalTech in my district in Pasadena, California, is NASA's lead center for robotic exploration of the solar system. JPL's spacecraft have visited all the planets in the solar system except Pluto. JPL has recently launched two Mars Rovers, aptly named Spirit and Opportunity, to land on the Red Planet and determine whether there is or has been water on that planet, helping scientists to unlock geologic mysteries of our solar system.
JPL's work will be vital to the success of NASA's bold new venture, Project Prometheus. This ambitious program will revolutionize solar system exploration using nuclear power and propulsion. Project Prometheus will enable more robust and ambitious scientific missions by supporting more complex scientific instruments, enable significantly larger and faster data communications networks, and allow a single spacecraft to visit multiple targets per missions.
Using nuclear power and propulsion systems will exponentially increase the amount of energy available to power spacecraft instruments, and will enable a vastly greater amount of scientific data to be returned to earth - 120 CDs worth of data compared to only one to two floppy disks today. Furthermore, it will allow much more time for science observation of the moons - 180 days, opposed to only 1 to 5 hours using conventional technology.
As part of Project Prometheus, JPL will be spearheading the Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter mission, which will be the first application of these new technologies for a flight mission. The project will search for evidence of global, subsurface oceans on Jupiter's three icy moons: Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. The JIMO mission fulfills a recommendation of the National Academy of Sciences, to make a Europa orbiter mission the top priority for a flagship solar system exploration mission.
As the expression goes, we must not rob Peter to pay Paul. We must not take away from the critical work done by NASA scientists at JPL to compensate for budget cuts from other portions of NASA's program. I urge my colleagues to oppose this amendment."
Rep. Schiff and Rep. David Dreier (R-CA) joined forces to fight the Markey Amendment on the House Floor. A final vote on the Markey amendment is expected later this evening.
Rep. Schiff represents California’s 29th Congressional District, including the communities of Alhambra, Altadena, Burbank, East Pasadena, East San Gabriel, Glendale, Monterey Park, Pasadena, San Gabriel, South Pasadena and Temple City.