Space Access Political Action Alert 9/21/99 ____________________________________________________________________ Defense Appropriations Conference Happens Wednesday 9/22 Fax or Call These Senators, Representatives ASAP! Summary: The first of two jobs this week is to persuade the House-Senate conference committee, that will work out a final FY '00 Defense Appropriations bill starting tomorrow, that they should "support the Senate position providing $25 million for USAF Space Maneuver Vehicle". This one is short-notice; our apologies for not getting word sooner. The conference committee will almost certainly meet sometime this Wednesday, September 22nd - please call or fax them by Wednesday evening at the latest, and preferably as much earlier in the day as possible. The likely conference committee members are, on the Senate side, Ted Stevens, Alaska - Chairman Thad Cochran, Mississippi Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania Pete V. Domenici, New Mexico Christopher S. Bond, Missouri Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Richard C. Shelby, Alabama Judd Gregg, New Hampshire Kay Bailey Hutchison, Texas Daniel K. Inouye, Hawaii - Ranking Member Ernest F. Hollings, South Carolina Robert C. Byrd, West Virginia Patrick J. Leahy, Vermont Frank R. Lautenberg, New Jersey Tom Harkin, Iowa Byron Dorgan, North Dakota Richard Durbin, Illinois and on the House side Jerry Lewis, Calif., Chairman John P. Murtha, Penn, RMM C.W. Bill Young, Fla. Norman D. Dicks, Wash. Joe Skeen, N.M. Martin Olav Sabo, Minn. David Hobson, Ohio Julian C. Dixon, Calif. Henry Bonilla, Texas Peter J. Visclosky, Ind. George R. Nethercutt, Jr., Wash. James P. Moran, Va. Ernest J. Istook, Jr., Okla. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, Calif. Jay Dickey, Ark. Rodney P. Frelinghuysen, N.J. Get their DC office numbers from www.vote-smart.org and call or fax with the above message ASAP if one of these is your Senator or Representative. Background: House and Senate Defense Appropriators will be meeting Wednesday in a "conference committee" to resolve differences in their versions of the DOD funding bill. The Senate version has $25 million for SMV, Space Maneuver Vehicle, a reusable upper stage project we support. The House Defense Appropriation has nothing for SMV, although both House and Senate did authorize (place on the approved shopping list) funds for SMV. The Air Force Research Lab flew the X-40A unpowered SMV tesbed successfully last summer. NASA "Future-X" has since taken up the project as the X-37. This SMV funding is for either a second NASA X-37 or a first USAF X-40B, depending on who you ask - the AF people apparently need enough internal differences from the X-37 that a separate designator might make sense, but both would be built by the X-37 contractor with pretty much the same basic airframe. Either way, it's a very useful reusable upper stage with non-toxic storable fuels, with considerable potential for extended operations in orbit before reentry, landing, and reuse. How To Do It Get the appropriate Senator's or Representative's DC office phone or fax number, via www.vote-smart.org (have an old bill with your nine- digit zip handy) or by calling your local library information desk. If you're faxing, compose a polite concise one-page letter to them, saying who you are and where you're from, telling them what you'd like them to do, then briefly explaining why - just hit one or two high points, don't overexplain. Thank them for their attention, sign the letter, and send it. If phoning, dial their DC office number, ask for whoever handles Defense appropriations questions, then when connected to that staffer (or more likely their voice mail) tell them briefly who you are ("I'm Joe Smith from Pocatello Idaho") and what you want them to do ("I'm calling to ask the Senator/Congressman to support the Senate position of $25 million for Air Force Space Maneuver Vehicle work.") then (unless they have questions) thank them for their time and ring off. Other News Look for another Alert late Wednesday - the HUD/VA (NASA) conference will almost certainly happen early next week, with much of the staff work taking place over this weekend, once the Senate debates and passes their HUD/VA appropriation over tomorrow and likely Thursday. The good news is that the Senate appropriators worked out fiscal hocus-pocus that allowed them to fund NASA at the requested level - no overall cuts. The better news is that the House leadership appears likely to adopt the Senate's fiscal maneuver, and will probably go along in conference with restoring the House NASA cuts. The best news, from our point of view, is that the Senate saw fit to move a hundred million dollars into NASA's Aero Space Technology account, "for the design, development, and testing of future launch technologies". The Senate was vague about what specific programs this would go to, deliberately so, we are told. We, on the other hand, are not vague at all about how best to spend this - we'll be asking you tomorrow to push hard with the confereees for fifty million of this to be added to NASA Future-X for low-cost reusable launch operations demonstrators. (We do regret that this money was moved from NASA's space science account rather than added, but the Senate decided that, not us - we have always asked for an add. We do note that the net effect is of a bit over a forty million dollar cut from last year's NASA space science funding level, a vast improvement on the cuts of hundreds of millions in the House version, and a wrist-slap in budgetary terms given the problems with NASA space science the Senate lists in their report on the bill. We also note that the other justification we've heard for this transfer, that lower launch costs will benefit all in the long run, space science included, is one we quite agree with.) *end*