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Griffith: Work underway to keep NASA funding

HUNTSVILLE, AL (WAFF) - In a packed press conference at NASA Friday morning, Congressman Parker Griffith reassured the personnel at Marshall Space Flight Center that hopes remain high that increased funding for NASA's Ares program will remain at the facility.

Recently, the US House of Representatives passed a spending bill that increases funding for NASA's Human Space Flight Budget by $300 million, and provides a $75 million increase for the Ares program.

"We are now going to decide on how we are going to fund the Constellation Project, how we're going to fund the Ares 1 [rocket], the heavy lift vehicle, and it will be an intense discussion," Griffith said.

But Griffith acknowledged there's no clear direction of where the money will be spent since it all comes down to President Obama's decision about Constellation.

"It is unfair to the astronauts, it is unfair to the scientific community, it is unfair to the research developers who are dedicating their lives to NASA and space," he said.

He also acknowledged that rumors are ciruclcirculationpitol Hill in regard to the space agency. He said he's fully aware NASA's under scrutiny, but he says now the pressure is on.

"We're going to win this, but we have to turn our leadership's head back toward research, development, education," he said. "We can't win without any of them, we have to have them."

Now it's up to NASA administrators to weigh in and turn heads in the halls of Congress.

"We are happy to restore the funding," Griffith said. "We're happy we got language that we can't convert the funding without Congressional approval. I'm here to say we have our job cut out for us in 2010."

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