Van Hollen Statement on Trump Administration’s Proposed Gutting of NASA Goddard Missions

Today, U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Ranking Member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS), released the following statement on the Trump Administration Office of Management and Budget’s proposed cuts to the NASA science mission and NASA Goddard, located in Greenbelt, Maryland:

“NASA Goddard and the NASA science missions are critical to discovering the secrets of the universe and the planet we live on and have a direct bearing on our leadership in technological innovation and our national security. These missions are the foundation for everything we do in space – and provide insight for much of what we do here at home, from GPS to weather monitoring. To gut NASA Goddard and the NASA Science Mission Directorate is not just shortsighted, it’s dangerous. This move is anything but efficient – as these programs provide us vital information that informs countless innovations and technologies – and in the case of Roman, which will allow us to see even greater images of the universe than those provided by Webb, the mission is both under budget and almost fully complete. This is a wholly unserious budget proposal. In my role on the Appropriations CJS Subcommittee, I will fight tooth and nail against these cuts and to protect the critical work being done at NASA Goddard.”