Rockefeller: NASA budget not just about jobs

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) on Wednesday stressed that it was short-sighted to gauge the White House's proposed 2011 NASA budget solely in terms of the jobs it creates or destroys.

While Rockefeller said at a hearing on the future of manned-space flight that jobs are the "first, second, third, fourth and fifth" priorities for the country, he said lawmakers must still strike a balance "between economic development, which means jobs, and modernizing our space program."

"To many, including myself, defenders of the status quo for NASA -- be they many or be they few -- base their views solely on the job impact," he said. "I don't think we can afford to do that."

"NASA's first mission must be to do what's best for the nation," the chairman continued. "The American people deserve the best from their space program and NASA's role cannot stay static."

Jobs have become one of the major flash points in the debate over President Barack Obama's 2011 NASA budget, which he debuted in February but revised amid initial congressional pushback last month.

The president's plan would shift considerable NASA money to research while canceling the Constellation program, under which astronauts would have returned to the Moon and Mars. While the administration has described those proposed changes as essential, noting NASA lacks the technology to complete those missions in the near future, critics have said it would result in lost jobs along Florida's Space Coast, the home of the Kennedy Space Center.

Anticipating this, White House officials on Wednesday noted they planned to submit an updated budget to lawmakers in the coming weeks that would reflect a series of changes that includes a fund to re-train NASA workers.

Dr. John P. Holdren, director of the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy, later stressed that new money for research and development would also "create new jobs in many places affected by shuttle job losses."

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