Fifteen House lawmakers are now calling on the Obama administration to appoint a team of NASA experts to study the president's latest space budget request.

In a letter Thursday to NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, the collection of 15 Democrats and Republicans recommended the panel assess how the White House 2011 space spending proposal would impact NASA vehicle development, U.S. access to the International Space Station and the country's future leadership in manned space flight.

The lawmakers also requested NASA deliver its findings in a report to the entire Congress within 30 days.

Ultimately, the group's request arrives in direct response to President Barack Obama's plan to cut NASA's Constellation program -- the manned mission to the Moon developed by former President George W. Bush in 2005.

While Obama did propose an increase in NASA's budget next year, its Constellation cut has nonetheless infuriated congressional Republicans, in particular, who claim the agency will soon be without direction.

"Above all, NASA must have a clear exploration mission, timeline, goals and a destination, and its funding must be carefully aligned with the exploration plan," the lawmakers wrote on Wednesday.

"Under this administration's proposal, each of these critical elements is missing," they continued. "NASA will no longer have a clear vision on its direction and ultimately the U.S. will no longer be a spacefaring nation."

However, the White House is unlikely to comply with lawmakers' latest request, in part because it believes the president's 2011 NASA budget request actually offers the agency more direction than it previously had.

"If you gave me an infinite pot of money, I could not get a human to Mars in the next ten years, because there are some things we just don't know," NASA chief Bolden told lawmakers earlier this month, stressing the White House's new emphasis on research could soon change that.

Still, the president has fielded significant criticism for its approach, especially from lawmakers who represent states in which NASA operates key bases.

In response, the Obama administration announced last week it will host a NASA space flight summit in Florida this April, at one of NASA's main space hubs. That forum will focus on "laying the foundation to support journeys to the Moon, asteroids, and eventually to Mars," according to the White House

Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) said she opposes the $30 billion deal that would allow Comcast to acquire a majority stake in NBC Universal.

"Obviously we like media diversity in the Northwest," she said during a hearing held by the Senate Commerce Committee. "Right now Seattle is very upset with what happened to the Olympics," referring to reported problems consumers had accessing Olympics coverage online.

She is worried that, by allowing a major content producer to merge with a major content distributor, consumers could have fewer options for programming and access to that programming.

There are also concerns that Comcast's Xfinity service will extend even further the company's control over online video.

"We can't hold consumers hostage because we're building vertical integration," she said.

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), raised some worries of his own. Read more...

Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) warned Federal Communications Chairman Julius Genachowski not to change a provision of the law that would allow the agency to regulate the Internet.

"There's a real cost to heavier regulation," Ensign said during a hearing today to examine the proposed NBC Universal-Comcast merger. "We have to be so careful with this miracle of investment in the Internet...We want to continue to see that investment."

Consumer and public interest groups are pressing the FCC to reclassify broadband as a communications service, or Title 2, which would give the FCC more authority to implement network neutrality regulations. Currently, broadband is classified as an information service under Title 1.

A federal court in January questioned the FCC's jurisdiction under the current classification to order Comcast to stop throttling customers' Internet traffic.

If the court does rule against the FCC in that case, the FCC would need to reclassify broadband in the law to enact net neutrality.

In response to Ensign, Genachowski said the FCC's top job right now is to develop policies that will promote universal broadband.

"It's a major issue of global competitiveness for the United States," Genachowski said. "We are defending the position that Title 1 (classification) gives us the authority we need. We'll continue to assert that position and hope we will get a favorable decision. If the court does something that requires us to reassess, we'll do that."

Ensign said that, regardless of the court decision, "it could be a major, major mistake" to reclassify broadband.

"This issue needs to be aired out and discussed so we can consider all the options," Ensign said. 

Update (12:13 p.m.): Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison also spoke out against the possible reclassification today.

“It would be an enormous mistake to reclassify vibrant new services under a regulatory regime that is as relevant to the current marketplace as the horse drawn carriage is to modern interstate travel," she said. "Burdensome new regulations would starve investment and curtail innovation. I am disappointed to learn the FCC continues to think this is worthy of consideration.”

That relatively brief timeframe speaks to how quickly extremist groups have "optimized" the Web, a top Pentagon official said.

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There is an unlikely candidate on this year's short list of 2010 Nobel Peace Prize contenders: the Internet.

According to the BBC, the Internet is reportedly one of 237 individuals and organizations  -- and, apparently, communication systems -- vying for the Norwegian Nobel Committee's world-renowed award, which it will announce in October.

Perhaps the nomination is not entirely unfounded: The Internet has been at the center of a handful of democratic movements, from human rights struggles in China to the anti-government protests in Iran. The Web has also helped millions organize to donate as much to earthquake victims in Haiti and Chile.

However, it not entirely clear who would accept that award, much less who would receive the estimated $1.4 million prize that typically accompanies it.

A research-and-development tax credit is one step closer to the president's desk, following Tuesday's Senate vote on a jobless benefits package.

Lawmakers approved their collection of tax extenders on a 62-36 vote late Tuesday, including a one-year continuation of the much-beloved R&D break.

That means only the House now stands in the way of a tax credit that tech insiders have aggressively lobbied Congress to reinstate since it expired at the end of 2009.

Technology trade groups estimated this month that the loss of that R&D credit forced the industry to shed 20,000 jobs and $2.5 billion in economic gains, and deprived the federal government of more than $2 billion in revenue.

Consequently, tech groups quickly praised the Senate's vote to revive that credit on Tuesday, and they implored House lawmakers to follow suit. But many also urged lawmakers to consider a more permanent R&D tax credit, rather than the one-year patch they have allowed to expire 14 times over the past 30 years.

"This annual uncertainty of this credit hampers the ability of U.S. businesses to plan the future road map of the products they create to keep us on the cutting edge of global competitiveness," TechNet President and CEO Rey Ramsey said in a statement before the bill passed.

Federal Communications Commission member Mignon Clyburn on Wednesday indirectly hammered Comcast for recently raising its broadband prices.

As Cyburn and other FCC commissioners discussed broadband affordability at a digital literacy summit on Tuesday, Comcast instituted a $2 rate increase on its lowest-tier customers.

That prompted Clyburn to issue a statement rebuking Internet service providers, in general, for their recent rate hikes -- though the commissioner's comments seemed indirectly targeted at Comcast.

"The same day we announced these important recommendations designed to usher more Americans into the digital age.. I learned that another major broadband provider is raising its rates for its lowest tiers of broadband service," she said in the statement. "This news came on the heels of plans unveiled by other major providers throughout the country to increase prices as well."

"So, just as we are in the process of proposing steps to ensure that more people are comfortable signing up for broadband service, providers of that very service are raising prices," the commissioner lamented. 

But Comcast quickly fired back at the commissioner's statement, stressing to The Washington Post that its new rate increase is far more innocuous than Clyburn suggests.

“We haven’t increased the price of our service in more than five years and about half of our customers are currently in promotions and won’t be impacted by this change," Jennifer Koury, a Comcast spokeswoman, told the newspaper.

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Microsoft chairman and founder Bill Gates on Wednesday criticized China for doing too little to protect intellectual property. 

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WEDNESDAY BLOG ROUNDUP:
Google-China resolution coming soon, says CEO - Tom Krazit, CNet
FTC said to ask Google rivals for statements on AdMob purchase - Bloomberg
Former FCC chair: Fiber to help wireless crunch - Nancy Gohring, PCWorld
The space program we almost had - Alexis Madrigal, Wired
Mobile apps that outperform sites - Claire Cain Miller, Bits
Free wireless plan is deja vu - Matthew Lasar, Ars Technica
The first rule about developing for the iPhone is... - Mike Masnick, TechDirt
Why Apple should buy Adobe - Andrew Flocchini, The Apple Blog
.xxx Web addresses could create online red-light districts - Tom Maliti, AP

OTHER STORIES FROM THE HILL:
U.S., U.K. make pact to reduce patent backlog - The Hill
House committee approves phone spoofing bill - The Hill
Google: We will leave China before censoring results - The Hill
Top trade official studying WTO sanction on China for Web rules - The Hill