Vigilant Republicans on the House Science, Space and Technology Committee and a key subcommittee are sounding alarm bells throughout Washington.
Reps. Brian Babin (R-Texas) and Young Kim (R-Calif.) joined Rep. Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) to drawn attention to a legislative maneuver by Democratic leadership.
In an attempt to enact their agenda without drawing too much attention, Democrats gutted a bipartisan bill to further NASA’s continued growth. They stuffed it with 735 pages of legislation intended to seize control of elections from states.
A press release from Rep. Lucas, the Science, Space and Technology Committee’s ranking member explains:
“The majority has taken a practical, bipartisan bill and gutted it, inserting 735 pages of unrelated legislation and forcing the House to vote on it barely 12 hours after the text was released,” Lucas said. “Democratic leadership not only withheld the text of this bill, but they deliberately kept even the subject a secret until the last possible moment. Good policy doesn’t require secrecy and schemes. This is no way to govern. What’s more, by stripping this NASA bill and replacing it with an attempt to impose federal control of elections, they have killed our only vehicle to extend NASA’s authority to lease out underutilized property and save taxpayer money.”
“I am outraged because the Democrats have made a mockery of bipartisan collaboration for cheap political gain,” said Babin. “A few hours ago, H.R. 5746 was the NASA Enhanced Use Leasing Extension Act, a simple three-page bill that was good for NASA, good for our space industry, and good for our taxpayers, a bill that I was very proud to cosponsor. Now, in the dark of night, this bill has been hijacked and mutilated to become the latest iteration of the Democrats’ federal takeover of our election system – a wolf in sheep’s clothing. In fact, the only thing left from this original bill is its number. What’s worse, I can’t even remove my name as a cosponsor. This is no way to govern. Democrats are trying to sell the American people a bill of goods, and I will not support it.”
“The NASA Enhanced Use Leasing Extension Act was a noncontroversial bill to support the public and private sectors of our space industry,” Kim said. “Senate Democrats and Speaker Pelosi hijacked a bipartisan, good-faith effort to support space innovation to move forward with their partisan agenda to take control of elections from state and local officials and give it to Washington politicians. Speaker Pelosi is again undermining good government to ram through her partisan agenda in the dark of night. I came to Congress to fight for commonsense solutions that help the American people. I cannot support the Senate Amendment to H.R. 5746, that is nothing more than a partisan power grab, undermining our elections.”
H.R. 5746, the NASA Enhanced Use Leasing Act, was originally a bipartisan bill to extend NASA’s authority to lease idle or underutilized property to the private sector, state and local governments, and academic institutions. The money NASA receives in return can then be used to offset spending for facilities maintenance and property improvements. Under this program, the commercial space industry benefits from access to NASA facilities, and taxpayers benefit from the revenue these leases bring in to offset NASA’s costs. In 2022, NASA expects to collect $14 million in net revenue from enhanced use leases. The House passed a clean ten-year extension of the bill in December. The program expired at the end of 2021 and without a legislative extension, NASA’s ability to enter new leases will be delayed.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
Donny Ferguson is a professional fundraiser and organizational manager. Born and raised in Texas, he has lived in Washington, D.C. for 16 years. Ferguson also served as Senior Communications and Policy Adviser in the United States House of Representatives, operating one of Capitol Hill's most effective media operations.
N y Pelosi and her group needs to stop hiding things in bills. Itsthestates right to handle the votes per the constitution. Nancy read the constitution. Thank you.
The legislature from each state reports. Not the sec of state DUH. Small states have a right too should not be controlled by big city population. Thank you. Every one’s needs a voter ID. My city now allowing illegals to vote That’s. WRONG only citizens. Period. Now citizens need to live in whatever illegals want DUH.
Pelosi and Schumer have got to be the most despicable, dishonest and underhanded people ever to be in the house and senate. To think they would take a NASA piece of legislation and gut it and add over 700 pages to the bill that dealt with their voter fraud bill that they could not pass, as an underhanded trick to get that voter fraud bill through the house is beyond despicable and they should both be censored by congress and run out of DC never to return. There is obviously nothing too dishonest for this pair of shysters.
WAKE UP AMERICA AND CONTACT YOUR CONGRESSIONAL REPS TO LODGE COMPLAINTS AGAINST THESE TWO IDIOTS!!!