A few of my initial takeaways from the hearing:
@NASAAdmin has an impressive command of NASA - esp given his limited gov/NASA experience. He answered questions directly & even shared when he disagreed. He is open about where he thinks improvements are needed & confident he can deliver better outcomes for less. Extremely refreshing!
Also on display was bi-partisan congressional support for NASA, Artemis & Jared himself - along w/ overwhelming concern that he will prematurely implement ’27 science & aero budget cuts in PBR as was done in ‘26. Saying he will “follow the law” isn’t great comfort, given he also stated his view that agencies can operate at the lower PBR level before congress acts. He did commit to conversations before actions would be taken, so that is something.
The primary areas of concern were STEM education office (I'm w/ Jared on this one); Earth science cuts (I agree with Jared that commercial data should be fully utilized, but disagree that NASA scientists aren’t best/most responsible for data analysis); CLDs (I’m w/ @gtwhitesides on this one).
Three committees to go, but it was an extremely positive exchange overall & after just 4 months in office, Jared has earned bi-partisan support for dramatic changes that have the potential to lead to vastly improved outcomes. (Even if many Members still think his name is Isaacson).
@BriannaWu@WalshFreedom For real! His podcast was where I found out about you, plus a lot of other good folks to follow. Great conversations and really good examples of how to communicate with people you disagree with.
@ChuckRocha Hey Chuck, what’s a good way to get involved locally to start advocating for this kind of message with Democratic leaders?
I started listening to the Latino Vote recently and think you and Mike Madrid are spot on.
@WalshFreedom Joe. Thank you for all you've done over the past few years. Thank you for genuinely speaking to and listening to folks from both sides of the aisle. Thank you for pointedly calling out faults of D's. We need to be better. Thank you for fighting for America. You did your best.
@Robotbeat Don’t see any statements from Walz regarding space from a Google search, although looking at NASA NPDV, spending in MN seems pretty low. And no NASA center there. So not much political motivation for him to say much about space activities. Hopefully that would change if he’s VP.
@Robotbeat I’m not so sure, need to look into that more. But in general I feel like folks of that age have a special reverence for NASA. He would have been 5 years old during Apollo 11, and experiences at that age tend to be very impressionable (assuming he watched the landing).
@Robotbeat I’d love to see that Walz energy on the National Space Council though. Not sure how much of a direct effect that position really has, but if anything he’d inject enthusiasm into the effort. Get us to the Moon, Coach!
The Congressional Gold Medal was just awarded to NASA's Hidden Figures: Katherine Johnson, Dr. Christine Darden, Dorothy Vaughan, Mary W. Jackson, and the many other women mathematicians, scientists, and engineers who enabled America’s leadership in space.
As a U.S. Senator, I was proud to lead the fight to honor these pioneers. They broke barriers and helped our space program reach new heights. This recognition is long overdue.
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