Rogers said during the hearing that balancing the need to fund NASA at the appropriate level while focusing on stemming the growth of government spending is a “difficult balance to strike.” Harold Rogers, R-K.Y., right, and Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., attend a House Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on the Justice Department budget request on March 29. Rogers requested a nearly $10 million earmark this year to improve the university’s space tracking systems.

Morehead State University in Rogers’ district has a robust space science program, and the university has been involved in the launch of five NASA-funded satellites. “There’s a lot of reasons why NASA enjoys almost unanimous support here on the Hill, certainly bipartisan support, nonpartisan support I should say,” Rogers said. House Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations Chairman Harold Rogers, R-Ky., expressed support for NASA during the agency’s April subcommittee budget hearing, calling it an “exciting program that we all share in admiring.” That program, Artemis, would receive $8.1 billion, a $500 million increase or 6.6 percent over the current fiscal year. President Joe Biden requested $27.2 billion for NASA in his fiscal 2024 budget request, a 7 percent increase, with a focus on its planned return trip to the moon. Garcia’s former employer, Raytheon Technologies Corp., is also a major NASA contractor. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is located at the California Institute of Technology, not far from Garcia’s district, where top aerospace contractors Northrop Grumman Corp. … Very important stuff NASA is doing, we’re getting our bang for our buck out of them.” He pointed to the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter that has flown in Mars’ atmosphere and a major launch associated with the agency’s planned mission to return to the moon in November as examples of recent NASA successes. Garcia credited NASA for keeping its requested budget increases to single digits in recent years.

Mike Garcia, R-Calif., who sits on the Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations panel that oversees NASA’s budget, said NASA missions have national security implications and he is fighting to “keep the agency whole.”

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