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NASA
Unmanned spacecraft from NASA, Europe and other space agencies are exploring the moon, Mars and other destinations across the solar system.
By Miriam Kramer
Space.com
THE WOODLANDS, Texas — Scientists from 37 countries are discussing the latest and greatest planetary science discoveries this week, but a few folks are notably absent: high-ranking NASA officials.
Instead of briefing the 1,750 attendees of the 44th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference here in person, two senior NASA officials beamed in via Skype Monday to detail some of the finer points of the space agency's budget and goals for the coming years.
"It's a pleasure to be coming to you from D.C., though I'd much rather be in Houston with all of you," said John Grunsfeld, NASA's associate administrator for science missions at the agency's headquarters in Washington.
Neither Grunsfeld nor Jim Green, director of NASA's planetary sciences division, is attending the conference. The two space agency officials explained that in light of the new budgetary constraints known as the "sequester," they decided to stay at NASA headquarters so funds for their travel could be used by active researchers.
Indeed, travel budgets for civil servants were one of the first things to be cut after the sequester came into effect on March 1, other NASA officials have said.
"It has been a tough time here in Washington," Grunsfeld added.
Follow Miriam Kramer @mirikramer and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
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Leave a Comment:
Its called management - if your 'boss' decides that flying to Florida to play golf with a known philanderer is more important than your trip to Houston, then so be it. And as your 'funding' source, welcome to the game - for once its not wide open government spending - and i think that's just great!!!
Well, it's good to see restriction on government spending, but the restrictions that are in place now are not in useful places, at least not as far as the big picture is concerned. In this case, 2 NASA officials stay in D.C. and that saves some money, but not much. Yet those "bosses"... the congressional folks.. are still flying to Florida for 18 holes... and some golf.
First - White House tours
Second - White House Easter egg roll
Now NASA travel
What's next?
Those nasty republicans. Oh wait, they told Obama he could name what gets cut and what doesn't get cut. So just who is to blame for all of this MASSIVE cutting? I really don't give a rats ass. Cut more.
Did that bill become law? I hadn't seen that. I thought it got voted down by the Republicans.
JH - WHY?? WHY CUT MORE?
If you've been following the news, you'll see that even the ReThuglicans have finally admitted what virtually all economists have been saying for many months now - even Lyin' Ryan & Tan Man Boehner confessed that WE HAVE NO (short-term) DEBT/DEFICIT PROBLEM. It will be ~5 years before we need to tackle the debt/deficit . . . Pres Obama has been bringing it down.
What we need is to grow the economy - we need JOBS, JOBS, &MORE JOBS! we need to invest in America's future, with education, R&D, & infrastructure.
With full employment, the debt/deficit will continue to come down.
CUTS = AUSTERITY = GREECE/UK/SPAIN!
They need to repeal the sequester - a one-line bill:
REPEAL THE SEQUESTER - JUST. REPEAL. IT.
SO WE CAN MOVE . . .
.
FORWARD! :-)
no, the bill did not become law. Basically JH is full of it with regard to that statement.
Glad to see they made the right trade-off; not all managers would done that.
To rest of the nonsense political arguments that are at the root cause of this manufactured problem <plonk>
yeah. It made too much common sense to become law. Demand the numbers for the cuts, let the President have some leeway as to where the cuts happen. Naw, way too good. Nothing like that would ever pass through CONgress.
At least one govt agency has finally learned what travel budgets are really for: The people actually doing the work, not their supervisors who want to play golf.
So they used Skype instead of wasting the time flying down to Houston, getting a hotel, going to a conference in person and then flying back to DC? That's basically it right? Somebody explain to me exactly what is the problem. Sounds like what they did was MUCH more efficient! Go Sequester!
Oh, poor babies can not go on a boon dongle. What a petty. This should apply to the rest of the government pukes and their elaborate travels - you too Michelle nobody!
Wrong..
It passed the house, and died on Reid's deck. Obama even said he would Veto it IF it made it to his desk..
Sequester = Obama's idea.. It just bit him in the arse cause he did not expect the Republicans to let it go. He was banking on Defense spending pet projects making it too sour a pill for Republicans.
Even when given the chance to do selected cuts, instead of across the board cuts, Obama said he wouldnt do it.
Instead of curtailing scientists that actually do something for society, how about we reign in the massive amount of welfare spent on baby factories aka ghetto hoes spittin' out babies. Cut them off at 2.
I have jobsites in Newark and other parts of north Jersey, Philly, etc and everywhere they are they have a whole crew of little buggers following them, like a line of baby ducks!
Yep, Mr. Obama's sequester is working just fine:
I wonder where Michelle and the kids are going for this spring break.
C&P...I concur. Welcome to "pay as you go". I suspect these guy's could afford a vacation on their own dime if it really meant that much to them. But I think they just prefer to play a quilt card.
Ah. I see. So what was in it that the Democrats didn't like?
I'm not unhappy that travel budgets were among the first things reigned in. That makes sense to me. Actually, with all the advances in communication over the last decade it's a shame that it to a "sequester" to force people to stay where they are and communicate via other means.
Communicating in person is, of course, the best way to get ideas across and be sure the ideas are flowing with maximum reliability. But, when budgets are concerned, there is no reason not to use a more frugal approach.
Now, having said all that, it is astounding that folks at higher levels (from the pres down to the members of the house) still get to soak up so much of the travel budget (and other portions of the budget).
For the price of one presidential trip of more than 1000 miles, all the NASA officials could go to 100 conventions (as a rough estimate). And it doesn't matter what your political beliefs are, it is a fact that a LOT of money is invested in security during a presidential trip, regardless of who is POTUS, and I'm all for security, but the amount of money spent on just the president's travel alone is absolutely astonishing.
POS POTUS needs to keep his bicolored butt in Washington and work instead of taking all of these $20,000,000 vacation trips.
Bob, leave color out of it.
Also, if you want to bitch about presidents taking vacations then you need look no further than George W. Bush.
FINALLY, something that makes sense!
Please stay in DC and do your best to spread that way of thinking!!!
As a result of the sequester people are already being put on furloughs. One guy I know that works out at the Cape is going on 20% furlough, one day per week. Sure, cutting back on unnecessary expenses is a good thing, but the problem with the sequester is it cuts back on EVERYTHING. Not everyone is an executive dipping into the pork barrel, many of the people affected by the sequester are doing their jobs and need their pay.
I know. Did you notice that NO ONE has talked about cutting down on the number of chiefs, only the number of Indians?
You bet! It's one thing to be netting say $100,000, and netting $24,500. Losing 20% of $24,500 is going to have one hell of a lot more effect, and about half of all federal workers are on the lower end of the pay scale. They don't all live in DC by a longshot. They live in Alaska, upstate NY, and Kansas. People only think about what Congress makes, and Congress isn't getting furloughed if no budget is passed by the 28th of March.
Instead of the sequester being applied the way it has been, we could save an incredible amount of money by having all three branches of government ... all the elected officials, all the appointed officials, all their staff members, all their paid consultants, etc. ... take 2 days a month off without pay. This would include Mr. Obama and his Secret Service agents. And there also would have to be a provision they couldn't get the money back ... ever!
@Susie - You DO realize that your proposal (at least for the Reps/Senators) would require a Constitutional Amendment?
Do you realize that Obama already takes more than 2 days off per month?
Why I remember a president that used to take months off, I believe it was just before 9/11...
Common sense IMO.
I'm thinking if the conference in Houston was really important, these two could have thrown 1,000 (out of pocket) at the conference and attended. It's not like these guy's are only making 50,000 per year.... Or..maybe look at the payroll costs for the U.S. Embassy in Bagdad .... There are 10,000 employees there right now!!! There are savings to be had over there...
The sequester was one of the best things to come out of Washington in years, they need to have one come out every quarter until the national debt is cut.
That was the most politically naive' and most ignorant assumption that I've read all day.
BTW, "Down_South" Fox News commentators must have you getting the "national debt," confused with the, "government deficit," of which, despite the recent Sequester, this deficit that was building up under the previous Bush Administration, has already been shrinking every year under the Obama Administration.
http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/federal_deficit_chart.html
And if you want the Sequester to continue, are you going to back up your assumption that this, as you claim, "...was one the best things to come out of Washington in years..." after hundreds of thousands of American jobs in this country are lost, starting in the month of April? Are you going to continue to say it was the 'best thing,' when you -- and perhaps one of your family members, and your neighbors, and a few of the friends you know also lose their jobs -- as a direct or indirect consequence of the economically-damaging Sequester cuts, as well?
rradiko, "after hundreds of thousands of American jobs in this country are lost, starting in the month of April" Ummm, yup, I sure am. Sometimes cutting back on wasteful government spending might sting a little. So what...
There are alot of ways for our government to make cuts but I have always felt that NASA should be scaled back if not totally eliminated. How many millions do they spend (waste) every year ? Use the money they spend to help balance our budget.
NASA's budget is a fraction of the Defense Department's. It wouldn't do anything at all to help "balance the budget". Why? Because they'd waste it elsewhere.
The US Government is a black hole. It's a giant dryer only instead of disappearing socks, there's disappearing tax dollars. And both Congress and the Executive branch waste money. I remember when Trent Lott was pushing for a cruiser to be built that the US Navy didn't really want or need. And he got bent out of shape when the Navy awarded contracts to a neighboring Louisiana shipyard instead of the one in his home state. He threatened to cut funding for aircraft because they "slighted' him. And there are those still in Congress who do pretty much the same thing.
It's not JUST the Executive branch that wastes money. Congress loves its bacon too.
That was a pretty dopey and uneducated thing to say Laurie, because without NASA, we would not have Dialysis machines, advanced chemical detection, light-emitting diodes, advanced pollution remediation, structural analysis software, powdered lubricants, freeze drying, enriched baby food, water filters, cordless tools, smoke detectors, shoe insoles, ear thermometers, memory foam, scratch resistant lenses, Satellite television, Swimsuits, Joysticks, Computer microchips, invisible braces, home insulation, CAT scanners ...the list goes on...
That's right, without NASA, you wouldn't have a computer to bitch about NASA with in the first place. Our society's high technology would be decades behind without NASA.
Between 1976 and 1984 NASA is responsible for:
— $21.6 billion in sales and benefits;
— 352,000 (mostly skilled) jobs created or saved,and;
— $355 million in federal corporate income taxes
— A discounted rate of return on investment of 33%
In 2002, the aerospace industry accounted for $95 billion of economic activity in the United States, including $23.5 billion in employee earnings dispersed among some 576,000 employees
It is estimated that most Americans spent less than $9 on NASA through personal income tax in 2009.
Yet only 0.46% of the federal budget for 2013 was allocated for NASA -_-
Somewhere in Beijing, Moscow, Tehran, and North Waziristan grinning men are cheering on the sequester and the penny-wise-dollar-foolish congressional-obstructionist mentality--if it can be called that--that brought it on. We'll be paying for the illusory "cost savings" for years, if not decades thanks to the ignorance and stupidity of the deficit-hawk extremists.
Let's cut Congressional travel. They don't need to go on "Fact Finding Missions". They can do their fact finding by Skype!
Gee, I am so sorry. I look at our income and have to deal with it so suck it up and join the rest of us and quit your crybaby whining.
More B.S. spin from the Obama Administration that created its' own problem. Figures don't lie, but liars figure.