An amendment sponsored by Senator Dale Bumpers (D-AR) to kill funding for the International Space Station was defeated by the U.S. Senate on September 5 by a margin of 60-37.
    Bumpers proposed the amendment to the 1997 appropriations bill that provides funding for the Departments of Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development, as well as independent agencies such as NASA.
    "We are embarked on the expenditure of $100 billion that in the final analysis we will decide has been a terrible disaster," Bumpers said during the Senate debate on the amendment. "Every time you put [money] into the space station, there is a dime that won't be available for our children's education, for legitimate honest-to-God medical research."
    Other senators rose to the defense of the project that is the cornerstone of NASA's manned space efforts. "The space station is not only about science, it is about technology development," claimed Senator Barbara Milkuski (D-MD), a longtime supporter of the station.
    It was the fifth time in as many years Bumper had tried -- and failed -- to kill the space station.

A report by the General Accounting Office (GAO) released this week states that NASA may be unable to meet its goal of eliminating $4 billion in infrastructure by the year 2000, and may require an outside commission to help make cuts.
    In testimony before a House committee on September 11, GAO official Thomas Schultz said a committee like the one that made decisions on military base closures may be needed to make the necessary cuts.
    "A process similar to the one used by the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission may ultimately be needed to overcome the sensitivity and costs issues," Schultz told the House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight.
    Schultz said that NASA centers were openly fighting with one another to protect their assets, and their continued existence, making plans for cutting infrastructure difficult to create or implement.
    NASA Administrator Dan Goldin reacted strongly against any proposal for an outside commission. "By God, I don't want a base closure commission," Goldin said. "It will destroy NASA."
    The GAO report recommended that NASA give Congress a plan on how the agency will eliminate excess equipment. Given that the 1996 Congressional session is almost at an end, though, no action is expected until next year.