Washington, D.C. – Science, Space, and Technology Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) today released the following statement in response to the president’s budget proposal.
Chairman Smith: “Today we received another unrealistic budget from the president that spends money we don’t have and increases taxes on Americans by $2.6 trillion over 10 years. This level of spending insults hardworking American families who don’t want to be burdened with higher taxes and slower economic growth.
“Investments in science and technology have clear benefits for Americans. But the president continues to focus on costly, ineffective energy subsidies and taxes, like a new $10.25 per barrel federal tax on oil.
“House Republicans will continue to eliminate wasteful spending, reduce government regulations and find solutions to advance job creation and economic growth. The House Science Committee is working on behalf of taxpayers to make our federal scientific enterprise more efficient, effective and accountable. Tomorrow the House will consider the Scientific Research in the National Interest Act, a good government bill to ensure federal scientific grants at the National Science Foundation are worthy of taxpayer funding.
“We must also cut regulatory red tape and put America back on a path to growth and prosperity. I am pleased the Speaker last week selected me as chairman of the Science Committee to help lead a taskforce that will find ways to reduce the burden of costly and unnecessary regulations. As part of this effort, tomorrow the Science Committee will hold a hearing to examine regulations the Obama administration is attempting to rush through in his final year. Americans can’t afford extreme and rushed EPA regulations with little environmental benefit but heavy costs to our economy.
“This administration cannot continue to tout plans to send astronauts to Mars while strangling the programs that will take us there. President Obama’s FY17 budget proposal shrinks our deep space exploration programs by more than $800 million. And the administration once more proposes cuts of more than $100 million to the Planetary Science accounts, which have previously funded missions like this past year’s Pluto flyby. At the same time this proposal shrinks space exploration priorities within NASA’s budget, it disproportionately increases Earth Science accounts to more than $2 billion – a seventy percent increase since 2007. This imbalanced proposal continues to tie our astronauts’ feet to the ground and makes a Mars mission all but impossible. This is not the proposal of an administration that is serious about maintaining America’s leadership in space.”