HUNTSVILLE, Ala. ? Republican Sen. Richard Shelby has been one of Barack Obama?s most persistent critics, accusing the president of putting the country on a road to financial ruin with deficits as far as the eye can see.
But his demands to slash government programs tend to stop at the Alabama state line.
Continue ReadingHere in his home state, Shelby has been pressuring the Obama administration to spend billions to build what could become the world?s biggest rocket at NASA?s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville ? a government project that would affect thousands of jobs, benefit a network of powerful industry interests and fill a major void at the agency after the collapse of the Bush-era Constellation initiative and the end of the space shuttle program in July.
Behind the scenes, Shelby has staked out Alabama?s turf against other states, attacking the administration for sending $340 million to Florida rather than to the Marshall agency and pushing NASA to put out bids for a key rocket engine, a move that could help an Alabama company at the expense of one in Utah. A provision he authored ended up directing $215 million to the scrapped Constellation program earlier this year, and he?s been a prolific earmarker, sending $185 million for a range of projects in Huntsville in the past few years, nearly half of which went to NASA programs.
The fight for the new project illustrates Washington?s larger struggle over reining in the deficit while trying to deal with high unemployment, proving once again that powerful senators can save government jobs back home, regardless of the anti-spending rhetoric coming out of Congress.
It also raises this question: Will lawmakers be willing to sacrifice programs and projects in their backyards to help pay down the debt during Congress?s fall budget fight?
When it comes to the rocket project, lawmakers whose states are major centers for the aerospace industry answer with a definitive ?no.?
Shelby says it?s not just about dollars going to his state ? it?s about moving forward with a rocket project that will ultimately benefit the country, resurrect the struggling manned space program and lead to the creation of technologies that could change the world.
The rocket, if successful, could send Americans to the moon for the first time since 1972 and to places where no human has ever gone ? and potentially even to Mars, raising profound implications for mankind.
?This will help promote American prestige and competitiveness when we need it most,? Shelby said. ?As such, I believe this is a wise and worthwhile investment.?
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