The federal government could shut down this week, barring a last-minute compromise between Democratic and Republican Congressional leaders on a new budget.
While Democrats have singled out extending health care benefits as their top priority in the ongoing negotiations, Virginia’s senators are also looking to secure the Space Shuttle Discovery’s future at the National Air and Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly.
In a Sept. 23 letter, Tim Kaine and Mark Warner urged Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Patty Murray (D-Washington), who respectively serve as chair and vice chair of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, to include language in their proposed budget bills barring any federal funds from being used to relocate the Discovery.
Moving the artifact to the Space Center Houston Museum in Texas — as desired by that state’s senators, John Cornyn and Ted Cruz — would be logistically challenging and require far more money than the $85 million allocated for a “space vehicle” transfer in the budget reconciliation bill signed by President Donald Trump in July, the senators said.
In addition to claiming sole ownership of the space shuttle, which it acquired in 2012, the Smithsonian Institution has warned that a relocation could cause “irreparable damage.” It estimates that transporting Discovery would cost at least $50 million, with another $325 million needed to plan and build a new display building in Houston.
“Dedicating hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to move an artifact that is already housed, displayed, and preserved in a world-class facility is both inefficient and unjustifiable,” wrote Warner and Kaine, who were joined in their plea by Sens. Mark Kelly (D-Arizona) — a retired NASA astronaut — and Dick Durbin (D-Illinois).
While acknowledging the “disappointment” in Houston that it wasn’t selected in 2011 to house one of NASA’s four retired space shuttles, the senators argued that taking a valued item out of the National Collection overseen by the Smithsonian “is not a viable solution.”
If the shuttle survives the journey, public access to it would be diminished, they wrote.
Like most of the Smithsonian’s other museums, the Udvar-Hazy Center has free admission, though it does charge $15 for parking during the day. Admission to Space Center Houston, which is operated by the nonprofit Manned Space Flight Education Foundation, starts at $25 for kids and $30 for anyone 12 and older.
The senators also questioned whether there’s any actual public interest in Discovery or another space shuttle going to Houston.
“It is worth noting that there is little evidence of broad public demand for such a move,” they said. “Revisiting those placements now, absent compelling public interest or legal authority, invites ambiguity, public distrust, and the erosion of institutional commitments.”
Texas lawmakers sought investigation of Smithsonian staff
According to Roll Call, Texas lawmakers have been lobbying to bring Discovery to Houston since NASA’s space program ended in 2010, arguing that the city is the shuttle’s rightful home given the central role that the Johnson Space Center played in all its flights.
However, NASA decided to transfer Discovery to the Smithsonian for display at the Udvar-Hazy Center as part of a 1967 agreement dictating that “all historically important air and space artifacts developed by NASA” go to the National Air and Space Museum. Among other milestones, Discovery was the longest-serving orbiter in the space shuttle fleet and hosted the first flight after the fatal Columbia disaster in 2003.
NASA confirmed in August that acting administrator Sean Duffy has selected a space shuttle for transfer, meeting a deadline set by the July reconciliation bill, but even as Cornyn contended that the “intent” of the law was directed at Discovery, the agency hasn’t publicly confirmed which vehicle was chosen.
Cornyn and Texas Rep. Randy Weber, whose district lies just outside of Houston, sent a letter to U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts on Aug. 7 calling for an investigation into Smithsonian staff for potentially violating the federal Anti-Lobbying Act by expressing opposition to Discovery’s transfer to media and Congress.
A spokesperson for the Air and Space Museum denied the allegations.
“The Smithsonian does not engage in direct or grassroots lobbying,” the spokesperson said in a statement to FFXnow. “We are aware of the letter and are confident that we have acted in accordance with all governing rules and regulations.”
It’s unclear whether a review or investigation was ultimately initiated.
The prohibition on funding for relocating Discovery proposed by Kaine and Warner would replicate an amendment approved in July by the House Appropriations Committee for that chamber’s version of the federal budget bill. The Senate Appropriations Committee had debated including similar language on July 17, but the offered amendment was withdrawn.
Congress and Trump have until the end of the day tomorrow (Tuesday) to adopt legislation funding the federal government. If they fail, most workers would be furloughed at midnight Wednesday, while those that are exempted will be expected to continue working without pay.
This shutdown could potentially be different from ones in the past, as the White House directed agencies last week to draft plans for eliminating positions, rather than temporarily laying off employees.
In response, Kaine and Warner urged Trump to help negotiate a new funding bill “instead of threatening government employees,” while Rep. James Walkinshaw, who represents most of Fairfax County, predicted that any attempt by the Trump administration to fire workers en masse during a shutdown would be blocked by the courts.
In addition, a shutdown would coincide with hundreds of federal workers who accepted “deferred resignations” earlier this year officially losing their jobs, adding to the economic toll that the Trump administration’s cuts have already had on the D.C. region.
