Res Communis

NASA’s 2011 Budget Should Allow Flexibility Despite Cuts

by Sara M. Langston with the blog faculty

Source: Space.com

A new federal spending bill represents a cut to NASA’s funding, but a lessening of restrictions on how the agency spends that money for the rest of this year.

The new measure is a political compromise between democrats and republicans, and includes significant spending cuts in the 2011 federal budget. NASA will have to make do with about $18.5 billion, putting its budget roughly $240 million below last year’s funding level.

NASA and the rest of the federal government had been in limbo while lawmakers haggled over the budget. But on Thursday (April 14), Congress passed a spending measure called a continuing resolution that will cover the last five months of the year 2011.