Commercial Crew Can Kicked Down Road As Minibus Spending Package Stalls Out

摘要

U.S. Sens. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) and Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) squared off the week of June 16 for a showdown over holding NASA's commercial crew program to stricter financial reporting standards, but a final confrontation was averted when partisan squabbling derailed votes on a spending bill at the center of the debate. The Senate was poised to begin voting June 19 on a so-called minibus spending package that combined the House-passed 2015 Commerce, Justice, Science appropriations bill (H.R. 4660) with the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and Agriculture spending bills. But a fight over how amendments would be handled prompted Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to indefinitely postpone floor action on the $126 billion spending package.