House passes spending bill with flat NASA funding - SpaceNews

On a 217–197 vote falling largely on party lines, the House approved a “minibus” spending bill that combined six separate bills, including the commerce, justice and science (CJS) appropriations bill.

Those amendments included four that, while not changing overall NASA funding, set aside funding for specific programs.

Several Republican and Democratic members introduced an amendment that would have increased NASA exploration funding by $2.6 billion to match the agency’s request for fiscal year 2021.

However, the amendment, which did not offer an offset for that increased funding, was ruled out of order by the House Rules Committee and not offered for a vote.

The bill, approved by the House Appropriations Committee July 14, rejected the proposed 12% increase for NASA in the administration’s budget request, with NASA’s lunar lander development effort affected the most.