NASA still ordered to waste $1.4 million a day

[The Straight Story]

NASA still ordered to waste $1.4 million a day

WASHINGTON — Congress has again failed to rid a temporary spending bill of language forcing NASA to waste $1.4 million a day on its defunct Constellation moon program.

Though Congress passed a new stopgap spending bill last week, the measure retained a leftover provision from the 2010 budget that bars the agency from shutting down Constellation, which Congress and the White House agreed to cancel last October.

This so-called "Shelby provision" — named for U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Alabama, who inserted it into the 2010 budget — is expected to cost NASA roughly $29 million during the three-week budget extension through April 8. It has already cost the agency nearly $250 million since Oct. 1.

Equally galling to budget hawks is that Congress has known about the mistake for months and has done nothing to correct it.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/os-nasa-still-spending-constellation-20110323,0,3593030.story

[derby378]

1. Who should I thank?

The ones who killed Constellation - or the ones who are still funding it?

I bet some of the dollars are going westward to Area 51. They have a baseball diamond and tennis courts, y'know.

[Peter1x9]

3. exactly

This is probably going to multiple "top secret" projects.

[WatsonT]

2. What's the point of killing a program if we're still paying for it?

Either get rid of both the project and the funding or neither.