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Florida lawmaker gets tough on NASA spending
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Candidate
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| Contributor | Craverguy |
| Last Edited | Craverguy Mar 07, 2009 10:38pm |
| Category | News |
| News Date | Mar 07, 2009 08:20pm |
| Description | If NASA’s chief had hoped for the traditional kid-glove treatment by a House oversight panel, he probably was disappointed as soon as the new representative from Florida started tossing hard questions at him.
Rep. Alan Grayson, a former defense lawyer for government contractors, broke ranks with his fellow committee members who were posing Dutch Uncle-style questions in the hearing room.
Instead, Grayson debuted a watchdog approach and dug deeply into cost overruns unearthed recently by government accountants.
Two of his questions to acting administrator Christopher Scolese: What percentage of NASA’s $17.6 billion budget relies upon fixed-price contracts? What about using contracts where NASA would have the option to pay or not pay for cost overruns?
Both times, the NASA chief did not have the answers and promised to provide them after the hearing.
Grayson, who served as a judge’s assistant at the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington when Judges Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia sat on the court, said his no-nonsense style may or may not yield results.
“Time will tell,” he said. “We lit a match, and we’ll see what happens.” |
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