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Nature 446, 244 (15 March 2007) | doi:10.1038/446244a; Published online 14 March 2007

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Party of One Washington, we have a problem

David Goldston1

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Does anybody care about NASA? Most in Congress do only if there is a research centre in their district. David Goldston explains why members never step up to the plate to set priorities.

Congress is facing some tough issues as it begins to figure out NASA's budget for the next fiscal year. A new report from the National Academy of Sciences decries the state of Earth sciences at the US space agency; NASA claims that congressional trims to its current budget for human spaceflight will delay the debut of its Orion spaceship; and the Bush administration is proposing deep cuts in the agency's aeronautics budget for next year.