[Page H1211]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      PRESERVE, PROTECT AND DEFEND AMERICA'S MANNED SPACE PROGRAM

  (Mr. CULBERSON asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. CULBERSON. Mr. Speaker, I rise to join my colleague and fellow 
Houstonian, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, in expressing our strong 
support for the fine men and women at NASA.
  Our manned space program has preserved America's leadership in space, 
which has led to America's leadership in technology and in scientific 
advancement. The great men and women of NASA and of our manned space 
program have created in so many ways so many technological spin-offs 
that we must preserve America's leadership in space. We must preserve 
America's ability to protect the high ground. Unavoidably, the outer 
space today is the high ground militarily just as surely as Cemetery 
Hill and Little Round Top were at Gettysburg.
  There is strong bipartisan support in this Congress to preserve 
America's manned space program and to oppose the recommendation--and 
that's what it is--of the Obama administration to close down America's 
space program. That is unacceptable. America will never surrender her 
leadership in the world, and we certainly will not surrender our 
leadership in outer space.
  We are very proud of the men and women at NASA and in our manned 
space program, and we will be working together in a bipartisan way to 
preserve, protect and defend America's manned space program.

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