NASA Budget Woes

This is the last week of the first half of the U. S. Government's fiscal year, and there's still no federal budget, which means NASA has no budget. The whole government has been operating on a series of continuing resolutions based on the 2010 budget. That puts NASA in a bind. Under the 2010 budget, NASA was developing the Constellation, return to the Moon, program. President Obama has since canceled that effort, but the 2010 budget is still the baseline law, so NASA is still obliged to spend money on Constellation it could better spend elsewhere. Language could be added to a continuing resolution directing NASA not to spend money on Constellation, for example, but Congress hasn't seen fit to do that. In fact, Congress has failed on the budget generally. Writing a budget is an elemental responsibility that Congress has lately declined to discharge. That needs to change, and not just for the good of NASA.