In just an hour the Science, Space, and Technology Committee (SST) will be kicking off the NASA Reauthorization Act of 2026 markup.

Every Department and Agency I can think of in the Federal Government is first authorized (these tend to "expire" every 5 years) then appropriated money. If a Department or Agency has a lapse in authorization they can still be funded like NASA was been and like the Department of Energy has been though this is not good house keeping by Congress.

Reauthorizing, in this case NASA, ensures that NASA is enacting and executing on current/updated policy directives and program guidance. It also allows for the creation of specific new policy directives if something has changed since the last reauth. Delayed programs (like SLS and multiple other Decadal Survey projects) can also be addressed to on if they are still relevant or if they no longer are.

For this markup we have (at last count) 44 amendments. It remains to be seen how many of them will actually be offered, debated, and voted on but that is down from the 55 we started with last night.

Once the Committee votes and passes it (moving it out of Committee favorably) it can then go to the House Floor where it can either be passed on suspension or via a Rule. The Senate will not pass whatever version we pass because they are a train wreck and will need to pass their own to then allow for a "conference" to take place and allow for a reconciliation of the two texts to be passed into law.

It remains to be seen if we can pull this off or not. Last Congress we were so so close but it died at the 11th hour like so many other pieces of legislation.