Senate narrowly confirms Jim Bridenstine as NASA administrator despite Democratic concerns...

[DonViejo]

Source: The Washington Post

Senate narrowly confirms Jim Bridenstine as NASA administrator despite Democratic concerns about his lack of a science background

By Washington Post Staff April 19 at 2:42 PM

President Trump tapped the three-term Republican congressman from Oklahoma to head the space agency last year, but the nomination stalled. Bridenstine sparked controversy with his comments on climate change.

Bridenstine is a former naval aviator who ran the Tulsa Air and Space Museum before coming to Congress in 2013.

The space agency has gone without a permanent leader for 15 months, since Charles Bolden resigned as Trump took office. During that time, Robert Lightfoot, a NASA veteran, has been running the agency. But he recently announced that he was retiring from the agency at the end of this month.

Bridenstine’s confirmation comes at a critical time for the agency, which is preparing to return to the moon, and to restore human spaceflight from United States soil, a capability that was lost when the space shuttle program was retired in 2011.

This is a developing story. It will be updated.



Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/04/19/senate-narrowly-confirms-jim-bridenstine-as-nasa-administrator-despite-democratic-concerns-about-his-lack-of-a-science-background/

[Blue_Tires]

1. Get ready for our next expedition to colonize the sun!

[notdarkyet]

2. We wont go anywhere with him as head of the rocket. These people, trump included, dont like, know

Or respect anything about science. We have to build a new form of transportation to take people to the moon. That will probably take a couple years. Russia ha been taking us to the iss, since the shuttle was put out of service. Congress refuses to fund another transportation vehicle. You don’t get what you don’t pay for. Bredisine will probably set the program back a couple years., he will want to be in charge when he knows nothing. Sounds like he has no respect for science. That won’t go well. Will it go like the epa? Get rid of scientists just cause they know. Things.

[lagomorph777]

3. This is scary! Never thought we'd see Bridenstein in space.

[Angry Dragon]

4. Just a hack

[mahatmakanejeeves]

5. How Trump's NASA Nominee Used a Nonprofit He Ran to Benefit Himself

How Trump's NASA Nominee Used a Nonprofit He Ran to Benefit Himself

Retweeted by David Fahrenthold: https://twitter.com/Fahrenthold

What in the world?

Link to tweet

Investigation finds that Jim Bridenstine, Trump’s pick to head NASA, led a small non-profit into big financial losses. Some of the losses involved the use of the non-profit’s resources to benefit a company Bridenstine co-owned and in which he’d invested.

Link to tweet

SELF-DEALING

How Trump’s NASA Nominee Used a Nonprofit He Ran to Benefit Himself

Rep. James Bridenstine’s nomination is already controversial. Evidence of self-dealing won’t help matters.

NICK SCHWELLENBACH
ADAM ZAGORIN

04.18.18 10:37 AM ET

Rep. James Bridenstine (R-Okla.) is a former Navy pilot with virtually no management experience in any large organization. But the Oklahoma Republican has been tapped by President Donald Trump to take over the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a federal agency with a budget of $18.5 billion, 18,000 federal workers, and over 60,000 contract employees.

For this lack of technical experience—along with a skepticism of climate change and opposition to LGBT rights — Bridenstine has faced sharp criticism on the Hill. But another issue may soon end up complicating his nomination. ... An investigation and review of public records by the Project On Government Oversight shows that, prior to his time in Congress, Bridenstine led a small non-profit organization into hefty financial losses. Some of the losses involved the use of the non-profit’s resources to benefit a company that Bridenstine simultaneously co-owned and in which he’d invested substantial sums of his own money.

Bridenstine, whose bid to be NASA’s next leader was advanced this week by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), has vehemently denied mismanaging the non-profit: the Tulsa Air and Space Museum. His stake in the separate company, the Rocket Racing League, has been well known. But the fact that he was using the Museum’s resources to benefit that company has not previously been covered by the press and now raises red flags for tax law experts.

"This is a classic example of the use of a charity's assets for private benefit," said Marc Owens, an expert on tax law at the firm Loeb & Loeb and former head of the Internal Revenue Services's non-profit compliance division. "This could have jeopardized the Museum's status as a tax-exempt organization" under the IRS code since its resources were used to provide him a significant private benefit.

[dalton99a]

9. Kick

[riversedge]

11. He is a crook, just like Trump. No wonder Trump wants him!

[bobbieinok]

6. Was my Rep. He +Jeb's son grads of Rice. Both v bad PR for the school!

[BigmanPigman]

7. Isn't he also a climate change denier??

[rockfordfile]

8. A crook.

[riversedge]

10. ....James Bridenstine is a climate denier with no scientific background who has made a career out

Sure, run it like a business, just like trump runs the US like his businesses---into the ground!


....“James Bridenstine is a climate denier with no scientific background who has made a career out of ignoring science,” Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) said Thursday. “Now, I also don’t have a scientific background. But I defer to scientists. I rely on the scientific consensus. And the scientific consensus is not what Mr. Bridenstine says.”

A procedural vote Wednesday to advance Bridenstine’s confirmation almost failed as Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) sided with Democrats to block him, only to switch his vote after some time had passed. Senate Republican leaders said Flake wanted to speak with Mike Pompeo, Trump’s nominee for secretary of state, about travel restrictions to Cuba before he could commit to advancing Bridenstine’s nomination.

[Lame-duck Jeff Flake just showed how he still has some leverage]

Had Flake remained a no on that vote, it would have caused significant complications, with Vice President Pence, who as the president of the Senate is the official tiebreaker, in Florida to attend Trump’s meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.