Presidential Vision or Congressional Derision? Explaining Budgeting Outcomes for NASA, 1958–2008

Abstract

This study examines presidential-congressional relations on appropriations for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The objective is to examine differences between presidential requests and congressional appropriations for NASA spanning fiscal years 1959–2009. The analysis accentuates NASA's exceptional situation in the budgeting process as an agency without a core social or geographic constituency, the impact of congressional budget reforms, and presidents’ relative inattention to space policy since the agency's inception in 1958. The theoretical basis for the quantitative analysis also draws from perspectives that include domestic economic factors, international contexts, and the congressional electoral cycle. The empirical analysis accentuates the basis for congressional dominance over the agency's funding.