What has always impressed me about Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson is her advocacy for science.
As the ranking member of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, she’s been instrumental in allocating funding for research in AIDS and other areas that might not have been popular at the time.
I once asked her about how that committee has changed since 1993 when she was first entered Congress and was appointed to that committee. She said the committee used to spend most of its time learning about and figuring out how the limited resources they were given could be best spent. How would NASA spend the money that would lead to breakthroughs in other areas? How could AIDS research lead to knowledge of the immune system which would assist cancer research and lead to treatments of other immune-related diseases. Now, she said, the committee spends quite a bit of its time debating whether science exists.
— David Taffet
Here’s the congresswoman’s statement on the 60th anniversary of NASA, which was created when President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the bill into law on July 29, 1958:
“Just 60 years ago, President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act into law. Today, and every day, we celebrate this turning point in our nation’s history. At a time when our place in space was unknown, Congress brought forth this monumental act establishing NASA and made the United States’ commitment to discovery and exploration clear. One of the original objectives listed in the National Aeronautics and Space Act is ‘the expansion of human knowledge of phenomena in the atmosphere and space.’ The great minds at NASA do an incredible job upholding this objective, from putting humans on the moon to studying exoplanets in far-away galaxies to exploring our own solar system to helping us understand our own planet. The discoveries have been incredible and seemingly endless. I am excited to see what new heights they enable us to reach next.”