House Charmain Backs Pence-Led National Space Council, Supports Trump's Space Policy

US Representative Brian Babin, the Chairman of the House Space Subcommittee, expressed his full support on Trump administration's space policy proposal involving the reestablishment of the National Space Council with Vice President-elect Mike Pence as its head, Space News reports.

According to Babin, his first meeting with Pence was at a campaign stop in Cocoa, Florida last October. "I was very impressed with him, and I'm very pleased that he's going to chair a newly-resurrected National Space Council. This should give space the attention and focus that has been missing for far too many years," stated the congressman who also represents the Houston district where NASA's Johnson Space Center is located.

Pence, who spent 12 years in the House of Representatives before becoming governor of Indiana in 2012, has never been active when it comes to space issues until now. However, he was chairman of the Republican Study Committee in 2005 to 2007, the same committee and the same time budget cuts for human missions to the moon and Mars under President George W. Bush's Vision for Space Exploration were proposed.

Aside from the restoration of the National Space Council from George H.W. Bush's administration, Babin also backed other essential elements of the space policy laid out by the Trump administration, including its emphasis on human space exploration at the expense of NASA's earth sciences programs, which according to him was a distraction for the true purpose of the space agency.

 "The agency has gotten a bit distracted over the years with significant funding being siphoned off to support climate change research efforts. NASA is the only federal agency that does human spaceflight, and I'm going to keep fighting to make sure that they have the resources to succeed, "Babin said in a video address given at the Space Commerce Conference and Exposition via Space.com.