Congress

Moon over Mars? Congress is determined to kill Elon Musk’s space dream.

Published

2 years ago

January 13, 2025

Trump confidant Elon Musk wants NASA to drop its ambitious plans to return to the moon and instead head straight to Mars. Congress is ready to put up a fight.

Republican and Democratic lawmakers, who control NASA’s purse strings, want Americans to return to the lunar surface in 2027 — and they’re not willing to abandon that mission despite Musk’s obsession with skipping the moon for Mars.

The division sets up a potential showdown with Republican policymakers and the influential Trump ally over one of the most consequential space policy decisions this century.

President-elect Donald Trump has, at least for now, stayed out of the fray. His first administration launched NASA’s plans to land on the moon, but he has also pressed the agency on why it can’t go directly to Mars.

“To bypass the moon would be a mistake,” said Texas Rep. Brian Babin, the Republican who leads the House committee focused on space.

But that’s what Musk, a billionaire space entrepreneur, wants to do. The SpaceX founder dreams of a Mars mission that would preserve human life beyond Earth, even if it costs hundreds of billions of dollars and poses extreme risks to those involved. He’s called colonization of the planet “life insurance for life.”

“We’re going straight to Mars,” Musk posted recently, adding that the moon focus was a “distraction.”

Elon Musk talks with President-elect Donald Trump before the launch of the sixth test flight of the SpaceX Starship rocket Nov. 19, 2024, in Boca Chica, Texas.

The Mars-first strategy, though, would likely find little support on Capitol Hill. Lawmakers want to focus on preserving jobs tied to moon exploration efforts, support a lunar economy and beat China in space. And since they shape NASA’s budget, the policymakers play a powerful role in the agency’s ambitions.

“There would be a lot of congressional resistance,” to any Mars-first plans, said Casey Dreier, chief of space policy at The Planetary Society, a nonprofit focused on space exploration.

The House and Senate Science committees strongly affirmed their support for moon exploration in NASA reauthorization bills last year.

A switch to Mars would impact programs such as the moon-focused Space Launch System, a multibillion-dollar rocket that provides jobs in numerous states. The rocket is a key part of Artemis, NASA’s effort to get back to the moon and eventually establish a lunar space station.

“We have put a lot of time, effort and money into Artemis, and I think we should allow NASA to complete that mission,” said Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), a former astronaut.

Mars brings other technical challenges — such as timing. It’s a three-year round-trip mission, versus three days to the moon. And the physical stress of long-term space flight could also endanger the crew once they land.

The U.S. must go to the moon first, said outgoing NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “You’ve got to learn to walk before you run.”

Musk has long voiced support for traveling to the red planet. It’s not clear whether his January post referred to NASA’s current efforts or a separate SpaceX-funded mission to Mars. Musk and SpaceX did not respond to requests for comment.

Trump hasn’t publicly chosen a side. He supported a return to the moon in his first term but has since shown increased interest in Mars.

The president-elect castigated NASA’s focus on the moon in a June 2019 tweet. A month later he repeatedly asked then-NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine about the possibility of going to Mars directly. His transition team did not respond to a request for comment.

The Artemis 4 capsule scheduled for launch in 2028 is seen under assembly progress at the Kennedy Space Center on Dec. 16, 2024, in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Mars also could prove a financial loss to lawmakers. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas.) and Babin, for example, have promoted the development of the commercial space industry and could end up deflating business interests in space if they switched NASA’s focus to Mars.

And Congress’ moon advocates worry a shift would cede the lunar surface to China, which plans to land its own astronauts there by 2030.

“If we do not beat the Chinese to the moon, they are going to write the rules of the road up there,” Babin said.

But going against Musk brings its own set of concerns. He’s already threatened to fund primary challenges against Republicans who didn’t back Trump’s cabinet picks, and contesting his space ambitions could prove politically risky.

“Is it more important to be aligned with the leader of your party?” said Dreier, the space expert. “Or is it more important to fight for those technician and engineering jobs that go to your state?”

Joe Gould and Connor O’Brien contributed to this report.

Congress

Scalise will kick off August campaign sprint in marquee Nebraska House race

Published

3 hours ago

July 31, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise is zeroing in on one of House Republicans’ biggest contests — a purple district in Nebraska — when he starts his recess campaign sprint.

Scalise will travel to Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District in the Omaha area for an event with Republican Brinker Harding in the coming days, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter granted anonymity to share plans not yet made public. Republicans are digging in to defend the seat, which Kamala Harris won in the 2024 presidential race and is among Democrats’ best pick up opportunities this fall as they seek to flip the House.

Harding is running against Democratic consultant Denise Powell to replace retiring GOP Rep. Don Bacon. Bacon, a moderate-leaning Republican, flipped the Omaha district red in 2016.

After Nebraska, Scalise is planning to travel across the country throughout August, including to defend GOP incumbents Mariannette Miller-Meeks’ and Zach Nunn’s key battleground seats in Iowa’s 1st and 3rd Congressional Districts and Derrick Van Orden in Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District.

He’ll boost candidates working to flip blue districts like Laurie Buckhout in North Carolina’s 1st Congressional District, Derek Merrin in Ohio’s 9th Congressional District and Mike LiPetri in New York’s 3rd Congressional District.

Scalise also plans to travel to Michigan, Colorado, South Carolina and Texas for campaign events over the August recess.

Congress

Trump needles Cornyn as Blanche remains blocked

Published

7 hours ago

July 31, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

President Donald Trump goaded John Cornyn on social media Friday morning, accusing the Texas senator of withholding his vote on Todd Blanche’s attorney general nomination in retaliation for Trump’s central role in his political demise.

Cornyn, who lost his May primary to Texas’ scandal-ridden attorney general, the Trump-endorsed Ken Paxton, has threatened to block Blanche’s nomination in the Senate Judiciary Committee until the White House promises to permanently shelve its $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund” in writing — something Trump appears unwilling to do.

“John Cornyn never had a problem with the so called “Fund,” which will not benefit me, but rather the great American Patriots who were hunted down like dogs and whose lives were unfairly and illegally destroyed by the Crooked Joe Biden Administration, until after I decided to Endorse and Support his Republican Primary opponent in Texas, who easily won the Nomination for the United States Senate,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Several Republicans bristled at the fund, which could have been deployed to compensate Americans who faced charges after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and which gives the president and his family audit immunity over taxes. At his July confirmation hearing, Blanche said that the fund, part of a settlement the president reached with the IRS, was defunct. But the administration has been “reluctant to change” the text of the settlement, Cornyn told reporters Thursday.

Trump signaled his continued support for the Jan 6 rioters on Friday.

“I will always feel that these victims of government abuse should be paid back for what they were forced to endure, their lives have been ruined!” he wrote. “Millions of people agree with me, as was proven in my landslide Presidential win, where this was a major subject of debate, and so did John Cornyn, until he lost his Election to an opponent that I Endorsed.”

On Thursday, the president suggested that he could punt a Senate vote on Blanche until after Cornyn — and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) — leaves the chamber at the end of the year. Cornyn, however, suggested on social media that there are other Republican senators with concerns about the fund.

“After the midterms, who knows who’s going to be the next United States senator from North Carolina or Texas?” Cornyn told reporters.

Congress

Capitol agenda: The Senate’s fly-out agenda takes shape

Published

8 hours ago

July 31, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Senate Republicans are prepping a jam-packed — if somewhat optimistic — agenda for their final week before summer recess.

Majority Leader John Thune wants to move stopgap funding through Dec. 11, bipartisan Russia sanctions legislation and a bloc of nominees — perhaps including attorney general pick Todd Blanche.

He’s also under pressure from President Donald Trump, administration officials and many of his GOP colleagues to adopt a budget resolution — the first step in unlocking another party-line spending bill.

Leaders are prioritizing the stopgap, though. Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) expects continuing resolution text to be unveiled later today, she told reporters Thursday, and an initial vote is expected Monday evening.

Still TBD: Collins wants to use the funding patch to block the Trump administration from putting political appointees in charge of approving grants — a demand Democratic senators are also making.

The decision is in Thune’s hands. He acknowledged a “handful of issues” are still under consideration with the CR, and said he’s “hoping both sides can come together and figure” them out.

As for the sanctions bill, leaders of both parties are still trying to work out a deal to fast-track the legislation amid concerns from some Democrats and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) that it gives Trump too much tariff power.

In addition to the nominees package, Thune also hasn’t ruled out an initial vote on the landmark cryptocurrency bill both parties have spent months negotiating or teeing up a bipartisan college sports overhaul now in final stages of talks.

But the big question is whether Republicans can take a major step toward another reconciliation bill by advancing a budget resolution.

Thune met Thursday with Budget Chair Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who said he was “optimistic in terms of how things are kind of coming together.”

Republicans anticipate giving a number of Senate committees instructions for the bill, setting up a lengthy and politically painful process ahead of adoption despite pushes for urgency from the White House.

Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, was the latest official to head to Capitol Hill to try and light a fire under top Republicans. But GOP senators don’t necessarily see the urgency.

“The hard part is the president wants to be able to move fast, like an executive can move, and we’re a legislative branch,” said Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.). “It doesn’t move that fast.”

What else we’re watching:

— BLANCHE TEETERING: Todd Blanche’s nomination as attorney general isn’t dead yet. But it’s certainly on life support. The acting AG met with Cornyn and Tillis Thursday at NRSC headquarters, and one person familiar with the discussion said the group was “working collaboratively now.” But it would now be difficult to confirm him before August recess under Senate rules.

— FARM BILL TEXT: Senate Agriculture Chair John Boozman said his farm bill legislative text — originally expected Thursday — could come Friday or Saturday. The bill, which is expected to include language allowing year-round E15 sales and a potential compromise on postponing GOP-led cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, is set to be marked up Thursday.

Jordain Carney and Grace Yarrow contributed to this report.