Senate GOP Pushes Spending Bills as Democratic Anger Builds

Senate appropriators reject proposal to cancel TraCSS

Senate appropriators have rejected an effort by the White House to terminate funding for a civil space traffic coordination system. The post Senate appropriators reject proposal to cancel TraCSS appeared first on SpaceNews.

Future of PEPFAR in limbo as negotiations over Trump’s signature spending bill continue

As negotiations over the massive spending cuts in President Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” continue, congressional Republicans are divided over whether to save federal funding for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Senate leaders on Wednesday passed an amendment to protect the landmark global health initiative, which is credited with saving tens of millions of lives over more than two decades, but other critical HIV p…

How will the U.S. manage space traffic?

Audrey Schaffer, a space policy expert and the vice president of strategy and policy at Slingshot Aerospace, joins the show to talk about the growing amount of space traffic and whether the federal government should establish a department of space.

Spending clash foreshadows rough September

The stage is set for a government shutdown fight this fall. And on Thursday, OMB Director Russell Vought added to the drama when he told reporters the spending process should be “less bipartisan” — an eyebrow-raising statement given the need for 60 Senate votes to fund the government. Senate Majority Leader John Thune gently pushed back, saying Vought’s comment “runs contrary to what the math tells us around here.” He said the Senate will soon t…

Senate GOP pushes spending bills as Democratic anger builds

Senate Republican appropriators want their leadership to bring an initial package of fiscal 2026 spending bills to the floor before August recess, Appropriations Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, said Thursday. The committee has reported four of its 12 annual bills: the Agriculture, Commerce-Justice-Science, Legislative Branch and Military Construction-VA measures. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has not yet shared any timeframe, but a so…

Senate Appropriators Retain Funding for NOAA’s TraCSS Space Traffic System

The Senate Appropriations Committee completed consideration of the FY2026 Commerce-Justice-Science bill that funds NOAA and NASA today. The committee rejected the Trump Administration’s proposal to terminate NOAA’s Traffic Coordination System for Space (TraCSS) designed to provide data to civil and commercial satellite operators to avoid collisions. A coalition of space industry associations urged Congress to continue funding it. Historically, D…