NASA and Pad Thai

The NASA hearing was interesting. It was a markup of the NASA Authorization Bill, with three amendments being introduced. In these hearings, all the Republicans are seated on the right and all the Democrats on the left. There's a very collegial atmosphere among the Congressman (within their own party, of course), and lots of joking around.

Congressman Hall, from Texas, was the longest-serving Rep in the committee, so he got to talk a lot and he was a funny old guy. He looked like he was 90 years old and wore a baby-blue suit. He told stories. A lot of them. Every point he tried to make he'd relate to some story he had, most of them about Texas.

One of the amendments was proposed by a Republican from Georgia named Gingrey, who had a thiiiiick southern accent and looked like a good ol' boy who liked to throw back a couple cold ones after work. But that's just conjecture. His amendment, if it passed, would stipulate that NASA could waive their obligation towards section 526 of the Energy Independence and Security Act, which states that no Federal agency can purchase alternative fuels that have greater carbon footprints than conventional fuels. (Which seems like backward reasoning, doesn't it?)

The thing failed though, with all Democrats voting in opposition and all Republicans voting in favor. The funny thing was, when the bill was introduced by the Chairman of the committee at the beginning of the hearing, the bipartisanship of the bill was lauded. Bipartisanship indeed.

Regardless, the bill as a whole was approved by the committee and "recommended favorably," whatever that means. It will now go to the House floor for debate. I'm learning a bunch.

Lunch today was the hardest thing as a vegetarian I have yet done. I decided to eat Thai, which is a problem, because two of my favorite dishes in the world are Thai and they both have meat. Alas, I could not have the chicken satay or the Green Curry, but settled on spring rolls and pad thai with broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, snap peas, cabbage and corn. It was pretty good.