{"id":43678,"date":"2025-10-23T17:22:47","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T09:22:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/texas-lawmakers-double-down-on-discovery-call-for-doj-investigation-into-smithsonian\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T17:22:47","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T09:22:47","slug":"texas-lawmakers-double-down-on-discovery-call-for-doj-investigation-into-smithsonian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/texas-lawmakers-double-down-on-discovery-call-for-doj-investigation-into-smithsonian\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas lawmakers double down on Discovery, call for DOJ investigation into Smithsonian"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Have you heard the news that Texas\u2019 senators want to chop up NASA\u2019s retired space shuttle <em>Discovery<\/em> in order to move it from the Smithsonian to Houston? The lawmakers in question have and are now crying foul to the Department of Justice.<\/p>\n<p style=\"\">Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas), together with Rep. Randy Weber (R-Texas), on Wednesday sent a letter to the DOJ urging the Smithsonian be investigated for allegedly violating the Anti-Lobbying Act. They claim that the institution\u2014<em>Discovery<\/em>\u2018s home for the past 13 years\u2014improperly used appropriated funds to influence Congress regarding the relocation of the winged orbiter.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPublic reporting suggests the Smithsonian Institution has taken affirmative steps to oppose the passage and implementation of the shuttle\u2019s relocation, as part of President Trump\u2019s One Big Beautiful Bill Act,\u201d wrote Cornyn and Cruz to Attorney General Pamela Bondi and Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate. \u201cThese steps include lobbying the staff of the Senate Appropriations and Rules Committees to express disapproval, coordinating with members of the press to generate public opposition to the law\u2019s passage and disseminating misinformation about the cost and logistics of the move.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The letter also alleged that the Smithsonian has called for the pending fiscal year 2026 Interior and Environment Appropriations Act and the Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations Act to be amended to block funding for the shuttle\u2019s transport and rehousing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFurthermore [on the subject of funding], the Institution has circulated cost estimates that exceed quotes from experienced private-sector logistics firms by more than tenfold and has falsely claimed the shuttle\u2019s wings would need to be removed for transport, a claim not supported by industry experts,\u201d wrote Cornyn, Cruz, and Weber.<\/p>\n<h2>Checks and balances<\/h2>\n<p>The appeal to the DOJ advances similar concerns that Cornyn first raised in an August letter to Chief Justice John Roberts in his role as chancellor of the Smithsonian. In that correspondence, also co-authored by Weber, Cornyn urged that Roberts \u201cconduct a comprehensive internal review\u201d for any violations of the Anti-Lobbying Act and \u201cimmediate and appropriate corrective measures be implemented\u201d if found.<\/p>\n<p>,<\/p>\n<p>It is unknown what, if any, actions Roberts took in response to the letter. The Smithsonian issued a statement asserting it \u201cdoes not engage in direct or grassroots lobbying\u201d and that its staff has \u201cacted in accordance with all governing rules and regulations.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Smithsonian has also stated that it is not a part of the federal government and holds clear title to <em>Discovery<\/em>, as transferred by NASA in 2012. As such, any attempt to remove <em>Discovery<\/em> from its collection would be unprecedented. The Congressional Research Service raised similar concerns about ownership in a briefing paper it prepared for lawmakers.<\/p>\n<p>The crux of the concerns seems to be a letter the Smithsonian sent to the congressional authorizing and appropriating committees, as first shared by KeepTheShuttle, a grassroots organization founded to support <em>Discovery<\/em> staying at the National Air and Space Museum\u2019s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia. In that letter, the Smithsonian cited a cost of $35 million to $65 million more than the $85 million authorized by the Big Beautiful Bill Act (and that excluded the construction of a display facility, which was included in the legislation\u2019s budget).<\/p>\n<h2>To chop or not to chop<\/h2>\n<figure class=\"ars-video ars-video--horizontal\"><iframe class=\"absolute left-0 top-0 block h-full w-full object-cover\" allow=\"fullscreen\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/sVB3grmxag4?start=0&amp;wmode=transparent\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n<p>The Smithsonian, together with NASA, also expressed concern that <em>\u201cDiscovery<\/em> will have to undergo significant disassembly to be moved.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That possibility, along with the logistics and costs of making the move, resulted in Sens. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), and Tim Kaine (D-Va.) sending their own letter to the Senate Committee on Appropriations to block funding for the move. Kelly, a former NASA astronaut who flew on <em>Discovery<\/em> twice, and Warner also released a video on social media contrasting chopping vegetables to chopping up the space shuttle.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo get it down there [to Houston], you would have to rip off the wings. The head shield, all of those tiles on the bottom, would be stripped off. The white thermal blankets? Gone,\u201d Kelly said in the video released on Tuesday. \u201cIf Ted Cruz and Cornyn think they are putting this thing back together, I want to see them get out there. They\u2019ll be out there for the next 10 years trying to figure this out.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is the dumbest plan I\u2019ve ever heard in nearly five years in the United States Senate,\u201d said Kelly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Have you heard the news that Texas\u2019 senators want to chop up NASA\u2019s retired space shuttle Discovery in order to move it from the Smithsonian to Houston? The lawmakers in question have and are now crying foul to the Department of Justice. Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas), together with Rep. Randy Weber [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43679,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43678"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}