{"id":43843,"date":"2025-08-08T17:29:03","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T09:29:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/texas-politicians-warn-smithsonian-it-must-not-lobby-to-retain-its-space-shuttle\/"},"modified":"2025-08-08T17:29:03","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T09:29:03","slug":"texas-politicians-warn-smithsonian-it-must-not-lobby-to-retain-its-space-shuttle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/texas-politicians-warn-smithsonian-it-must-not-lobby-to-retain-its-space-shuttle\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas politicians warn Smithsonian it must not lobby to retain its space shuttle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Texas lawmakers, seemingly not content with getting NASA\u2019s endorsement to move a retired space shuttle to Houston, are now calling for an investigation into how the Smithsonian allegedly objected to relocating the orbiter it has owned for more than a decade.<\/p>\n

Senator John Cornyn and Representative Randy Weber on Thursday sent a letter to John Roberts, the Smithsonian Institution\u2019s chancellor and chief justice of the United States, suggesting that the Smithsonian\u2019s staff may have violated the law in their efforts to block legislation authorizing the space vehicle\u2019s transfer.<\/p>\n

\u201cPublic reporting suggest that the Smithsonian Institution has taken affirmative steps to oppose the passage and implementation of this provision. These steps reportedly include contacting staff of the Senate Appropriations and Rules Committees to express opposition, as well as engaging members of the press to generate public resistance to the provision\u2019s enforcement,\u201d wrote Cornyn and Weber to Roberts.<\/p>\n

Battle began in April<\/h2>\n

In April, Cornyn and Weber introduced matching bills in the Senate and House to remove Space Shuttle Discovery<\/em> from the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum\u2019s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia, and display it at Space Center Houston, the visitor center for NASA\u2019s Johnson Space Center in Texas. Generic language intended to achieve the same result was then inserted into the \u201cOne Big Beautiful Bill Act,\u201d which was enacted on July 4.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, in accordance with the bill\u2019s requirements, acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy \u201cmade an identification\u201d but did not publicly disclose his choice of space vehicles to be moved. Cornyn later said that Duffy approved sending a space shuttle to Houston.<\/p>\n

Neither Duffy nor Cornyn would confirm which of NASA\u2019s three remaining space-flown shuttles was to be moved. Endeavour<\/em> is the property of the California Science Center in Los Angeles. Atlantis<\/em>, on display at NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida, is still NASA property.<\/p>\n

In a statement, the Smithsonian affirmed that it has held \u201call rights, title, interest and ownership\u201d of Discovery<\/em> since 2012.<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

(Oddly, Cornyn and Weber\u2019s letter to Roberts described the law as requiring Duffy \u201cto transfer a space vehicle involved in the Commercial Crew Program\u201d rather than choosing a destination NASA center related to the same, as the bill actually reads. Taken as written, if that was indeed their intent, Discovery<\/em> and the other retired shuttles would be exempt, as the winged orbiters were never part of that program. A request for clarification sent to both Congress members\u2019 offices was not immediately answered.)<\/p>\n

\n

\"two<\/p>\n

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX, at right) sits in front of a model of Space Shuttle Discovery<\/em> at Space Center Houston, where they want to move the real orbiter.<\/p>\n

Credit:
\n collectSPACE.com<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

In the letter, Cornyn and Weber cited the Anti-Lobbying Act as restricting the use of funds provided by the federal government to \u201cinfluence members of the public to pressure Congress regarding legislation or appropriations matters.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the Smithsonian Institution receives annual appropriations from Congress, it is subject to the restrictions imposed by this statute,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n

The money that Congress allocates to the Smithsonian accounts for about two-thirds of the Institution\u2019s annual budget, primarily covering federal staff salaries, collections care, facilities maintenance, and the construction and revitalization of the buildings that house the Smithsonian\u2019s 21 museums and other centers.<\/p>\n

Pols want Smithsonian to stay mum<\/h2>\n

As evidence of the Smithsonian\u2019s alleged wrongdoing, Cornyn and Weber cited a July 11 article by Zach Vasile for Flying Magazine, which ran under the headline \u201cSmithsonian Pushing Back on Plans to Relocate Space Shuttle.\u201d Vasile quoted from a message the Institution sent to Congress saying that there was no precedent for removing an object from its collection to send it elsewhere.<\/p>\n

The Texas officials wrote that the anti-lobbying restrictions apply to \u201cstaff time or public relations resources\u201d and claimed that the Smithsonian\u2019s actions did not fall under the law\u2019s exemptions, including \u201cpublic speeches, incidental expenditures for public education or communications, or activities unrelated to legislation or appropriations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cornyn and Weber urged Roberts, as the head of the Smithsonian\u2019s Board of Regents, to \u201cconduct a comprehensive internal review\u201d as it applied to how the institution responded to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.<\/p>\n

\u201cShould the review reveal that appropriated funds were used in a manner inconsistent with the prohibitions outlined in the Anti-Lobbying Act, we respectfully request that immediate and appropriate corrective measures be implemented to ensure the Institution\u2019s full compliance with all applicable statutory and ethical obligations,\u201d Cornyn and Weber wrote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Texas lawmakers, seemingly not content with getting NASA\u2019s endorsement to move a retired space shuttle to Houston, are now calling for an investigation into how the Smithsonian allegedly objected to relocating the orbiter it has owned for more than a decade. Senator John Cornyn and Representative Randy Weber on Thursday sent a letter to John […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43844,"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-43843","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\/43843"}],"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=43843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}