Congressional wackos are threatening to pass legislation barring Elon Musk’s SpaceX from federal contracts. With the phenomenal and inspiring successes of SpaceX’s cooperation with NASA over the past years, it would take the defeat of President Donald Trump and the return of the Dark Ages lunacy of the Obama years to get it passed in the White House, but it demonstrates the insanity of many in the Congress.
Their concern is that Musk is not adequately anti-China, and has a Tesla auto plant in China (which is doing quite well) with loans from Chinese banks. “What is there to stop them from going to Musk directly and saying, `We’ll call your line of credit early, unless you give us X, Y, or Z?'” said a Republican aide involved in the negotiations over legislation that governs the space agency, according to the Washington Examiner.
Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO), who is on the Commerce Committee and chairs the Foreign Relations subcommittee for East Asia, told the Examiner he is “concerned” that companies in China could come into the U.S. and make a “sweetheart deal, take sensitive information, take proprietary technologies, and use it to enrich their own space program.” He wants the congressional Government Accountability Office to review NASA contractors for potential ties to China, and to force NASA leaders to “take into account” ties with China when reviewing contracts. This would include “United States companies that share ownership with NASA contractors.”
