President Joe Biden’s administration has yet to have a clear stance on where they hope space exploration in the country would go. Last week, the White House announced that Biden is nominating former Democrat Senator for Florida Bill Nelson to become the new head of NASA.
The White House announced Friday that Biden is nominating Nelson for the post of NASA’s Chief Administrator. Should Nelson be confirmed, he would be succeeding Jim Bridenstine, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump and stepped down in January.
A statement from the White House highlighted Nelson’s experience in space travel and almost 40 years in public service, from the Florida State legislature to Congress to becoming state treasurer and then the Senate. Nelson was a ranking member of the space committees in both chambers throughout his career.
Nelson released a statement following the announcement of his nomination, pledging to lead the agency into “an exciting future of possibilities.” “Its workforce radiates optimism, ingenuity, and a can-do spirit. The NASA team continues to achieve the seemingly impossible as we venture into the cosmos.”
Bridenstine also praised the nomination of Nelson, urging the Senate to confirm the former lawmaker immediately. The former NASA chief noted that Nelson has the “political clout” necessary to deal with both the White House and Congress as well as the diplomatic abilities to lead an international effort to send astronauts back to the moon as well as Mars. Florida GOP Senator Marco Rubio also praised Nelson’s nomination, saying that the Biden administration now understands the importance of the agency’s upcoming Artemis mission in winning the modern space race.
In other news, Biden has pledged to implement new measures to ease the sudden influx of unaccompanied child migrants looking to cross the southern border to the US. Over the weekend, Biden said his administration is planning on rebuilding a system that would allow possible child migrants to seek asylum in their home countries to keep them from making the journey through human trafficking networks. Biden also pledged to visit the border at some point.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas pushed back against criticism that the Biden administration was caught off-guard by the migrant surge and contributed to the problem in rewriting immigration rules. Mayorkas said that they are currently working “around the clock” to properly deal with the surges of migrants.