NASA's admission that special legislation was needed

From: Walter Bays
Date: Mon, 29 Jul 1996

>This is the first I've heard of any legislation requirement to permit air cargo operations at Moffett. I watched the televised Sunnyvale hearing, and this was never mentioned. It was implied that NASA already has full authority to do this under CRAF, but is trying to be a good neighbor by gathering input from the community. Could you provide additional information about this legislation?

In brief, the reason you didn't hear that special legislation is needed is that the cargo proponents didn't want you to know. From the start the chosen role of the cities was that of helpless bystander, and the role of NASA was that of impartial arbiter looking out for the good of the cities. The villain role was assigned to San Jose, no doubt due to prior experience in the role :-) although in fact San Jose had nothing to do with the proposal.

I think it was in the July 10 Sunnyvale hearing when Lenny Seigel got NASA for the first time to admit that NASA did not have statuatory authority for the CRAF/CAMI (civilian access to military installations) program since NASA is not military and MFA is a federal not a military airfield. Congress would have to pass special legislation either to exempt Moffett, or to add all federal (non-military) airfields to the CAMI program.

This admission assigned the cities a responsibility they had sought to avoid, because Congress would not pass special legislation for Moffett over the objections of the local communities. Now, whichever way it goes, the cities will have to make decisions and the council members will have to carry their responsibility for those decisions to their next re-election campaigns.

It also completely opened up the redevelopment prospects. Until July 10 NASA steadfastly maintained that the reason no alternatives other than air cargo could be considered was that Moffett is a federal airfield and any alternative would require special legislation. Well, now there is no difference between special legislation to allow CAMI at Moffett and special legislation to establish an air and space museum, to allow commercial development, to let the wetlands revert to their historic level, to allow general aviation, or anything else.