I may be a Kamala Harris fan-boy, but as a veepologist I must analyze her work dispassionately. When she (or any VP) fails or messes up I strive to understand what happened and put it into context. That is the case with VP Harris’ work chairing the National Space Council.
The Washington Post ran a damning indictment by a pair of Republican space hands stating:
Harris’s record as chair of the National Space Council offers a serious indictment of her leadership abilities.
The Trump administration had an expansive space policy agenda, lead by Vice President Pence. The Biden administration formally committed to continuing this work (because space infrastructure requires years of planning, policy doesn’t usually shift much or very quickly from administration to administration.) Harris, as chair of the National Space Council was legally mandated to lead this effort and the authors make a strong case that she did not. The Space Council under Harris only held three public meetings, the bare minimum required, compared to eight held under Trump. The Trump administration had six space policy directives, Biden only issued one.
The authors may go a bit far in appearing to blame Harris for the astronauts stuck at the International Space Station. But they are absolutely right that this is an exciting time for space policy, space is very important, and U.S. efforts seem to be moribund - with NASA throttled by budget cuts.
They do ignore that Harris did make some important moves such as signing up additional countries to the Artemis Accords and making a bold arms control move by announcing a unilateral ban on testing anti-satellite weapons. Still, it’s hard to argue that Harris’ work on space policy was particularly notable, particularly compared to her most recent predecessor.
The VP in Space
Space has long been a VP policy domain. It was one of the few substantive issues given to Lyndon Johnson under JFK. Spiro Agnew was charmed and impressed by NASA and went back to the White House advocating for a mission to Mars. He was told there was no money in the budget for this and his job was to keep NASA quiet on the topic-not to advocate for them. (There’s a bit of a lesson in that.)
Perhaps two of the most active space VPs were Hoosiers Dan Quayle and Mike Pence. Quayle established space policy priorities and engineered the firing of a recalcitrant NASA administrator. Pence, as we saw was very active on the space portfolio. Interestingly, the Space Council was discontinued under Clinton-Gore, although Gore (a science policy enthusiast in general) was active on space, particularly through the Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission.)
Quayle and Pence had something in common besides their Indiana origins: they were both outsiders in their respective administrations.
The VP in Time
Vice Presidents have no valuable commodity other than their time and how they spend their time or what trips they take, who they see, what speeches they give is the essence of a Vice Presidency.
Amb. Chase Untermeyer – Untermeyer served as executive assistant to Vice President George H.W. Bush
It seems pretty clear that Harris chose not to spend much time working on space. That is her choice. She may not have seen it as a political winner or an opportunity to accomplish much. Or, it simply didn’t seem as important as reproductive rights, rural broadband, or any of the host of issues she focused on.
The authors of the piece would disagree, they obviously see space as a top priority. Given that they both have made careers in this field, it would be surprising if they didn’t. Their argument has merit, space is really important.
But the VP disagreed. Ultimately, politicians have to make decisions about where to apply their resources and the VP chose not to make time for space.