Utah GOP delegation bristles at Obama's budget

WASHINGTON — Utah Republicans in Congress complained Monday that President Barack Obama's proposed 2011 budget will slash space industry jobs in Utah and may force the use of the "strip-search" machines at airports abhorred by Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah.

Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, blasted the budget for cutting the funding for the Ares I rocket that would have helped return manned spaceflight to the moon. ATK in Utah has contracts for much of that work.

"In addition to weakening America's leading edge on scientific advancement, the president will put hundreds of Utahns out of work by not funding the Ares I project," Bishop said. "This news is especially devastating since we learned just last week that 450 employees at ATK were laid off due to the nation's current economic climate and previous bad decisions in Washington."

Bishop added, "The president has thrown down the gauntlet on space and space jobs, and now it's time for Congress to step in and stop these cuts." He said he will do all he can to block them.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, complained about what he called "the largest spending blueprint in our nation's history."

"This year's deficit is expected to reach a record $1.6 trillion," Hatch said. "But instead of taking bold steps to get our fiscal house in order, they are sending a toy fire truck to combat a five-alarm fire of record debt that threatens our children's and grandchildren's futures."

To Chaffetz's chagrin, he found that Obama's budget contained a proposal to buy 1,000 new "whole-body imaging" machines at airports.

Chaffetz has been leading the congressional fight to ban forcing passengers through such machines for "primary" searches, and famously told the House last year, "You don't need to see my wife and 8-year-old daughter naked to secure an airplane."

But Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, has favored adding more such machines, saying they will help make the public safer, and that they may have found the "underwear bomber" who unsuccessfully tried to down a plane on Christmas Day.

"It's a very expensive way to go, like a lot of things in the president's budget. The machines cost $175,000 each, so do the math," Chaffetz said. "Bomb-sniffing dogs would be a lot cheaper and more effective."