House and Senate authorize extra money for NASA and for Mars Exploration

From this story is the following news: "With broad support, the House of Representatives have passed H.R. 6063, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Authorization Act of 2008, authorizing programs at NASA for fiscal year 2009 (FY09). The bill passed the House by a vote of 409 to 15." I don't know that the Senate has passed the same amount, but this story in spacepolitics.com indicates that Sen. Barbara Mikulski will seek a billion dollar increase in the NASA budget. I've also heard that the Senate (following the House) has approved a $77 million increase in NASA's Mars Exploration budget. So this is all good news. Let's hope the extra money gets through the full process and approved by the White House.