posted 08-04-2007 03:45 PM               

The House of Representatives voted this week to authorize the U.S. Mint to strike coins in 2008 honoring the 50th anniversary of NASA. Introduced by Texas Representatives Sheila Jackson Lee and John Culberson, the bill marks the fourth time in just as many years that the legislation has been raised in the Congress and the second time it has been passed by the House.

This latest version of the bill (H.R. 2750) repeats many of the provisions made by earlier efforts, but omits a detail that would have distinguished the coins from any of those minted in the history of the United States.

posted 07-16-2008 03:31 PM               

Given the long delay between versions, the Senate bill extended the time by which the Mint could take orders (through 2008) and produce the coins (through 2009). To bring both versions into agreement, the act was reintroduced into the House on July 10 and was passed by voice vote on July 15 (HR 6455).

According to a spokesman for Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee, a co-sponsor of the House bill, it may not be necessary for the act to now return to the Senate, thus clearing the way for the NASA 50th Anniversary Commemorative Coin Act to be signed into law three years after it was passed by the House for the first time.

posted 01-23-2009 06:20 PM               

Having passed separately in the House of Representatives and the Senate in 2008 but never exiting the 110th Congress for the President's signature, the bill (HR 255) was reintroduced by Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX) on January 7, 2009, when it was referred to the House Committee on Financial Services.