Ted Cruz

And I'm proud of the fact that for 14 years we have kept American leadership in space outside of partisan politics.

2028 is the target date to land back on the moon and to take astronauts safely to the surface of the moon and then back again to planet Earth.

And the plan is for it to be in the last year of President Trump's presidency.

And by the way, I will say OMB, the Office of Management and Budget last year, there were some folks at OMB that wanted to drastically slash the budget to go to the moon.

They had decided Mars was more important and the moon was going to be substantially deprioritized.

And what happened last year when we were passing the big reconciliation bill, the Working Families Tax Cut, I decided that was a terrible thing for the United States.

I was not going to sit by and watch America lose to China and cede the moon to China.

And so when we were writing the reconciliation bill, I wrote in $10 billion.

to fund going back to the moon, to fund Artemis, to fund what is happening right now.

And OMB was really unhappy with me.

It was a battle, but I had the support.

I had locked down the votes in the Senate.

And so we passed it into law.

And it was an example of Article I of the Constitution, the Congress exercising its authority.

And I'll tell you what I told the president.

I said, look,

If we were to look up in 2028 or 2030 and see the Chinese on the moon, understand that they had gotten there and beaten us there and seized the high ground in the preferred location, I think it would be more damaging to this country than Sputnik was when the Soviets launched a satellite into space.

We are not going to lose the race with China.

And Artemis II, it's an inspirational example of America leading and America winning.

Well, you may recall back in 2024 at the Republican National Convention when I spoke and addressed the convention, my remarks were focused on this topic.