Two panels of the House Science and Technology Committee this week will take a look at a troubled environmental satellite program with a substantial price tag that has raised eyebrows among lawmakers.

Officials from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NASA and the Government Accountability Office will report to lawmakers who have questioned the cost, delays and reduced capabilities of the weather and climate monitoring satellites.

The witnesses include GAO's David Powner, who called a previous satellite effort an "epic failure" when he testified before the committee in 2009.

The Investigations and Oversight and the Energy and Environment subcommittees have invited Powner and agency officials to a joint hearing to get an update on the restructuring of the satellites.

At issue is the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS), a weather and environmental satellite program formed out of the scraps of a defunct joint effort between NOAA, NASA and the Air Force. Their previous attempt to join forces was called the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System, or NPOESS.

The NPOESS project was intended to save federal cash by placing sensors for military and civilian weather monitoring on a single platform, but disconnect between the agencies' conflicting priorities, a lack of clarity around who was in charge and "chronically unrealistic cost estimation" doomed the program, according to the report released earlier this year by Aerospace Corp., a federally funded research group that works regularly for the Air Force (Greenwire, Feb 3).

After years of delays and overrun budgets, the White House dismantled the program last year and ordered NASA, NOAA and the Pentagon to come up with new plans. DOD has since approved the Defense Weather Satellite System, and NASA and NOAA are working together on JPSS.

Some of the plans for instruments on the satellites have been downgraded over the years -- an issue of concern for some on the Science Committee. Meanwhile, the price tag for the project is still substantial. The White House requested just over $1 billion for JPSS in the 2012 NOAA budget. House and Senate appropriators each allotted slightly less than that.

But the more than $900 million the committees budgeted for satellites would amount to one-third of NOAA's total budget. The spending committees had to make cuts to other NOAA programs to keep the agency total within their budget. In the bill the Senate Appropriations Committee approved last week, the panel asked NOAA to find ways to save money on the satellites in future years.

Schedule: The hearing is Friday, Sept. 23, at 10 a.m. in 2318 Rayburn.

Witnesses: Kathryn Sullivan, assistant secretary of Commerce for Environmental Observation and Prediction; Christopher Scolese, an associate administrator at NASA; and David Powner, director of information technology and management issues at the Government Accountability Office.