SpaceNews is reporting House and Senate negotiators have reached an agreement on a 2010 omnibus spending bill that includes US$18.7 billion for NASA — a US$942 million increase over the agency’s 2009 budget — and includes a provision that would prevent the agency from scaling back or canceling its current human spaceflight activities in the absence of formal legislative approval from congressional appropriators.

Earlier this year, a White-House appointed panel known as the Review of U.S. Human Spaceflight Plans Committee, led by former Lockheed Martin chief Norm Augustine, found NASA’s current plan to replace the space shuttle with rockets and spacecraft optimized for the Moon is incompatible with the agency’s projected budget. Barack Obama's administratino is weighing a number of scenarios outlined in the Augustine panel’s October 22 final report and is expected to make a decision in the coming weeks that likely will reshape the future of NASA’s manned spaceflight activities and investments. To read the entire story, read this direct link.