---
title: "Bernie Sanders Just Did Elon Musk a Huge Favor"
description: "In an unusual twist, Senator Sanders just did mega-billionaire and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk a pretty big favor. Congress was poised to approve an amendment to the Endless Frontier Act introduced by Senator Maria Cantwell that would have added $10 billion in funding to NASA’s budget while forcing the space agency to award […]"
date: "2021-05-25"
modified: "2021-05-25"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/bernie-sanders-elon-musk-favor"
categories:
  - "Elon Musk"
  - "Future Society"
  - "Off-World"
  - "Space"
  - "The Industrialists"
tags:
  - "bernie sanders"
  - "blue origin"
  - "elon musk"
  - "SpaceX"
  - "the digest"
---

# Bernie Sanders Just Did Elon Musk a Huge Favor

![Sanders is trying to block legislation that would essentially guarantee a $10 billion payout for SpaceX rival Blue Origins.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/musksanders.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: \<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/photogism/" target="\_blank"\>Steve Jurvetson and Shelly Provost via Flickr / Futurism  \</a\>\</em\>*

## Bezos Bailout

In an unusual twist, the progressive Senator Bernie Sanders just did mega-billionaire and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk a pretty big favor.

Congress was poised to approve an amendment to the Endless Frontier Act introduced by Senator Maria Cantwell that would have added $10 billion in funding to NASA's budget while forcing the space agency to award a second contract for the development of a Human Landing System for the Artemis Moon missions, [according to *Ars Technica*](<https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/05/bernie-sanders-seeks-to-eliminate-the-bezos-bailout-in-space/>). The amendment comes after a lobbying campaign by Jeff Bezos' space company, Blue Origins, *[The Intercept ](<https://theintercept.com/2021/05/25/jeff-bezos-blue-origin-senate-bailout/>)*[reports](<https://theintercept.com/2021/05/25/jeff-bezos-blue-origin-senate-bailout/>) — suggesting that the extra budget would have essentially been funneled through NASA into Blue Origins' pockets.

"It does not make a lot of sense to me that we would provide billions of dollars to a company owned by the wealthiest guy in America," Sanders told *The Intercept*.

## Bernie Block

On Monday, Sanders introduced yet another amendment to the Endless Frontier Act specifically to strip out the language of Cantwell's.

Why is that a favor for Elon Musk? Blue Origins began its lobbying after NASA awarded the first contract to SpaceX, and the Bezos-owned company still wanted to [get in on the action](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/in-stunning-reversal-nasa-halts-2-9-billion-contract-with-spacex>). If Sanders succeeds, then SpaceX can continue working with NASA, uninterrupted.

And that's ironic — basically, Sanders is preventing a space company owned by the world's wealthiest man from threatening one owned by the third-richest.

## Endless Bureaucracy

Cantwell's amendment *could* have been introduced in the spirit of fostering competition and preventing SpaceX from developing a space monopoly, but *Ars* notes that it's more likely that she intended to support and prop up Blue Origin as it chased down government contracts.

It's also worth noting that introducing a second award would only delay the already-challenging timeline for the Artemis missions, as NASA would need to open up a submission period, consider entries, and give Blue Origins time to develop a landing system instead of just continuing onward as it could today.

**READ MORE:** [Bernie Sanders wants to stop NASA funding for Blue Origin](<https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/05/bernie-sanders-seeks-to-eliminate-the-bezos-bailout-in-space/>) \[*Ars Technica*\]

**More on NASA:** *[NASA Is Asking For an Enormous Amount of Extra Money](<https://futurism.com/nasa-asking-extra-money>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)