Washington ? A proposed budget boost for NASA appears headed in the opposite direction as the agency falls victim to competing priorities and tighter federal purse strings.

While President Bush requested an $866-million increase for the space agency for the 2005 fiscal year, a House budget panel Tuesday passed a plan that would cut the agency’s budget by $229 million.

The space shuttle program would get all $4.3 billion requested by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the agency’s Mars exploration program would receive the full $691 million.

But the House is offering nearly $1.1 billion less than the $16.2 billion requested by Bush–with most cuts coming in programs that are part of the agency’s plan to return astronauts to the moon and, eventually, send them to Mars.

U.S. Rep. James Walsh, the New York Republican who chairs the Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee, said NASA and many other agencies could not get everything they wanted because of a shrinking pot of federal money and the need to funnel more cash into veterans’ health care.

“Measured against other pressing needs in this bill, (we) simply could not afford to fund the vision at any level close to the proposal in the budget,” he said.

The bill would increase the Department of Veterans Affairs’ budget by $4.3 billion compared to this year and spend $1.2 billion more than Bush requested. That includes $30.3 billion for the Veterans Health Administration, a top priority for lawmakers in wartime and an election year. The committee also resisted an attempt by Bush to raise fees and require higher co-payments for some categories of disabled veterans.

The full House Appropriations Committee is scheduled to consider the bill Thursday. The Senate has not yet produced its version.