Congress is worried about protecting the jobs of American aerospace workers, and might see the merger as a threat.
That could put another 10,000 aerospace workers - many of them mid-level managers - out on the street.
So the retired aerospace workers who guide some 1,500 visitors a day through the space center walked a little taller Friday.
A survey of 500 American aerospace workers found that 80 percent would not recommend that their children follow them into the field.
His first test comes later on Wednesday, when he flies to Seattle to meet with aerospace workers.
Here in California in the last 8 years, about 1 in 3 aerospace workers has been declared too expensive.
This was more than double the unemployment rate for aerospace workers in 1990 (4.2 percent), said the report's author, Bob Schoeni.
Since Lake's announcement, over eleven thousand defense and aerospace workers from thirty states had contributed just over $8 million.
And the church has waived school tuition fees, just as it has recently done for so many laid-off aerospace workers.
"Will the last aerospace worker in America please turn out the lights," Senator Murray remarked.