Safety monitors who issued warnings last spring over the effect of budget cuts on NASA were subsequently forced out, reports the New York Times.

NASA's Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel reported last March that work on long-term shuttle safety "had deteriorated" and that tight budgets were causing the agency to focus more on short-term planning and adding to a backlog of planned improvements, according to the Times.

"I have never been as worried for space shuttle safety as I am right now," Dr. Richard D. Blomberg, the panel's chairman, told Congress in April. "All of my instincts suggest that the current approach is planting the seeds for future danger," the Times reported.

In the wake of the demise of the shuttle Columbia, members of Congress who heard the panel's testimony told the Times they would re-examine whether budget constraints had undermined safety. Several expressed doubt that they did.

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Tex., said the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee will hold hearings on the disaster. Among the areas of inquiry, according to Hutchison, will be to what extent budget cuts have hurt the space agency.

In reaction to the Times report, NASA officials admitted five of the nine panel members were forced out, but said the ouster was due to efforts to recruit new members who were younger and more skilled.

"It had nothing to do with shooting the messenger," the Times quotes a NASA spokeswoman as saying.

NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe stressed each member of the panel served out his full term. O'Keefe expressed surprise over the Times report.

NASA Associate Administrator Mike C. Kostelnik denounced suggestions that budget cutbacks have impaired the success of the shuttle missions.

"I can tell you I am quite comfortable with the posture that we found ourselves in for this vehicle and quite comfortable with the posture of our other vehicles, despite what you may be reading about and hearing about from people in the press," Kostelnik told reporters at a news conference this morning. "We have a long track record of making upgrades."

On NBC's "Today" show this morning, O'Keefe offered more information along this line. He said the shuttle Columbia had just gone through a "major modification effort," which he said amounted to a rebuilding of the entire spacecraft over a two-and-a-half-year period.

"This was its second flight after coming out," said O'Keefe. "So it was in as near as new condition as you can make it."

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer side-stepped the suggestion that cutbacks in the shuttle program were to blame for Columbia's disintegration upon re-entry Saturday.

"I don't know that anybody can make any conclusions about money at this point," said Fleischer. "The investigation is continuing into all possible causes. ... It's premature and unwise to make any judgments about that at this point."

President Bush proposes boosting NASA's $15 billion budget by nearly $500 million. The amendment to the budget was allocated prior to the Columbia disaster.

The increase is part of the $2.2 trillion 2004 federal budget the president will unveil today.