Henry Spencer wrote:

As did Bush, please note -- unless I've missed something, he hasn't said a
word about it since. It's been suggested that he was hoping for a
stronger and more positive public response, and when he didn't get it, the
issue went very much on the back burner... which bodes ill for political
support of exploration if he *is* re-elected.

The other reason he would have made his announcement would have been
to preempt criticism of how he's handled the space program. The Columbia
loss occured on his watch, so he may have felt he needed to explain
how he was going to address the underlying problems. It's convenient
for him that large changes aren't until far in the future.

Paul