On Tue, 11 May 2004 20:02:00 GMT, in a place far, far away, "Bootstrap
Bill" made the phosphor on my monitor glow in
such a way as to indicate that:

NASA's Breakthrough Propulsion Physics project was shut down in January 2003
due to lack of funding. Why can't they look for funding elsewhere, like most
non profit agencies do. Does federal law require that all of NASA's funding
come from the federal budget?

Yes. If someone wants to fund this privately, they're free to do
so--no need to give money to NASA.