This Washington Post article reports on how Houston congressman and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay secured NASA’s $16.2 billion portion of the $388 federal omnibus spending bill that Congress passed on November 20:

NASA was identified as a major sticking point when Senate and House conferees sat down to craft the final version of the omnibus spending bill near midnight Nov. 19, but Bolten, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and DeLay were holding out for more money.
The negotiators appeared to agree on $15.9 billion for NASA, but that wasn’t good enough, DeLay said later at the Space Center. “The main responsibility of the majority leader is to set the agenda for the House floor. I wouldn’t schedule the bill until NASA was taken care of,” he said.
And it was.
“Once you get into an omnibus bill, the leadership takes over, and you need to have an advocate in that circle,” Walsh said. DeLay “was getting me more allocation every time he stepped up to the plate. He made the difference.”