In an unusual bipartisan move, the Senate Commerce Committee is expected to adopt a bill next week intended keep the next president from making wholesale changes to NASA’s plans to send astronauts to Mars by the mid-2030s.

The $19.5 billion authorization package seeks to ensure agency stability after the November elections—something that was missing following the 2008 vote and administration change—by locking in that long-term goal. The measure also aims to prevent future cuts to development programs for rockets and spacecraft destined to reach the Red Planet.

For the first time in such federal legislation, there is language explicitly calling for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to ultimately establish a human settlement on Mars. The bill says the agency ought to be aiming for “a capability to extend human presence, including potential human habitation, on the surface” of the planet by the end of the century.

The provision can’t legally bind future lawmakers, White House occupants or NASA’s leaders from charting a new course. And much will depend on funding availability and technological advances in coming years.

But by adopting a measure that specifically identifies getting to Mars as NASA’s paramount mission over the next two decades, the bill’s proponents want to make it politically harder for the next president or later administrations to scale back the effort—or perhaps change the goal altogether.