It's kind of important to remember that they didn't intend to spend $10B on the telescope and that it's going to last for ~20 years. The original price was expected to be $500M and it would have never been approved if the original price was $10B. It only ended up being able to get to such a cost because of gradual overruns over 20+ years and sunk cost.
That said, NASA have been expanding the DSN for the past decade with four new antennae added so far (remaining two expected by 2025), it's just slow progress as usual with most of what they do lately. DSN antennas don't bring in jobs (and thus votes) for senators the way decades long flagship projects like JWST or SLS do.
That said, NASA have been expanding the DSN for the past decade with four new antennae added so far (remaining two expected by 2025), it's just slow progress as usual with most of what they do lately. DSN antennas don't bring in jobs (and thus votes) for senators the way decades long flagship projects like JWST or SLS do.