S.Amdt. 2316

SA 2316. Mr. UDALL submitted an amendment intended to be proposed to
amendment SA 2301 proposed by Mr. Inhofe to the bill S. 4049, to
authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2021 for military activities
of the Department of Defense, for military construction, and for
defense activities of the Department of Energy, to prescribe military
personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for other purposes; which
was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

At the end of subtitle A of title XVI, add the following:

SEC. 1610. REVIEW OF AND BRIEFING ON DEPARTMENT POLICIES TO
MINIMIZE ORBITAL DEBRIS THREATS.

(a) Findings.--Congress makes the following findings:
(1) National security depends on reliable access to and
safe operations in space.
(2) Critical Department of Defense and intelligence
community missions operating in space and providing
multidomain support depend on minimizing orbital threats,
including the threat posed by orbital debris.
(3) Satellites and rocket bodies are major sources of space
debris, particularly in low-Earth orbit.
(4) In addition to the threat posed by space debris, there
have been several notable close calls between active
satellites and active and defunct spacecraft.
(5) The United States and global economies cannot afford
actual space collisions, much less the additional debris that
would result from such a collision.
(6) The United States Government maintains and updates
orbital debris mitigation standard practices, and the most
recent update was completed in November 2019.
(b) Review.--The Secretary of Defense shall review the
current policies of the Department for orbital debris
mitigation, including compliance with the orbital debris
mitigation standard practices referred to in subsection
(a)(6).
(c) Briefing.--
(1) In general.--Not later than 120 days after the date of
the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall provide a
briefing to the congressional defense committees on
Department plans to reach full compliance with such orbital
debris mitigation standard practices through the
establishment of Department-wide orbital debris mitigation
practices.
(2) Element.--The briefing required by paragraph (1) shall
include a description of--
(A) nominal end-of-mission operations, in which after
mission completion, all spacecraft and orbital launch vehicle
components are disposed as planned; and
(B) off-nominal operations, in which, due to unexpected
scenarios or mishaps, planned disposal of spacecraft and
orbital launch vehicles are not able to be met.
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