Space Frontier Act Of 2019
Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (S. 3277) to reduce regulatory burdens and streamline processes related to commercial space activities, and for other purposes. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all…
Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (S. 3277) to reduce regulatory burdens and streamline processes related to commercial space activities, and for other purposes.
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on S. 3277, the bill now under consideration.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, the Space Frontier Act is a missed opportunity, despite months of negotiations. The House successfully added some positive provisions to the bill, including:
Increased the stature of the Department of Commerce Office of Space Commerce to a Bureau of Space Commerce, led by a Senate-confirmed Assistant Secretary of Commerce;
Reduced from 120 to 90 days a determination for remote sensing applications;
Remote sensing applications cannot be denied if a product will be commercially available within 3 years;
Enhanced deadline enforcement for remote sensing applications;
Included a low-Earth orbit commercialization program authorized at the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee's NASA reauthorization level of $150 million.
This bill contains some improvements over current commercial space law, but many bold reforms in the American Space Commerce Free Enterprise Act, which passed the House unanimously, were not included in this package.
We have not done enough to encourage commercial space activity, which has the potential to transform research, development, discovery, and access to space.
While remote sensing reform is marginally improved over current law in the original version of the Space Frontier Act, it doesn't go far enough. We set out to change how we think about remote sensing, a growing, constantly advancing, and increasingly commonplace industry that should be free to act unless there is a good reason to prevent that. Instead, this bill only tinkers around the edge of a three-decade out-of-date law.
This legislation will keep the government in strict control of American companies' space access and actions, discouraging businesses, and damaging American competitiveness and leadership in space.
Meanwhile, other countries are encouraging technology development in an effort to overtake us and grab market share from American companies. This represents a missed opportunity for American businesses that is being stifled by parochial government interests.
In the bill before us, there is still room for government employees to ignore the deadline enforcement mechanisms and drag out decisions indefinitely. The bill also doesn't guarantee that remote sensing companies will be given all relevant information explaining why their applications were not approved.
There is also less of an assumption of approval for a remote sensing license application than was included in my bill. Who knows what capability will be quashed because we didn't fully empower private industry. Congress must remain vigilant in its oversight of remote sensing licensing, and any abuse of the approval process should be challenged.
My biggest disappointment is that this bill does not establish a self-certification regime for private space missions. American space companies are moving overseas because current laws here don't enable them to conduct business.
The House-passed bill intentionally made it easier to approve private space missions. Regrettably, the Senate killed these provisions.
The Bureau of Space Commerce created in this bill needs to use its authority to the maximum extent possible to
promote, support, and approve private space missions.
Mr. Speaker, there is much work left to be done to bolster American competitiveness and foster innovation, and I hope Congress will act next year to continue our leadership in space.
With this hope and expectation, I support this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I have no other requests for time on this side, so I am prepared to yield back if the gentlewoman from Texas is prepared to yield back.
Before I do, I just want to thank the ranking member of the Science, Space, and Technology Committee, Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas, who is, obviously, a Texas colleague and a longtime friend, for all of her good work on the Science, Space, and Technology Committee while I have been chairman of that committee. She has been instrumental in our taking to the House floor and having passed on the House floor 35 bills. Of those 35 bills, 33 have been bipartisan, and that is largely due to her contributions and her efforts to try to make those bills bipartisan.
So I do appreciate having worked with her for the last 6 years. I wish her well next year, and I want to congratulate her on being the next chairman of the Science, Space, and Technology Committee.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.