Category: Space Law

FAA's Nield Endorses Woerner's Moon Village, But With Commercial Partners Too

FAA's Nield Endorses Woerner's Moon Village, But With Commercial Partners Too

By Marcia Smith | Posted: October 24, 2015 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: October 24, 2015 4:21 pm ET

The head of the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA’s) commercial space office, George Nield, endorsed the Moon village concept espoused by European Space Agency (ESA) Director General Johann-Dietrich Woerner, but called for inclusion of the commercial sector, not only governments, in building and operating it.

Nield spoke at the October 21 meeting of the Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee (COMSTAC), which advises his office.  Noting that he had just returned from the International Astronautical Congress in Jerusalem, Nield quickly summarized a panel discussion among the heads of a number of space agencies represented there.  Woerner was one of them.  He became ESA DG on July 1 after serving as the head of Germany’s space agency, DLR.

Woerner has been advocating for construction of a village — Lunarville — on the far side of the Moon where telescopes emplaced there would be protected from the light and noise of Earth.  The concept envisions use of inflatable modules and 3D printing to build additional infrastructure using lunar resources — called In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU). Crops would be grown in greenhouses to support researchers rotating on regular schedules. 

The idea is not new, but having a champion at the head of ESA is.   He sees it as a successor to the International Space Station (ISS) and, like ISS, built as an international collaborative endeavor.

President Obama decided in 2010 that the United States will not return astronauts to the lunar surface.  Instead, he directed NASA to send them to an asteroid as a step towards eventual human missions to Mars.  NASA has developed a step-wise approach where U.S. spacecraft will operate near the Moon (in “cis-lunar space”), but not go down to the surface.  However, NASA officials are strongly encouraging other countries to pursue lunar surface operations, especially ISRU, which could have advantages for achieving the humans-to-Mars goal.  The United States could partner with these other countries, providing transportation to lunar orbit with the Space Launch System, for example.

Nield, who heads FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST), said he was “particularly impressed” with Woerner’s vision, especially since it allows countries to participate “as much or as little” as they wish and minimizes the need for a top-down management structure where one country specifies the architecture and is “calling all the shots.”  However, he wanted to offer a “modest suggestion” — open it up to commercial entities. 

Calling commercial opportunities “limitless,” he offered examples ranging from habitats and hotels to commercial electrical power stations (using solar arrays) to propellant depots to food production to rocket-powered lunar orbit/surface shuttle buses to rovers for getting around on the lunar surface — joking that it is too early to tell if the latter will be Yellow Cab or Uber.  “Private industry has the potential to play an important role and it need not be exclusively as a government contractor,” he enthused.

Later Nield also lamented that no U.S. government agency has yet been assigned the task of authorizing or supervising such commercial activities.   Article VI of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty requires that “activities of non-governmental entities in outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, shall require authorization and continuing supervision” by the relevant State party to the treaty.   Some in the commercial space sector argue that AST’s responsibilities should be expanded to include that role.  Currently it is limited to facilitating and regulating commercial launches to and reentries from space.   Others think the Department of Commerce’s Office of Space Commercialization would be a better fit.

Nield also pointed out that his office’s resources are quite constrained in handling its existing responsibilities.   President Obama is requesting a $1.5 million increase for AST — from $16.605 million to $18.114 million — in FY2016, but Congress has not been enthusiastic.  The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently said that AST may indeed need more money, but does a poor job of justifying it.   In any case, AST like the rest of the government is currently operating under a Continuing Resolution (CR) that holds the office to its FY2015 spending level.

At the very end, COMSTAC members debated whether they should issue a finding, observation or recommendation about the potential role of the commercial sector in a lunar village asking for AST to engage with ESA to refine ideas.  They decided to ask COMSTAC’s  International Space Policy working group to draft something for future discussion.

Last Updated: Oct 24, 2015 4:21 pm ET
What's Happening in Space Policy October 19-23, 2015

What's Happening in Space Policy October 19-23, 2015

By Marcia Smith | Posted: October 18, 2015 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: October 18, 2015 5:55 pm ET

Here is our list of space policy related events for the week of October 19-23, 2015 and any insight we can offer about them.  The Senate returns to work tomorrow (Monday) and the House on Tuesday.

During the Week

Congress does not have any public events on the schedule that are specifically about the space program, but a vote could come early this week on reauthorizing the Export-Import Bank.   Rep. Steve Fincher (R-TN) succeeded in getting the 218 signatures he needed for a discharge petition to move the bill out of the Financial Services Committee to the House floor for a vote.  He and other Ex-Im supporters have long asserted that there are more than enough votes in the House to pass a reauthorization if only the Members were given the chance.  We soon may find out if they are correct.

Behind the scenes, efforts reportedly are continuing to reach agreement on a final version of commercial space legislation that passed the House and Senate earlier this year (H.R. 2262/S. 1297).  The FAA’s Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee (COMSTAC) will hold its quarterly meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday, so a progress report may be presented there.  Rep. Brian Babin (R-TX), who chairs the Space Subcommittee of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, and Rep. Derek Kilmer (D-WA) will speak on Wednesday morning at 8:30 am ET and 11:15 am ET respectively.  The meeting will be webcast (see the agenda for instructions).

The FY2016 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) may finally be sent to the White House.  The President will have 10 days (not including Sundays) to decide whether to sign or veto it.  The bill, H.R. 1735, cleared Congress on October 7.  It is not uncommon for clerks to need a few days to make “technical and conforming changes” to ensure there are no typos and that cross references are correct, and Congress was in recess last week, so it is still on the Hill, not in the Oval Office, and the clock has not started ticking.  President Obama has often threatened to veto the NDAA, but never has.  The dispute this year is over top level government-wide budgetary issues, not defense policy, however, so the dynamics are somewhat different.

The House has eight working days (four this week, four next week) before House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) resigns, according to his original plan at least.  Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s withdrawal from the Speaker’s race threw the leadership process into turmoil.  Boehner said he would not leave before a successor is in place, so time will tell if he gets to close the door behind him by the end of the month or not.  In the meantime, Congress needs to pass a reauthorization of the Highway Trust Fund bill by October 29 and raise the debt limit by November 3.   Since Boehner has demonstrated willingness to use Democratic votes to get critical legislation passed when the right wing of his party creates roadblocks, he could use the eight days to get those two tasks done, at least.   The United States exceeded the $18.1 trillion debt limit in March and the Treasury Department has been using “extraordinary measures” to pay the bills (by not paying its share into the retirement accounts of federal employee for example).  Its ability to scrape by that way is running out.  On Thursday, Treasury notified Congress that the last day is November 3, two days earlier than a previous projection.

As for funding the government for the rest of the fiscal year, the Continuing Resolution runs out on December 11.  Not much progress is being reported on talks among Boehner, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and President Obama on an overall agreement on spending caps through the end of the presidential election next year.  Boehner’s imminent departure is one handicap, but in Washington little gets done until the last minute anyway.  A lot will depend on who replaces Boehner as House Speaker and how well that person works with McConnell.  McConnell and Boehner have been united on their rejection of government shutdowns as a political strategy (they both also pledge they will never allow the government to default on its debt).

Off the Hill, there is an array of fascinating meetings scheduled for the coming week.  In addition to COMSTAC, the annual Space Weather Enterprise Forum is on Tuesday and Wednesday (note that it is in different locations on those two days); NASA’s Lunar Exploration Analysis Group (LEAG) meets Tuesday-Thursday in Columbia, MD; and the NASA Advisory Council’s Astrophysics Subcommittee meets at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center on Thursday and Friday.

Women in Aerospace will hold its 30th annual awards ceremony at the Ritz-Carlton Pentagon City in Arlington, VA  on Thursday night.  

The same night but a few hundred miles away in Dayton, OH, the National Museum of the Air Force will hold what promises to be a fascinating panel discussion on the 1960’s Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) space station program (cancelled before it was built).  Six of the men selected for the MOL astronaut corps will talk about the program.  Three of them transferred to NASA after MOL was cancelled, one of whom, Dick Truly, eventually became NASA Administrator.  Unfortunately, the museum says it will not webcast the event, but audio will be posted on its website a week or two later and DVDs will be available for loan at some point.

Those and other events we know about as of Sunday afternoon are listed below.  Check the Events of Interest calendar on our main page for updates throughout the week.

Tuesday-Wednesday, October 20-21

  • COMSTAC, 429 L’Enfant Plaza, Washington, DC
  • Space Weather Enterprise Forum
    October 20:  902 Hart Senate Office Building
    October 21:  Department of Commerce Building auditorium, 14th Street and Constitution Ave, NW, Washington, DC

Tuesday-Thursday, October 20-22

Wednesday-Thursday, October 21-22

Thursday, October 22

Thursday-Friday, October 22-23

Last Updated: Oct 18, 2015 5:55 pm ET
Restoring Ex-Im Bank Effort Gets a Boost As Discharge Petition Succeeds

Restoring Ex-Im Bank Effort Gets a Boost As Discharge Petition Succeeds

By Marcia Smith | Posted: October 9, 2015 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: October 9, 2015 10:49 pm ET

Congressional efforts to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank took a step forward today when a sufficient number of House members signed a discharge position to move legislation, H.R. 597, out of the Financial Services Committee and onto the House floor for a vote.  The vote could take place as early as October 26, the day the House returns from a week-long recess.

Three Republican Congressmen, Steve Fincher (Tennessee), Adam Kinzinger (Illinois) and Chris Collins (New York) filed the discharge petition today, a procedural step to discharge a bill from the committee of jurisdiction so it can be voted on by the House when the committee itself will not do so.  Fincher is the sponsor of H.R. 597. 

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) opposes the Bank and has been using his position as chairman of the Bank’s oversight committee to prevent Fincher’s bill, the Reform Exports and Expand the American Economy Act, from moving to the House floor for a vote.  The issue also is divisive in the Senate, but that chamber has managed to pass legislation reauthorizing the bank.  The Senate-passed legislation has been blocked in the House, however, where House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-California) also opposes the Bank.

It is highly unusual for the members of a political party to challenge their own leaders so publicly, but they believe that a majority of the House supports the Bank and the obstacle to its reauthorization is only a small, but powerful group of their own members.

Fincher revealed his strategy to circumvent Hensarling and other Republican leaders last week and today followed through.  In a joint statement, Fincher, Kinzinger and Collins said the discharge petition is intended “to stand up to Washington’s broken system that is killing thousands of American jobs and jeopardizing thousands more. … If we do not get this done for the American people, the only thing our country will be exporting is jobs.”

Hensarling issued his own statement asserting that a majority of Republicans on his committee did not want a House floor vote on the issue.  “I respect my colleagues who believe Ex-Im is essential economic development, just as I respect those who believe Ex-Im is unfair and harmful corporate welfare.”  He warned his Republican colleagues that signing the discharge position contradicts regular order and puts Democrats in charge (because a large number of Democratic signatures are needed).  “Let Democrats own corporate welfare all by themselves.  Republicans should instead focus on reforms that will give every American opportunities to succeed” such as “fundamental tax reform, tort reform and regulatory reform.”

A discharge petition requires a majority of House members — 218 — to sign and exactly that number did so today.  According to the tally from the House Clerk’s office, 42 Republicans and 176 Democrats signed the petition.  The bill should now move to the floor for a vote.  The House is in recess next week, but a vote could come on October 26 when it returns.

The Bank has been unable to issue new loans since its authorization expired on June 30.   It finances U.S. exports abroad, including aerospace products such as communications satellites.  The Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) and Satellite Industry Association (SIA) both advocate for the Bank.  SIA issued a statement earlier this week calling for its reauthorization.

The Bank was created in 1934, but its charter
must be periodically reauthorized by Congress, something done routinely
over the decades.  Since last fall, however, the reauthorization has become a
matter of bitter debate. The issue splits the Republican and Democratic
parties with some members
of each insisting that the bank is essential to U.S. exports and
therefore to U.S. jobs, while others assert it is corporate welfare for a
few big companies.  Boeing is often mentioned in the latter regard. 
Advocates claim that small and medium size businesses also benefit not
only because of their own projects, but because many are suppliers to
the big companies. 

The Bank’s authorization expired on June 30 after an attempt to reauthorize it failed.  Another attempt in July met the same fate.   The Bank currently cannot make new loans, only administer those already in force.

Last Updated: Oct 09, 2015 10:49 pm ET
McCarthy Withdraws from Speaker Race, Path Forward Uncertain

McCarthy Withdraws from Speaker Race, Path Forward Uncertain

By Marcia Smith | Posted: October 8, 2015 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: October 8, 2015 3:55 pm ET

In a stunning development today, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) pulled out of the race to replace John Boehner (R-OH) as Speaker of the House.  McCarthy was the favorite to win, but ran into opposition from the far right wing of his party.  The House Republican Conference was supposed to choose its candidate for Speaker today, but that has been indefinitely postponed.  What will happen next is unclear.

McCarthy is currently the House Majority Leader, second only to Boehner in rank.  In announcing his withdrawal from the Speaker race, he said he would retain his current position.

Boehner and McCarthy both are conservatives, but not as conservative as the Tea Party.   McCarthy needed 200 votes from his Republican colleagues to move forward as the party’s candidate for Speaker and it appeared that he easily had that many.   But he did not have the magic number of 218 — the votes needed to secure the Speakership when the full House votes.   Tea Party Republicans in the House Freedom Caucus threw their collective strength behind another candidate, Rep. Daniel Webster (R-FL), making it very difficult to get 218 supporters.

In a brief press conference after he announced his decision, McCarthy said the Republican party needs to be unified and the new Speaker needs not just the 218 votes to win the election in the House, but all 247 Republican votes.  “To unite, we probably need a fresh face,” he said, a nod to critics in the far right wing of the party who claimed he would continue Boehner’s legacy.  Those critics contend that Boehner does not fight hard enough for Tea Party causes like repealing the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) or defunding Planned Parenthood and believe that government shutdowns are a valid and useful political tool.  Repeated clashes with those critics, including over the recent Continuing Resolution (CR) that is funding the government through December 11, are credited as leading Boehner to abruptly announce his resignation last month, though Boehner insists that he was planning to step down anyway on his birthday in November.

In a statement today, Boehner said he would not leave until a new Speaker is in place.  He had been planning to leave on October 30.  The leadership election will take place “at a later date, and I’m confident we will elect a new Speaker in the coming weeks,” he said.

While McCarthy is generally well-liked by his colleagues, recent comments got him into trouble.   For example, during a television interview he used the House committee investigating the 2012 Benghazi, Libya incident as an example of effective Republican leadership that caused Hillary Clinton’s poll numbers to drop.   The comments severely undercut Republican contentions that the committee is not politically motivated.  Four Americans, including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, died in the attack on an American diplomatic compound in that city.  During his press conference today, McCarthy agreed that he could have phrased his comments better and the only reason the committee exists is to “find the truth” for the families of the victims:  “I should not be a distraction from that.”

What all this means for conducting the nation’s business is not comforting.  Congress must pass a Highway Trust Fund reauthorization by October 29, raise the debt limit by November 5, and pass another bill to keep the government operating after December 11.   Boehner, President Obama, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) also recently pledged to work together on a high-level budget deal that hopefully would avoid any chance of a government shutdown between now and the 2016 elections.  All three oppose using government shutdowns as political tools.  Today’s developments make the outcome of all of those issues even more murky.

Commercial space advocates were looking forward to the possibility of a McCarthy Speakership since he represents the district in California where Edwards Air Force Base and the Mojave Air & Space Port are located.  He is the chief sponsor of H.R. 2262, the Spurring Private Aerospace Competitiveness and Entrepreneurship (SPACE) Act, which passed the House in May.

Webster and Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) are the only other two announced candidates for Speaker at the moment, but everything clearly is in flux right now.

Last Updated: Oct 08, 2015 3:55 pm ET
Senate Passes Final FY2016 NDAA, Will President Veto It? – UPDATE

Senate Passes Final FY2016 NDAA, Will President Veto It? – UPDATE

By Marcia Smith | Posted: October 7, 2015 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: October 15, 2015 7:37 am ET

UPDATE, October 15, 2015:   The President has 10 days (excluding Sundays) to decide whether to sign or veto the bill after he receives it from Congress. As of today, Congress has not yet sent the bill to the President.  It is not unusual for a period of time to elapse between passage of a bill and sending it to the White House as clerks make “technical and conforming changes” to eliminate typos and ensure cross-references are correct, for example.

ORIGINAL STORY, October 7, 2015: The Senate today joined the House in passing the final version of the FY2016 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).   The bill now goes to the President, but White House spokesman Josh Earnest said last week the President would veto it.

The Senate passed the compromise version by a vote of 70-27. 

  • Three Senators did not vote: presidential candidates Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Pat Roberts, R-KS. 
  • The no votes were cast by 24 Democrats, 2 Republicans (presidential candidates Ted Cruz, R-TX, and Rand Paul, R-KY) and 1 Independent (presidential candidate Bernie Sanders).
  • The yes votes were from 49 Republicans, 20 Democrats and 1 Independent.

The party split is important because the Senate could end up voting on whether to override a Presidential veto.  Two-thirds of the Senate, 67 Senators, would have to vote in favor of overriding a veto for such a vote to succeed.  Today’s vote has the requisite number, though it is far from clear that all 20 Democrats would make the more difficult political choice to overturn a veto by their own President.

The House approved the compromise 270-156.  In the House 290 votes would be needed to override a veto, so that vote hinted that a veto would be sustained.

The veto threat is because the bill uses what its detractors call a “gimmick” to provide more money for defense than is allowed under the spending caps set by the 2011 Budget Control Act.  Republicans added $38 billion for defense in an off-budget account, Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO), to circumvent the caps.   Democrats also do not like the caps, but want them to be renegotiated for all spending, defense and non-defense.  President Obama, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) recently agreed to high-level budget talks, but Boehner’s imminent departure and the transition to a new House Speaker will complicate that effort.

The bill authorizes $604 billion for defense according to a Congressional Research Service (CRS) summary (other sources use other figures).  That includes $496.4 billion for DOD’s base budget plus $89.2 billion for OCO (another $18.5 billion is for atomic energy defense activities).  The OCO funding is $38 billion above the President’s request and, as noted, that spending is off-budget and does not count against the cap.

Republicans argue that the bill does not spend any money — it is an authorization, not an appropriation — and therefore should not get caught up in the broader budget debate.  They want the bill enacted because of its policy provisions and other guidance, with the budget issues dealt with in the appropriations process.  Democrats, however, feel that enacting this bill would set a bad precedent on the funding front.

Among the policy provisions in the bill is the number of RD-180 rocket engines the United Launch Alliance (ULA) would be able to obtain for national security launches.  The bill adopts the Senate position of allowing only nine more engines, rather than the 14 ULA wanted. 

Under a block buy contract signed in December 2013, before Russia’s actions in Ukraine chilled U.S.-Russian relations, ULA planned to obtain 29 RD-180 engines from Russia for its Atlas V rockets.  Following the geopolitical downturn, Congress decided that the United States should not rely on Russian engines to launch national security satellites.  In addition, it wanted the Air Force to allow new entrants like SpaceX to compete against ULA for national security launches.  The FY2015 NDAA put restrictions on how many RD-180s ULA could obtain for national security launches (they do not affect commercial or civil government launches).  ULA had completed purchase of 15 of the 29, while payments for the other 14 were not finalized.  The Air Force determined that only five of the 14 could be obtained under the terms of the FY2015 NDAA.  The Air Force and ULA have been seeking relief from the NDAA language, but the Senate, in particular, wants to hasten the transition from Russian engines to a new U.S.-built engine as well as allow competition. The Senate version of the FY2016 NDAA allowed four more to be obtained, for the total of nine.  That position was upheld in conference.

The bill has a number of other policy provisions related to space activities.  Among them is a restriction on the use of both FY2015 and FY2016 funds for the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) and the launch of the last satellite in that series (DMSP-20) until the Secretary of Defense (SecDef) and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS) certify that the DMSP-20 launch is necessary and the most affordable solution to defense weather satellite requirements.  The bill also restricts funds for a DOD follow-on weather satellite system until the SecDef develops a plan for providing cloud characterization and theater weather imagery, briefs Congress on that plan, and the CJCS certifies the plan meets the needs of the commanders of combatant commands.  Furthermore, the bill prohibits DOD from relying on Russian or Chinese weather satellite data. 

DOD is still regrouping from the 2010 cancellation of the DOD-NOAA-NASA National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS).  NPOESS was intended to merge the separate military and civil weather satellite systems, but was terminated by the White House after years of cost overruns and schedule delays.  The two sectors were directed to resume separate systems.  NOAA moved out with a successor program, the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS), but DOD is still determining its path forward while relying on the legacy DMSP series.  Several DMSP satellites were purchased in a block buy and put in storage.  DMSP-20 is the last, but DOD has been ambivalent about whether it needs to be launched or not.

Last Updated: Oct 15, 2015 7:37 am ET
SIA: Ex-Im Impasse Killing U.S. Contracts, Congress Must Fix

SIA: Ex-Im Impasse Killing U.S. Contracts, Congress Must Fix

By Marcia Smith | Posted: October 6, 2015 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: October 6, 2015 12:41 pm ET

The Satellite Industry Association (SIA) renewed its push to convince Congress to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank today.  The industry organization said that at least three satellite manufacturing contracts have been lost since the Bank was closed to new business on July 1.

SIA and other aerospace industry organizations and companies have been warning Congress about the need to keep the Ex-Im Bank operating since last year when its usually routine reauthorization came into question.  The Bank was created in 1934, but needs to be reauthorized periodically.   It provides financing for sales of U.S. goods overseas, including aerospace products such as communications satellites.

The Bank’s existence was threatened about this time last year, but Congress temporarily reauthorized  it through June 30, 2015 in the FY2015 Continuing Resolution (CR).   Congress did not pass a reauthorization by that date, however, and another attempt in July also failed.  The Bank cannot make new loans, only administer those already granted.

The debate pits very conservative Republicans and very liberal Democrats against the rest of their parties.   Opponents argue it is “corporate welfare” for a few big companies like Boeing, while advocate argue that small and medium companies also benefit directly or indirectly because they are suppliers to the big companies.

SIA and the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) have written to Congress and issued press releases in the past supporting the Bank.  More recently, some of the affected companies have come out publicly themselves to highlight the impact on their businesses.   Individual companies often are reluctant to discuss specific contracts because they are proprietary, but Boeing has been particularly vocal in recent months, and at a September Washington Space Business Roundtable panel discussion, Orbital ATK identified a contract it says it lost because of the impasse.  

In today’s statement, SIA President Tom Stroup said that U.S. companies have had “at least three pre-existing commercial satellite orders withdrawn, lost other awards, and been barred from other competitions already.”   Calling that just “the tip of the iceberg,” he exhorted Congress to reauthorize the Bank.  “Our industry can dominate the market if Congress ensures a level playing field with European satellite manufacturers, all of which have access to foreign [Export Credit Agency] support.” 

SIA calls itself “the unified voice of the U.S. satellite industry” and has more than 35 members, including Boeing and Orbital ATK.   It said today that since 2010, 16 satellite projects worth $4 billion have been financed by the Bank “supporting tens of thousands of U.S. jobs.”  It asserts that satellites form the largest growth category of Ex-Im financing and has “generated a net profit … returning funds to U.S. taxpayers.”

The Senate has managed to pass provisions to extend the Bank, but they were blocked in the House.  The House Republican leadership has not allowed them to be debated on the House floor.  Rep. Steven Fincher (R-TN), a Republican who supports the Bank, reportedly is planning to use a procedure called a discharge petition to get the issue out of the Financial Services Committee and onto the House floor where he and other advocates believe they have more than enough votes to pass a reauthorization.

Last Updated: Oct 06, 2015 12:41 pm ET
What's Happening in Space Policy October 5-9, 2015

What's Happening in Space Policy October 5-9, 2015

By Marcia Smith | Posted: October 4, 2015 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: October 7, 2015 10:02 am ET

Here is our list of space policy events coming up during the week of October 5-9, 2015 and any insight we can offer about them.  The House and Senate are in session.

During the Week

Today is the 58th anniversary of the Space Age.  The Soviet Union launched Sputnik on October 4, 1957, the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth.  Nine months later, after considerable debate and many hearings, Congress passed the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958.  President Eisenhower signed it into law on July 29, 1958 and NASA opened its doors on October 1, 1958.   Hard to imagine anything happening that fast these days.

Kicking the can down the road seems to be the best Washington can manage at the moment.  Congress passed a Continuing Resolution (CR) last week to keep the government operating through December 11 without resolving the issues that have prevented the 12 regular appropriations bills from getting passed.   Now there will be a leadership transition in the House.  The election of a new Speaker to replace John Boehner (R-OH), who is leaving at the end of the month, will take place on Thursday.   Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is still the favorite despite controversial comments he made over the past week.   Two others have announced their own candidacies, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) and Rep. Daniel Webster (R-FL).  If McCarthy wins, there definitely will changes in other leadership positions since his current post will become vacant, and if one of the others wins, changes also are possible.

Against this backdrop, Congress has a very busy schedule between now and December 11.  Must-pass bills include reauthorizing spending from the Highway Trust Fund (another issue that was kicked down the road in July when it was given a 3-month extension that expires on October 29), raising the debt limit by November 5, and, of course, doing something about appropriations before the CR runs out.  Many consider the FY2016 National Defense Authorization Act another must-pass bill and the House and Senate did reach a compromise on it, but most Democrats on the conference committee refused to sign the report and the White House has threatened to veto the bill.  The House passed the compromise last week and the Senate is supposed to take it up this week.  The fate of other bills, such as the House and Senate commercial space bills or attempts to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank, remains up in the air.  The provision in existing commercial space law that had to be dealt with — the learning period for commercial human spaceflight regulations — because it would have expired on September 30 was given a 6-month extension (to April 1, 2016) in a hastily passed airport and airways bill that extended a number of expiring provisions to give Congress more time to deal with them.

The only space-related hearing that we know about as of Sunday morning is a House Science, Space, and Technology Committee Space Subcommittee hearing on Friday.  The topic is “Deep Space Exploration: Examining the Impact of the President’s Budget” with two former NASA human spaceflight officials (Doug Cooke and Dan Dumbacher) as witnesses.

NASA Associate Administrator Robert Lightfoot will talk to the Space Transportation Association (STA) on Wednesday.  The event is by invitation only, so we do not list it on our calendar, but anyone who is interested can contact STA’s Rich Coleman at rich@spacetransportation.us.  The NASA Advisory Council’s Planetary Science Subcommittee meets on Monday and Tuesday, and a National Academy of Sciences committee reviewing progress in achieving the vision outlined in the 2010 astronomy and astrophysics decadal survey meets in open session on Thursday and Friday.  All of those are in Washington, DC.

Elsewhere in the United States, the annual ISPCS (International Symposium on Personal and Commercial Spaceflight) is on Wednesday and Thursday in Las Cruces, NM, and there’s a LunarCubes workshop in San Jose, CA from Tuesday to Friday.    NASA will hold two briefings on Wednesday at Vandenberg Air Force Base, CA about cubesats that are flying on a National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) launch scheduled for Thursday.  NASA sponsored four of the 13 cubesats that will tag along on the launch and funded a fifth in conjunction with NRO.  The remainder are NRO’s.

Elsewhere in the world, pre-meetings begin for the annual International Astronautical Congress (IAC), which will be held in Jerusalem, Israel next week.  The IAC combines meetings of the International Astronautical Federation (IAF), International Academy of Astronautics (IAA), and International Institute of Space Law (IISL).  IAC officially begins next Monday (October 12), but the associated 3-day Space Generation Congress starts this Thursday and the IAA has meetings over the weekend.

Those and other events we know about as of Sunday morning are listed below.  Check back throughout the week for any additional events we learn about and post to our Events of Interest calendar on the right side of SpacePolicyOnliine.com’s main page.

Monday-Tuesday, October 5-6

Tuesday, October 6

Tuesday-Friday, October 6-9

Wednesday, October 7

Wednesday-Thursday, October 7-8

Thursday, October 8

 Thursday-Saturday, October 8-10

Friday, October 9

Clarification:  The vote on Thursday for a new Speaker of the House is within the House Republican Conference for who the Republicans will advance as their candidate for the official election of a Speaker by the full House on October 29.

Last Updated: Oct 07, 2015 10:02 am ET
House Passes Compromise FY2016 NDAA, But Under Veto Threat

House Passes Compromise FY2016 NDAA, But Under Veto Threat

By Marcia Smith | Posted: October 2, 2015 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: October 2, 2015 5:29 pm ET

The House passed the compromise version of the FY2016 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) yesterday.  The Senate plans to vote on it next week, but the White House has threatened to veto the bill because it circumvents agreed-upon budget caps by using a “gimmick” to authorize additional defense funding in an off-budget account.  The argument is part of a much larger debate over budget caps and sequestration.  The President and House and Senate leaders recently agreed to negotiations and the President said today that he will not sign another short-term spending bill like the Continuing Resolution (CR) that is keeping the government open at the moment.

Leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees (HASC and SASC) announced agreement on the final version of the NDAA, H.R. 1735, on Tuesday and the House adopted the conference report yesterday by a vote of 270-156.  The 270 yes votes were cast by 233 Republicans and 37 Democrats.  The no votes were by 10 Republicans and 146 Democrats.

The number of Democrats voting in favor of or against the conference report is especially important in this case because White House spokesman Josh Earnest said during a Wednesday press briefing that the President will veto the bill.   If he does, and Congress wants to override the veto, two-thirds of the House and the Senate will need to vote to do so.  The House has 435 members, so 290 votes are needed to override.  If all 247 Republicans vote to override the President’s veto, they will need 43 Democrats to vote against their own President.  Only 37 voted in favor of the conference report so all of those would have to make a more difficult political decision to oppose a Democratic President and convince six more of their party colleagues to join them.

Many Democrats, including the President, object to the addition of $38 billion for defense spending in the off-budget Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) account in order to give defense more money than agreed to in caps put in place by the 2011 Budget Control Act.  Breaking the budget caps should mean that sequestration kicks in, with across-the-board cuts to bring the total back to the capped level.   Republicans and Democrats both object to sequestration and the budget caps, but Republicans are focused on adding money only for defense, not for non-defense programs.   Democrats want both defense and non-defense spending to get relief from the caps, not preferential treatment of defense by circumventing the agreement by using what many of them call a “gimmick.”

Congress and the White House have made little progress on the top-level budget issue of sequestration.   That affects appropriations, however, not authorizations like the NDAA.  Authorization bills recommend funding levels, but only appropriations bills actually give money to agencies to spend.   It is on that basis that HASC and SASC Republicans leaders argue that the NDAA should be approved for its policy provisions and let the budget debate be resolved in the appropriations process.  Most congressional Democrats disagree and want to make their stand on the NDAA.

Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), the top Democrat on SASC, said in a statement on Tuesday that he could not support the bill.  Although it contains “many needed reforms,” he said that it “does not realistically provide for the long-term support of our forces” because they cannot depend on using this method to obtain additional funds every year.  “I cannot sign this Conference Report because it fails to responsibly fix the sequester and provide our troops with the support they deserve.”  DOD is “critical to national security, but so are the FBI, Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, and many other federal agencies that help keep Americans safe.”

The bill authorizes $515 billion for DOD plus another $89.2 billion for OCO, a total of $604.2 billion.  The amount for OCO is $38 billion more than the President’s request.  Reed noted that if OCO were an agency, it would be the “second largest agency in the discretionary budget, trailing only” DOD itself, and one of every six dollars in the bill “is counted off the books.”

On Tuesday, as FY2015 was coming to an end and Congress had to pass a Continuing Resolution (CR) to keep the government operating, President Obama, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) announced they are ready to begin negotiations on a two-year budget deal to avoid the threat of any government shutdowns through the 2016 elections.  Boehner is resigning from Congress at the end of October, though, complicating an already difficult negotiating process.

The CR expires on December 11, so some type of appropriations action will have to be taken by then or the government will indeed face another shutdown. President Obama said during a White House news conference today, however, that he will not sign another short-term CR and the 10 weeks between now and December 11 need to be used “effectively.”

Last Updated: Oct 02, 2015 5:29 pm ET
Discharge Petition Could Be Next Step for Ex-Im Bank Reauthorization

Discharge Petition Could Be Next Step for Ex-Im Bank Reauthorization

By Marcia Smith | Posted: October 1, 2015 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: October 2, 2015 12:36 am ET

Supporters of the Export-Import Bank may try a new tactic to put the institution back in business — National Journal is reporting that a discharge petition may be filed to get the issue out of committee and to the House floor.  Advocates have often said that a majority of House members support the bank, but the House Republican leadership is preventing them from having a chance to vote on it.

The Bank helps provide financing for U.S. exports, including communications satellites, for example.  Created in 1934, its charter must be periodically reauthorized by Congress, something done routinely over the decades.  This year, however, the reauthorization has been a matter of bitter debate. The issue splits the Republican and Democratic parties with some members
of each insisting that the bank is essential to U.S. exports and
therefore to U.S. jobs, while others assert it is corporate welfare for a
few big companies.  Boeing is often mentioned in the latter regard. 
Advocates claim that small and medium size businesses also benefit not
only because of their own projects, but because many are suppliers to
the big companies.

The Bank’s authorization expired on June 30 after an attempt to reauthorize it failed.  Another attempt in July met the same fate.   The Bank currently cannot make new loans, only administer those already in force.

Boeing chairman, W. James McNerney, Jr said in July that the whole point of the Bank is to level the playing
field with foreign competitors and If there will be no U.S.
Ex-Im Bank, “we are actively considering now moving key pieces of our
company to other countries and we never would have considered it before
this craziness on Ex-Im.” He called it “the triumph of ideology over any description of private
business.”   Boeing is the biggest beneficiary by dollars, he agreed,
but not by transactions:  “There are more deals for small and medium
size companies than big companies.  The congressional situation
is a “sign of dysfunctionality” when two-thirds of the House and of the
Senate support reauthorization, but legislation cannot pass because of
the “extremes” of the two parties.

Boeing and Orbital ATK reportedly have lost satellite business already because of the inability of the Bank to make new loans.

In the House, the challenge has been that the chairman of the Financial Services Committee, Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), supported by members of the House leadership, opposes the bank and has not moved legislation out of his committee to reauthorize it. 

National Journal reports tonight, however, that Rep. Stephen Fincher (R-TN) is planning to use a procedure called a discharge petition to move a bill out of that committee and to the floor of the House for a vote.  As explained in a Congressional Research Service report, a discharge petition requires 218 signatures.  Signing a discharge petition might be viewed as an affront to House leadership, making it a difficult decision for Republican members and at least 30 Republican signatures would be needed if all 188 Democrats signed (and there is no guarantee of that).

House rules (Rule XV, clause 2) establish time periods for when discharge petitions may be filed and when they may be considered on the floor, so it could take some time for this to play out.  It is possible that outgoing Speaker John Boehner could decide to bring a bill to the floor and avoid the need for a discharge petition that could pit Republicans against Republicans.  If not, this will be one more issue to land in the lap of his successor.

Even if the bill does pass the House, it still, of course, must pass the Senate where the issue is equally divisive.

Last Updated: Oct 02, 2015 12:36 am ET
Congress Passes Short-Term Continuing Resolution for FY2016

Congress Passes Short-Term Continuing Resolution for FY2016

By Marcia Smith | Posted: September 30, 2015 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: September 30, 2015 7:11 pm ET

First the Senate and then the House passed a Continuing Resolution (CR) today to keep the government operating tomorrow when FY2016 begins.  The CR lasts through December 11, 2015.

The Senate vote was 78-20.  All 20 no votes were Republicans.  Republican presidential candidates Cruz and Paul voted no, while Graham and Rubio did not vote.  The 78 yes votes were 32 Republicans, all 44 Democrats, and both Independents.  Democratic presidential candidate Sanders (who is an independent in the Senate) voted yes.  The chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee (who also chairs a subcommittee) and 6 other subcommittee chairs voted yes, and 4 voted no, including Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) who chairs the Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) subcommittee that funds NASA and NOAA.  One (Graham) did not vote.

The House vote was 277-151.  All 151 no votes were Republicans.  All 186 Democrats who voted and 91 Republicans voted yes.    The chairman of the full appropriations committee, Rep. Hal Rogers (R-KY) and nine of the 12 subcommittee chairs voted yes. Two voted no.  One, Rep. John Culberson (R-TX), who chairs the House Appropriations CJS subcommittee, did not
vote.

Congress is using the TSA Office of Inspection Accountability Act, H.R. 719, as the legislative vehicle for the FY2016 CR.   The operative part for the CR is Senate Amendment 2689 (SA 2689). 

Agencies are funded at their FY2015 levels except that there is an across-the-board 0.2108 percent reduction to ensure the total does not exceed agreed upon budget caps.

The President is expected to sign the bill, keeping the government open until December 11.  What will happen at that point is anyone’s guess.

Last Updated: Sep 30, 2015 7:11 pm ET

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