House appropriators are again rejecting the Trump Administration’s proposal to elevate the Office of Space Commerce at NOAA to the Secretary of Commerce’s level where it would be the nucleus for a new Bureau of Space Commerce. The Administration has not been successful in convincing Congress of the merits of the idea. Last year, Senate appropriators demanded an independent report on the pro and cons that has not been publicly released yet. UPDATE: The committee approved the bill on July 14, 2020.

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Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of July 12-18, 2020 and any insight we can offer about them.  The House and Senate are in recess until July 20 except for pro forma sessions, although House committees will meet throughout the week.

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NASA and the Japanese ministry that oversees the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) signed a declaration of intent today to further cooperate in space activities. The Joint Exploration Declaration of Intent (JEDI) describes future cooperation in the International Space Station (ISS) and lunar programs, but makes no commitments on either side.

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The top Democrat on the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA), came out in opposition to the nomination of Neil Jacobs to be Administrator of NOAA today after release of the full Department of Commerce Office of Inspector General report on Sharpiegate.  Only a brief summary was made available last week prompting congressional ire that the Department was preventing the public from seeing the complete report.  Now it is out and Cantwell says it demonstrates Jacobs is not the leader NOAA needs.

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As plans for human journeys back to the Moon and on to Mars move closer to reality, NASA today issued modernized guidelines on how to protect those bodies and Earth from contamination.  Existing international rules are too strict to allow many of the activities envisioned by governments and the private sector in a new era of human expansion beyond low Earth orbit. These interim directives, one for the Moon and one for Mars, will guide NASA as input is sought from the broader space community.

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The House Appropriations Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) subcommittee approved the FY2021 bill that funds NASA today, but the voice vote included some noes as Democrats and Republicans disagreed on priorities. The Democratic-led bill keeps NASA at its current funding level instead of growing it by 12 percent to pay for the Artemis program to get people back to the Moon by 2024.  NASA is only one agency funded in the bill, which also includes the Department of Justice. Democrats said their focus is policing reform and civil rights.

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NASA’s request for a 12 percent increase in FY2021 to pay for getting people back on the Moon by 2024 was rejected by the House Appropriations Commerce-Justice-Science subcommittee today. The subcommittee’s recommendations were released this morning in advance of tomorrow’s markup. The agency is held to the same level as FY2020, $22.6 billion, instead of the $25.2 billion requested.

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Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of July 5-11, 2020 and any insight we can offer about them.  The House and Senate are in recess except for pro forma sessions until July 20, although House committees will be meeting throughout this period.

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The House and Senate both made progress on the FY2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) this week.  The House version cleared committee and the Senate got pretty far along debating its version on the floor.  The two chambers have now recessed for the July 4 holiday. Action will resume when they return.

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The Department of Commerce Inspector General has issued a harshly critical assessment of how Department officials handled Sharpiegate last year where NOAA rebuked the National Weather Service office in Birmingham, AL when it disagreed with a statement by President Trump about Hurricane Dorian. Only a summary was released, however, not the full report. In a separate memo today (July 1), Inspector General Peggy Gustafson expressed “deep concern” that the Department is preventing her office from completing its work. Two key members of Congress are demanding release of the full report. [Updated July 3 with additional statements from Sen. Cantwell and Rep. Johnson.]

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