Congress Resolves Three Space-Related Issues in First 10 Days
The second session of the 103rd Congress settled three space-related issues in its first 10 days. The one with the most impact is passage of the Omnibus Appropriations bill funding space programs for the rest of FY2014. It also extended third party liability indemnification for commercial space launch companies and renamed the Dryden Flight Research Center after Neil Armstrong.
As we reported earlier, Congress has a plate full of space policy issues this year. Resolving one major and two more narrowly-focused issues in 10 days isn’t bad. Here’s the list:
- Today Congress completed action on the FY2014 omnibus appropriations bill, funding the government for the rest of FY2014. H.R. 3547 passed the House yesterday and the Senate today. President Obama is expected to sign it expeditiously.
- That bill also extends the FAA’s authority to indemnify commercial launch services companies against certain amounts of claims by third parties in the event of a launch accident. It is a three-year extension, though December 31, 2016. In fact, H.R. 3547 originally was the House-passed bill extending indemnification for one year. The Senate amended it to make it a three-year extension and sent it back to the House. There it was used as the legislative vehicle for the omnibus appropriations bill. (Legislative vehicle is a term used to describe a bill introduced for one purpose, but modified to address different or additional topics.)
- Today the President signed into law a bill renaming NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center after Neil Armstrong. The bill cleared Congress last week.
Of course, that still leaves plenty of items on the space policy “to do” list and now that the FY2014 appropriations are completed, it’s time to start work on FY2015. The President is supposed to submit his budget request on the first Monday of February each year, but rumors are it will be delayed because Congress did not reach agreement on the Bipartisan Budget Act — which sets limits on total government spending for FY2014 and FY2015 — until late December.
The second session officially began on January 6, 2014.
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