What’s Happening in Space Policy February 9-15, 2025

Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of February 9-15, 2025 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in session this week.

During the Week

The Senate continues to work through consideration of President Trump’s Cabinet nominations. This week the Senate could take up Howard Lutnick’s nomination to be Secretary of Commerce. The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee approved it last Wednesday by a vote of 16-12 with all Republicans and one Democrat (Fetterman) in favor and the other 12 Democrats opposed. Among the several concerns cited by Ranking Member Maria Cantwell (D-WA) was Lutnick’s failure to give a clear answer about the future of NOAA during his confirmation hearing.

Commerce is one of three Cabinet-level departments that play major roles in U.S. space activities. The Senate already has confirmed the heads of the other two: Defense (Pete Hegseth) and Transportation (Sean Duffy).  A timetable for consideration of sub-cabinet officials, like NASA and NOAA Administrators, has not been announced. Jared Isaacman has been nominated to head NASA and Neil Jacobs to be Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and Administrator of NOAA. Jacobs, an atmospheric scientist, was Acting NOAA Administrator for the last half of the first Trump Administration. He’s a somewhat controversial choice because of his role in “Sharpiegate.” His nomination to be NOAA Administrator back then cleared committee, but was not considered by the Senate.

Also on Capitol Hill this week, there may be movement on budget talks. Republicans on both sides of Capitol Hill are striving to reach agreement on a Budget Resolution to set top-line government spending levels for the next 10 years.

Every year the House and Senate are supposed to pass a Budget Resolutions, first separately and then a final joint compromise version, that covers both mandatory (Social Security, Medicare etc) and discretionary (DOD, NASA etc) spending. Discretionary spending is then allocated through the “302(b)” process among the 12 appropriations subcommittees that then delve into the details for the departments and agencies under their jurisdiction. Often the House and Senate can’t agree, however, and there is no compromise version. This year is especially important, though, because passing a Budget Resolution is the first step in enacting Trump’s agenda to extend and expand tax cuts, which reduce revenue, while simultaneously cutting spending drastically. The House and Senate are both controlled by Republicans and they plan to achieve some of that through “reconciliation.” The Budget Resolution has to be in place first.

The House was expected to move first, but disagreements within the Republican party are slowing progress. Democrats are greatly displeased with what Trump and Elon Musk are doing — such as shutting down agencies like USAID, threatening massive layoffs, and accessing agency computer systems without proper authorization — so Republicans likely will have to find the votes to pass it on their own. With a 218-215 split (217-215 after Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-NY, resigns to become U.N. Ambassador), that means basically every Republican must agree. Ultra-conservative House Republicans want deeper cuts than many of their colleagues. Roll Call reports that House Speaker Mike Johnson said today a planned markup this week is likely to be postponed. The House will be in recess next week.

Instead of waiting for the House, Senate Budget Committee chairman Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) decided to go ahead and release his plan two days ago. The committee will mark up the bill on Wednesday and Thursday. They are top-line numbers, not agency by agency, but for those who want to take a look, NASA is in Function 250, General Science, Space, and Technology (except for aeronautics, which is in Function 400, Transportation) along with the National Science Foundation and Department of Energy science programs. (BA is Budget Authority, OT is Outlays, and note that the numbers are in billions of dollars.) The proposal would add $85.5 billion to pay for border security, national security and domestic energy production, which means the same amount must be cut elsewhere. The Senate is planning a second reconciliation bill to address other parts of the budget. (The House wants a single bill–another intra-party disagreement.)

Meanwhile, Congress has not completed action on FY2025 appropriations. Government agencies in the discretionary part of the federal budget are operating under a Continuing Resolution (CR) that expires on March 14. Concern is mounting that a shutdown is looming. A new CR can be passed without resolving the bigger budget questions, but it’s not clear if any of the parties in Congress want to do that, or if Trump would sign it if they did. He oversaw the longest government shutdown in history (35 days) during his first term.

Off the Hill, the big event in space policy this week is the annual Commercial Space Conference on Wednesday hosted by the Commercial Space Federation and the FAA. It has a splendid agenda as usual. Among those giving keynotes or participating in fireside chats are Rep. Brian Babin (R-TX) and Rep. Mike Haridopolos (R-FL). Babin represents Johnson Space Center and now chairs the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee. Newly elected Haridopolos represents Kennedy Space Center, succeeding Bill Posey (who retired), and is the new chair of the House SS&T’s space subcommittee. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who chairs the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, is listed as invited. Acting NASA Administrator Janet Petro will be there. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy is listed as invited.

The conference also features key industry leaders both individually (David Limp, Blue Origin; Max Haot, Vast; Susanne Hake, Maxar; and Baiju Bhatt, Aetherflux) or on panels that include government and university participants: “Igniting Progress: Expediting the Growth of Launch and Re-Entry,” “Earth Observation: What’s Getting in the Way of the Commercial Space Strategy,” “Spaceports: Gateway or Chokepoint to a $1 Trillion Market,” “Commercial LEO–Will We Revolutionize Human Health?,” “Space Exploration:  How to Stick the Landing on Commercial Space Science,” and “Can We Streamline Commercial Space Regs?”

It looks like a really great conference.  Sadly there is no virtual option, which is particularly unfortunate since D.C. is forecast to get a sizable (for us) snow storm all day Tuesday into Wednesday morning. Washington does not do well in snow. Even locals may struggle to get there on time, if at all.

We’ll quickly highlight two other events.  CSIS will hold a webinar on Tuesday afternoon to discuss Trump’s proposed Iron Dome for America. Two Senators on the Senate Armed Services Committee have introduced legislation to begin implementing it in FY2026. CSIS experts Tom Karako, Kari Bingen, and Heather Williams will discuss the implications, DOD’s implementation strategy, and how it fits into other deterrence and defense priorities.

On Thursday, NOAA’s Office of Space Commerce and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), both part of the Department of Commerce, will hold an in-person event at Commerce’s headquarters on Constitution Ave in D.C.  They’re going to discuss Building an In-Space Circular Economy. The idea is “to utilize space-based resources sustainably by minimizing waste and maximizing the reuse and recycling of materials in space operations. … By rethinking how resources are extracted, processed, and reused in orbit, a circular space economy can enhance mission longevity and improve the efficiency of various space missions, including space station utilization, in-space manufacturing, satellite servicing, and establishing off-world habitats.” Sounds intriguing.

Those and other events we know about as of Sunday morning are shown below.  Check back throughout the week for others we learn about later and add to our Calendar or changes to these.

Monday-Wednesday, February 10-12

• 4th Annual Defense & Intelligence Space Conference (NSSA), Hyatt Regency Reston and surrounding classified facilities, Reston, VA (portions classified)

Monday-Friday, February 10-14 (continued from last week)

• Scientific and Technical Subcommittee of the U.N. Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space , Vienna, Austria (webcast)

Tuesday, February 11

• What is the “Iron Dome for America?” (CSIS), virtual, 2:00-3:00 pm ET

Wednesday, February 12

• 27th Annual Commercial Space Conference (FAA/CSF), Conrad Hotel, 950 New York Ave., NW, Washington, DC, 9:00 am-5:00 pm ET

Thursday, February 13

• Building an In-Space Circular Economy (NOAA/NIST), Department of Commerce, 1401 Constitution Ave., NW, Washington, DC, 9:30 am-12:30 pm ET

Friday, February 14

• ESA Press Briefing on Results of FLY! Feasibility Study, European Astronaut Centre, Cologne, Germany/online, 4:00 am ET (10:00 am Central European Time)

This article has been updated.