What's Happening in Space Policy June 15-19, 2015

Here is our list of space policy related events for the week of June 15-19, 2015 and any insight we can offer about them.  The House and Senate are in session this week.

During the Week

The Senate resumes consideration of the FY2016 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).  Floor debate began on June 3 and progress has been slow due to internal Senate politics. Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) chairman Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said late last week that the bill has become “unstuck” now so he is hoping for quick resolution.

The Senate Republican leadership also wants to take up the FY2016 Defense Appropriations Act this week.  We’ll see how that goes.  Democrats have vowed to prevent any funding bills from reaching the floor until Republicans agree to negotiate over the 2011 Budget Control Act (BCA) funding caps.  So far the Republicans don’t seem interested.

One space issue has split Senate appropriators and authorizers.  In the NDAA, McCain is holding DOD’s feet to the fire to discontinue using Russian RD-180 engines by 2019.  He spoke on the Senate floor on Thursday about the need to stop sending money to Russian President Putin and his cronies.  At the same time that day, however, the Senate appropriations committee was approving a bill that would relax that requirement.  McCain’s friend and ally (and Presidential candidate) Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) offered an amendment to strike the language in the bill offering that flexibility, but strong bipartisan opposition led him to withdraw it.

The House already has passed its versions of the NDAA and defense appropriations act.  This week it will take up the FY2016 Intelligence Authorization Act, H.R. 2596.   Most of that is classified, but the House Intelligence Committee said that it “invests in the resiliency of our national security space architecture.”   It is set for consideration by the House Rules Committee tomorrow, with floor debate on Tuesday.

The biennial Paris Air Show is being held this week at Le Bourget (outside Paris) which usually creates a lot of news, so stay tuned.   And the annual Astrobiology Science Conference (AbSciCon) will be held in Chicago all week.  NASA and university scientists will hold a panel discussion on Tuesday afternoon that will be broadcast on NASA TV.

Those and other events we know about as of Sunday afternoon are listed below.

Sunday-Friday, June 14-19 (continued from last week)

• U.N. Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, Vienna, Austria

Monday-Friday, June 15-19

• AbSciCon 2015, Chicago, IL

Monday-Sunday, June 15-21

• Paris Air Show, Le Bourget (outside Paris), FR

Tuesday, June 16

• Panel of NASA and University Scientists re Astrobiology (in conjunction with AbSciCon), Chicago, IL, 2:00 pm ET (watch on NASA TV)

Wednesday, June 17

• Space Transportation Association Event Celebrating 70th Anniversary of Wallops Flight Facility, 2325 Rayburn, 5:00-7:00 pm ET