What's Happening in Space Policy May 15-19, 2017

Here is our list of space policy events for the week of May 15-19, 2017 and any insight we can offer about them.  The House and Senate are in session this week.

During the Week

The D.C. space community looked forward every year to Sen. Barbara Mikulski’s (D-MD) annual speech to the Maryland Space Business Roundtable (MSBR) to get her take on the congressional landscape for civil space.   She retired at the end of last year, making Sen. Ben Cardin the senior Senator from Maryland and he will take her spot this year.  His talk is tomorrow (Monday) at Martin’s Crosswinds in Greenbelt, MD.  [Curiously, the MSBR website today does not show this event, but it seems to have reverted to a 2015 schedule instead of 2017.  MSBR assures us the luncheon is on.]

Cardin was elected to the Senate in 2006 after two decades in the House, but left space program issues to Mikulski so probably is not well known to readers of this website.  He does not serve on any of the Senate committees responsible for NASA or NOAA, so this will be the first opportunity for many to hear his views.  Mikulski’s successor, Sen. Chris Van Hollen, won assignment to the Senate Appropriations Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) subcommittee on which Mikulski served for so many years (sometimes as chair), but as a freshman will not have as much power as she did.  Cardin has 10 years of seniority in the Senate overall, so could be more influential even though he does not sit on the space committees. 

Senator Ben Cardin (D-Maryland).  Photo Credit:  Senator Cardin’s Senate website.

On Tuesday, a seminar entitled “On the Launchpad: Return to Deep Space” will be held at the Newseum in Washington, DC from 1:00-5:00 pm ET and will be webcast.  For those planning to watch the webcast, note that the session itself is only from 1:30-4:00 pm ET. The rest of the time is for registration at the beginning and a reception afterwards.  It has an interesting lineup of speakers.  Among them are NASA Acting Administrator Robert Lightfoot; Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), chair of the Senate Commerce space subcommittee; former NASA chief scientist Ellen Stofan; Bob Zubrin of the Mars Society; Chris Carberry of Explore Mars; Mary Lynne Dittmar of the Coalition for Deep Space Exploration; and former astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria.

Heather Wilson was confirmed as Secretary of the Air Force last week and this week she gets her first turn at the witness table in that position.  On Wednesday, she will testify along with the top Air Force space leadership (Gen. David Goldfein, Gen. John Raymond, and Lt. Gen. Samuel Greaves)  and Cristina Chaplain of the Government Accountability Office.  The hearing, “Military Space Organization, Policy and Programs,” is before the Strategic Forces Subcommittee of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC).  SASC usually webcasts its hearings on its website.   

The House Armed Services Committee (HASC) hasn’t posted its hearing schedule yet, but the National Journal’s Daybook reports that HASC will have a national security space hearing itself on Friday.  The witness list isn’t available yet, but the title is “FY2018 Priorities and Posture of the National Security Space Enterprise.”  We’ll add more information to our calendar entry when it is available.

Meanwhile, everyone is waiting for President Trump to submit his full FY2018 budget request to Congress.  He sent up a budget blueprint or “skinny budget” in March, but the details were missing (this is common in a new President’s first year).  There were rumors a couple of weeks ago that it would be submitted on May 15, but more recent rumors are that it will be May 22.  FY2018 begins on October 1, so everyone needs to get rolling on that.  If you thought reaching agreement on FY2017 was tough, that was child’s play compared to FY2018 when, by law, the budget caps established by the 2011 Budget Control Act are back in force.  Some congressional Republicans and Democrats declared the March budget request dead on arrival due to its huge cuts to agencies like the State Department, National Institutes of Health, and Environmental Protection Agency, all while sharply increasing military spending.  All things considered, NASA did pretty well in the budget blueprint.  NOAA’s two main weather satellite programs (JPSS and GOES-R) also are OK, but cuts apparently are in store for NOAA’s other satellite activities.

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 Events of Interest list.

Monday, May 15

• MSBR Luncheon Featuring Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD), Martin’s Crosswinds, Greenbelt, MD, 11:30 am – 1:30 pm ET

Monday-Tuesday, May 15-16

• MilSatCom Asia-Pacific 2017, Singapore

Monday-Friday, May 15-19

• IAA Planetary Defense Conference, Tokyo, Japan

Tuesday, May 16

• GVF Roundtable on High Throughput Satellites (HTS), Jones Day law offices, 51 Louisiana Ave., NW, Washington, DC, 8:30 am – 5:00 pm ET
• On the Launchpad:  Return to Deep Space (The Atlantic), Newseum, 555 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Washington, DC, 1:00-5:00 pm ET (webcast)

Wednesday, May 17

• SASC Sbcmt Hearing on Military Space Organization, Policy, and Programs, 222 Russell Senate Office Building, 2:00 pm ET (usually webcast)

Friday, May 19

• HASC Sbcmt Hearing on FY2018 Priorities and Posture of the National Security Space Enterprise, 2118 Rayburn House Office Building, 9:00 am ET (usually webcast)

 

Note:  This article was updated to reflect the confirmation from MSBR that the Cardin luncheon is, indeed, on for tomorrow, and to add the IAA Planetary Defense conference in Tokyo.