One week from today, the 116th Congress will convene. Democrats will control the House; Republicans the Senate. Considering today’s state of affairs, with one-quarter of the government (in terms of discretionary spending), including NASA and NOAA, shut down because funding has lapsed, space policy issues are not likely to be at the top of the congressional to-do list. Still, much remains to be done.
Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the next TWO weeks December 23, 2018 – January 5, 2019 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate schedules are in flux. During this two week period, the 115th Congress will end and the 116th Congress will begin.
President Trump announced via Twitter today that he is replacing Secretary of Defense (SecDef) James Mattis as of January 1, two months before Mattis said he would depart in his resignation letter last week. Deputy Secretary of Defense (DepSecDef) Patrick Shanahan will become Acting SecDef that day. Shahanan is well known in national security space policy circles as the point man at DOD on creating a Space Force.
Following the defeat of the Space Frontier Act in the House yesterday, Democratic staff of the House Science, Space, and Technology (SS&T) committee said today that the issues are important and expect the committee to be active on them in the 116th Congress, which begins in less than two weeks. During floor debate on the bill, Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX), criticized the process used to bring the bill to the floor, arguing that she did not think many of the issues had been vetted sufficiently. She is expected to chair the committee next year.
The surprise defeat of the Space Frontier Act in the House yesterday can be traced to Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Oregon), the likely incoming chair of the House Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) Committee. The bill, S. 3277, was brought before the House under a procedure that requires a two-thirds majority to pass. It did not achieve that threshold after DeFazio circulated a memo warning that it could negatively impact the safety and efficiency of the National Airspace System (NAS).
Congress and the White House were not able to reach agreement on funding for President Trump’s border wall today. That means departments and agencies, including NASA and NOAA, whose FY2019 funding bills are not yet enacted, will shut down at midnight unless they have other sources of funding than appropriations, like fees or left over money from prior years. This will be the third government shutdown of the year. Its duration is unknown.
The House voted down the Space Frontier Act today, a day after it passed the Senate. The bill was brought up under a special procedure called suspension of the rules that requires a two-thirds vote to pass and it did not achieve that threshold. With the 115th Congress winding down, it is unlikely another opportunity will arise to consider the legislation, meaning work will have to being anew next year. The Chair and Ranking Member of the House Science, Space, and Technology (SS&T) Committee offered only grudging support during floor debate, but both did call for it to pass.
What appeared to be a deal to keep all of the government operating through February 8, 2019 hit a wall today — President Trump’s border wall. Senate Republicans were confident they had Trump’s agreement when they passed an extension of a Continuing Resolution (CR) last night that would fund agencies like NASA and NOAA whose FY2019 budgets have not been enacted yet, but he changed his mind today. Instead, the House passed a very different version of the CR tonight adding $5 billion for the border wall and $7.8 billion for disaster relief and sent it back to the Senate. What will happen next is unclear.
The Senate passed a revised version of the Space Frontier Act today. It includes a number of changes to what the Senate Commerce Committee approved earlier this year, perhaps most significantly elevating the Office of Space Commerce at the Department of Commerce (DOC) to a Bureau reporting directly to the Secretary of Commerce. It does not give the Bureau responsibility for regulating non-traditional commercial space activities, however, another move sought by the Trump Administration. Instead, it punts on that issue.
Agreement apparently has been reached among the Senate, House, and White House to avert a partial government shutdown on Friday. Many agencies, including NASA and NOAA, are currently funded by a Continuing Resolution (CR) that expires on December 21. The agreement is to extend that CR until February 8, 2019. The deal is not done yet, but it did pass the Senate this evening.