Date: 2015-05-21
Speaker: EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Mr. Chairman. I rise in opposition to H.R. 2262. the SPACE Act of This bill amends the Commercial Space Launch Act. which is one of the seminal achievements on this committee. That act opened the doors to establishment on the commercial space industry. which is poised to become a major part of the 21st century economy. I agree that both our committee and the Congress as a whole need to address the Commercial Space Launch Act. We havent comprehensively addressed these issues since 2004. I also want to be clear that I am a strong supporter of the commercial space industry. I think Members on both sides of the aisle want this industry to succeed because this industrys success is good for our Nation. However. the issues being dealt with in this bill are not straightforward. They are complex and require thoughtful consideration. Unfortunately. the Committee on Science. Space. and Technology hasnt given these issues thoughtful consideration. We have not held any hearings so far this Congress to examine the issues being debated today. We also havent had a subcommittee markup to try to work through some of the underlying issues in the legislation. That is really very unfortunate. because we could be considering a bipartisan piece of legislation today if the majority had simply laid the proper groundwork for moving complex legislation. Instead. we have rushed this bill to the floor to meet some arbitrary timetable established by somebody. perhaps the Republican leadership. So what does this bill do? In every possible measure. H.R. 2262 gives maximum preference to the priorities of the commercial space launch industryat the expense of the safety of the general public and the safety of the future customers of this very industry. and it does so at the expense of the American taxpayers. Mr. Chairman. this bill proposes to provide the commercial space launch industry with another decadedecadeof regulationfree operations with respect to protecting the safety of spaceflight passengers. There wont be any passengers when they find out that they have no protection. Some will state that the industry does not yet have enough experience to establish these regulations. That is rubbish. Both the United States and Russia have been launching humans into space for more than five decades. There has been literally hundreds of space launches on numerous different types of spacecraft during this time. The FAA has had more than enough data to rely on to set commonsense regulations on spaceflight passenger safety. In addition. this bill also provides a lengthy 9year extension of commercial space launch indemnification provisions. Congress has extended these provisions many times since they were originally crafted in 1988. Since 1988. the liability exposure of the U.S. Government under this regime has grown each and every year. What began as an approximately $1 billion backstop for the industry has now grown to more than $2.5 billion. and this will continue to grow for 9 more years under this bill. I think this is something that deserves a little more attention. Generally. as an industry matures. you would think their reliance on the U.S. Government for subsidies would decrease rather than increase. Finally. Mr. Chairman. this bill takes steps into the uncharted waters involving space property rights. I am not against asteroid mining or space resource utilization. Those activities will come in time. However. I am for getting any legislation that addresses these areas right. We are not at all close to resolving the many unanswered questions and issues concerning space resource utilization and property rights. At the single hearing the majority held on this topic last Congress. several of the invited witnesses expressed their views that there were many unsettled issues with the majoritys draft legislation. Moving this legislation without really ever addressing these issues is. I believe. negligent on the part of the Congress. Some on the other side of the aisle may point to the fact that the administrations Statement of Administration Policy did not include a veto threat against this bill. But I would note that the administrations statement also had serious concerns about sections of the bill and notably did not endorse the bill. With respect to the asteroid mining provisions. the statement noted: "the administration is concerned about the ability of U.S. companies to move forward with these initiatives absent additional authority to ensure continuing supervision of these initiatives by the U.S. Government as required by the Outer Space Treaty." Mr. Chairman. Ms. EDWARDS will be offering an amendment in the nature of a substitute that I will speak on one more time later. It may not have everything that industry desires. it may not reflect all of our priorities for commercial space launch policy. but it is a clear route to getting a balanced. bipartisan. bicameral commercial space launch bill enacted into law. because ultimately that is what we are trying to do is get a bicameral agreement. We can argue over differences. or we can just join together to pass bipartisan. bicameral commercial space legislation. I urge my colleagues to oppose H.R. 2262 in its present form and instead take a bipartisan approach to enacting commercial space launch legislation.