Public Policy and Government Affairs

The House Science, Space & Technology Committee Subcommittee on Space held a hearing on April 24, “An Overview of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Budget for Fiscal Year 2014.” Members in attendance included: Congressman Steven Palazzo (R-MS), chairman, subcommittee  Congressman Lamar Smith (R-TX), chairman, full committee  Congressman Ralph Hall (R-TX)  Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) …

The White House released its Fiscal Year 2014 budget request to Congress on April 10. The budget is normally issued in early February, but was delayed due to a delay in finalizing FY 2013 funding. The Space Foundation has produced two reports, providing overviews and comparisons of the Fiscal Year 2014 budgets. The reports include…

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA)on April 18, directing the federal government to conduct cybersecurity activities to provide shared situational awareness in real time between all designated federal cyber operations centers and the appropriately approved private sector entities. The bill has been referred to the Senate. However,…

Last month, President Obama signed the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2013 into law to avoid a government shutdown and fund the Federal government through the final six months of the 2013 fiscal year. While the bill provides the Department of Defense and NASA with an updated budget for FY 2013, rather than have…

A number of oversight hearings affecting space and cyberspace were held during March in Washington, D.C. The following is an overview of those hearings: Senate Armed Services Committee  “U.S. Strategic Command and U.S. Cyber Command in review of the Defense Authorization Request for Fiscal Year 2014 and the Future Years Defense Program” March 12 Testimony at…

Space Foundation Chief Executive Officer Elliot Pulham heavily cited the Space Foundation’s recent publication, PIONEERING: Sustaining U.S. Leadership in Space, when he testified before the Subcommittee on Space Feb. 27 in Washington, D.C. The Subcommittee, which is part of the U.S. House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, held the hearing to review The Space…

The Space Foundation has updated our document that outlines committee and subcommittee assignments for the 113th Congress. The update includes recent action by several key committees to assign members to subcommittees with direct oversight for space and cybersecurity policy matters. The Senate Strategic Forces Subcommittee announced its leadership and membership roster for the 113th Congress:…

The Senate Armed Services Committee held an oversight hearing in February on “Impacts of Sequestration and/or a full-year Continuing Resolution (CR) on the Department of Defense.” Testimony made at the hearing indicated that sequestration and the full-year Continuing Resolution will have a deleterious impact on the DoD’s future readiness and ability to transition away from…

The Space Foundation, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and Secure World Foundation (SWF) teamed up to host a luncheon and panel discussion on Capitol Hill on Feb. 20 to address the importance of sustainability in outer space. The briefing was a reminder for policy makers that the United States relies upon space…

Inspired by the Space Foundation’s PIONEERING: Sustaining U.S. Leadership in Space report, Space Foundation Special Advisor – Human Spaceflight (and former NASA astronaut) Dr. Leroy Chiao penned an editorial that appeared on Discovery.com Jan. 24. Talking about the current state of manned space travel, Chiao says “What happened? Did America somehow lose, or see a diminished pioneering…