House Space Subcommittee Reviews Space Council Reports

The House Science Subcommittee on Space began the 103rd Congress with several hearings reviewing U.S. space policy. The hearings, held on February 2 and 4, with a third scheduled for February 17, consider a series of reports released by the National Space Council under former Vice President Quayle. The hearing room was full with new members of the subcommittee, many from districts deeply affected by the aerospace industry.

On February 2, the subcommittee reviewed recommendations from the report, “A Post Cold War Assessment of U.S. Space Policy.” This report examined the historical context of all the U.S. space programs: civil, military, intelligence, and commercial, and proposed policies for their future based on the changed global circumstances. As chair of the task force that produced the report, Laurel Wilkening, Provost of the University of Washington, Seattle, summarized its main points.

The report noted that the original justification for the U.S. space programs was national prestige and competition with the Soviet Union. According to Wilkening, “The need to quickly surpass Soviet achievements in space led to separate civil, intelligence and military programs, which duplicated many facilities and capabilities. Duplication was tolerated because of the Cold War imperatives. The need to demonstrate leadership in space overrode all other considerations including cost.”

“With the end of the Cold War, these imperatives no longer exist,” Wilkening said. The report recommends that, while keeping separate civil and military space programs, the U.S. should centralize and streamline planning and improve interagency coordination for maximum efficiency. Questioned about whether this necessitated a National Space Council, the witnesses concurred that any strong, White House level policy-making and coordinating body would be acceptable. Brian Daily, former Executive Director of the Space Council, added that he saw no problem with the Vice President taking the role of space policy czar.

The report advocated eliminating unnecessary security constraints within the national security programs, and urged better cooperation between the government and the U.S. commercial space industry. Most of the witnesses felt there was much the federal government could do to improve industry’s position without spending a lot of money. At the second hearing, Don Fuqua, President of the Aerospace Industries Association and former chairman of the House Science Committee, suggested the government could eliminate restrictive anti-trust laws, make permanent an R&D tax credit, improve the efficiency of the procurement process, and remove export restrictions on certain items.

The report’s fourth recommendation was that the U.S. should take the lead in setting an agenda for international cooperation in space to solve global problems. Wilkening said that “space achievements must be widely viewed as a key to an improved world future.”

The second hearing addressed the report, “The Future of the U.S. Space Industrial Base.” Subcommittee chairman Ralph Hall (D-Texas) and new member Jane Harmon (D-California), whose district is in the heart of the California aerospace industry, expressed concern that downsizing and diversifying the commercial industry would result in the loss of high tech jobs. Alan Lovelace, senior vice president for space policy and technology at General Dynamics, responded that a decline in jobs was necessary for “right-sizing” the industry, making it stronger and more viable for the future. He hoped, however, that this would ultimately lead to later job creation.

Another issue discussed was the need for a new launch vehicle. Witnesses at both hearings agreed on the necessity for the U.S. to develop a next generation launch system. Daily reported that every study since 1987 has recommended that “the United States needs to develop a new launch capability to replace our aging fleet of expendable launch vehicles.” The February 17 hearing will examine this issue further.

Tim Roemer (D-Indiana) raised questions about a recent Washington Post story alleging cost overruns to the space station program. Hall assured the members that the subcommittee would explore that topic in a hearing scheduled for February 23.

“A Post Cold War Assessment of U.S. Space Policy,” “The Future of the U.S. Space Industrial Base,” and two other National Space Council reports, entitled “The Future of the U.S. Space Launch Capability,” and the “Final Report to the President on the U.S. Space Program,” can be obtained by calling 703-685-3078.