Satellite streamlining bill advances in House Commerce Committee

By James Erwin

It is a consensus repeated so often among our nation’s intelligentsia as to be overwhelming: America needs to build. We need to build more and faster than we have in decades and remove those bottle necks in permits, reviews, and applications that have inhibited projects as long as anyone can remember.

While the FCC has made great strides in streamlining and deregulating the communications sector, there is one industry in particular that stands to benefit from a legislative overhaul making its way through Congress: the space economy.

The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology unanimously advanced a bipartisan bill today that would limit bureaucratic interference with satellite spectrum applications. The bill would impose shot clocks, which we have long favored for most all permits, on FCC spectrum licensing for satellite users. The Satellite and Telecommunications (SAT) Streamlining Act was co-sponsored by Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie and Ranking Member Frank Pallone. Senator Ted Cruz, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, has introduced a companion bill in the upper chamber.

The SAT Streamlining Act would impose a one-year shot clock for the FCC to consider applications for geostationary, non-geostationary, and earth station licenses. Licenses would be automatically granted after the one year mark if the FCC fails to act on an application. The Commission would be able to extend the review only under extraordinary circumstances such as a national security emergency or government shutdown preventing its operation. Such extensions are capped at 90 days, so 15 months would be the absolutely maximum applicants would have to wait to receive their licenses.

Most importantly, the bill preempts state and local price controls (known as “rate regulation” in the industry) if there is any federal jurisdiction over the entities involved. Essentially, states cannot impose price controls on companies like SpaceX or Blue Origin for internet or mobile service beamed down from space if they have dealings with the federal government that touch on any national security concern. As most space companies currently rely on federal contracts, this effectively protects market rates in the space economy from state and local regulation, at least in the medium term.

This bill is pro-market, pro-development, and pro-innovation. It ought to pass, and given its bipartisan support and unanimity in committee, it likely will. It is a sad state of affairs, however, that only the space economy gets this treatment. Much like the internet in 80s and 90s, space is the flashy new growth sector that Congress is treating as such. In those days, the federal government allowed the digital economy to flourish without commensurate deregulation of heavy industry. This pattern is sadly repeating as space is being properly deregulated but artificial intelligence, which is inextricably tied to the space economy, is not receiving the same treatment. Congress should preempt state and local regulation of AI as well, but that seems unlikely at the moment.

Still, this is a victory for techno-optimists, free marketeers, and anyone who dares aspire to greatness. We should all want America to lead the New Space Age – and happily Congress does, at least for now.