Us Congress 2025-2026 Regular Session

Us Congress House Bill HB2600 Compare Versions

Only one version of the bill is available at this time.

Old	New	Differences
1	1	I
2	2	119THCONGRESS
3	3	1
4	4	STSESSION H. R. 2600
5	5	To require the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Adminis-
6	6	tration to establish a program to identify, evaluate, acquire, and dissemi-
7	7	nate commercial Earth remote sensing data and imagery in order to
8	8	satisfy the scientific, operational, and educational requirements of the
9	9	Administration, and for other purposes.
10	10	IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
11	11	APRIL2, 2025
12	12	Mr. H
13	13	URDof Colorado (for himself and Ms. BONAMICI) introduced the fol-
14	14	lowing bill; which was referred to the Committee on Science, Space, and
15	15	Technology
16	16	A BILL
17	17	To require the Administrator of the National Aeronautics
18	18	and Space Administration to establish a program to iden-
19	19	tify, evaluate, acquire, and disseminate commercial Earth
20	20	remote sensing data and imagery in order to satisfy
21	21	the scientific, operational, and educational requirements
22	22	of the Administration, and for other purposes.
23	23	Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
24	24	tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
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27	27	•HR 2600 IH
28	28	SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1
29	29	This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Accessing Satellite Ca-2
30	30	pabilities to Enable New Discoveries Act’’ or the ‘‘AS-3
31	31	CEND Act’’. 4
32	32	SEC. 2. COMMERCIAL SATELLITE DATA. 5
33	33	(a) F
34	34	INDINGS.—Congress makes the following find-6
35	35	ings: 7
36	36	(1) Section 60501 of title 51, United States 8
37	37	Code, states that the goal for the Earth Science pro-9
38	38	gram of the National Aeronautics and Space Admin-10
39	39	istration (referred to in this section as ‘‘NASA’’) 11
40	40	shall be to pursue a program of Earth observations, 12
41	41	research, and applications activities to better under-13
42	42	stand the Earth, how it supports life, and how 14
43	43	human activities affect its ability to do so in the fu-15
44	44	ture. 16
45	45	(2) Section 50115 of title 51, United States 17
46	46	Code, states that the Administrator of NASA shall, 18
47	47	to the extent possible and while satisfying the sci-19
48	48	entific or educational requirements of NASA, and 20
49	49	where appropriate, of other Federal agencies and 21
50	50	scientific researchers, acquire, where cost effective, 22
51	51	space-based and airborne commercial Earth remote 23
52	52	sensing data, services, distribution, and applications 24
53	53	from a commercial provider. 25
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56	56	•HR 2600 IH
57	57	(3) The Administrator of NASA established the 1
58	58	Commercial SmallSat Data Acquisition Pilot Pro-2
59	59	gram in 2019 to identify, validate, and acquire from 3
60	60	commercial sources data that support the Earth 4
61	61	science research and application goals. 5
62	62	(4) The Administrator of NASA has— 6
63	63	(A) determined that the pilot program de-7
64	64	scribed in paragraph (3) has been a success, as 8
65	65	described in the final evaluation entitled ‘‘Com-9
66	66	mercial SmallSat Data Acquisition Program 10
67	67	Pilot Evaluation Report’’ issued in 2020; 11
68	68	(B) established a formal process for evalu-12
69	69	ating and onboarding new commercial vendors 13
70	70	in such pilot program; 14
71	71	(C) increased the number of commercial 15
72	72	vendors and commercial data products available 16
73	73	through such pilot program; and 17
74	74	(D) expanded procurement arrangements 18
75	75	with commercial vendors to broaden user access 19
76	76	to provide commercial Earth remote sensing 20
77	77	data and imagery to federally funded research-21
78	78	ers. 22
79	79	(b) C
80	80	OMMERCIALSATELLITEDATAACQUISITION 23
81	81	P
82	82	ROGRAM.— 24
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85	85	•HR 2600 IH
86	86	(1) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 603 of title 51, 1
87	87	United States Code, is amended by adding at the 2
88	88	end the following: 3
89	89	‘‘§ 60307. Commercial satellite data acquisition pro-4
90	90	gram 5
91	91	‘‘(a) I
92	92	NGENERAL.—The Administrator shall estab-6
93	93	lish within the Earth Science Division of the Science Mis-7
94	94	sion Directorate a program to acquire and disseminate 8
95	95	cost-effective and appropriate commercial Earth remote 9
96	96	sensing data and imagery in order to satisfy the scientific, 10
97	97	operational, and educational requirements of the Adminis-11
98	98	tration, and where appropriate, of other Federal agencies 12
99	99	and scientific researchers to augment or complement the 13
100	100	suite of Earth observations acquired by the Administra-14
101	101	tion, other United States Government agencies, and inter-15
102	102	national partners. 16
103	103	‘‘(b) D
104	104	ATAPUBLICATION ANDTRANSPARENCY.—The 17
105	105	terms and conditions of commercial Earth remote sensing 18
106	106	data and imagery acquisitions under the program de-19
107	107	scribed in subsection (a) shall not prevent— 20
108	108	‘‘(1) the publication of commercial data or im-21
109	109	agery for scientific purposes; or 22
110	110	‘‘(2) the publication of information that is de-23
111	111	rived from, incorporates, or enhances the original 24
112	112	commercial data or imagery of a vendor. 25
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115	115	•HR 2600 IH
116	116	‘‘(c) AUTHORIZATION.—In carrying out the program 1
117	117	under this section, the Administrator may— 2
118	118	‘‘(1) procure commercial Earth remote sensing 3
119	119	data and imagery from commercial vendors to ad-4
120	120	vance scientific research and applications in accord-5
121	121	ance with subsection (a); and 6
122	122	‘‘(2) establish or modify end-use license terms 7
123	123	and conditions to allow for the widest-possible use of 8
124	124	procured commercial Earth remote sensing data and 9
125	125	imagery by individuals other than NASA-funded 10
126	126	users, consistent with the goals of the program. 11
127	127	‘‘(d) U
128	128	NITEDSTATESVENDORS.—Commercial Earth 12
129	129	remote sensing data and imagery referred to in sub-13
130	130	sections (a) and (c) shall, to the maximum extent prac-14
131	131	ticable, be procured from United States vendors. 15
132	132	‘‘(c) R
133	133	EPORT.—Not later than 180 days after the 16
134	134	date of the enactment of this section and annually there-17
135	135	after, the Administrator shall submit to the Committee on 18
136	136	Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate and 19
137	137	the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology of the 20
138	138	House of Representatives a report that includes the fol-21
139	139	lowing information regarding the agreements, vendors, li-22
140	140	cense terms, and uses of commercial Earth remote sensing 23
141	141	data and imagery under this section: 24
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144	144	•HR 2600 IH
145	145	‘‘(1)(A) In the case of the initial report, a list 1
146	146	of all agreements that are providing commercial 2
147	147	Earth remote sensing data and imagery to NASA as 3
148	148	of the date of the report. 4
149	149	‘‘(B) For each subsequent report, a list of all 5
150	150	agreements that have provided commercial Earth re-6
151	151	mote sensing data and imagery to NASA during the 7
152	152	reporting period. 8
153	153	‘‘(2) A description of the end-use license terms 9
154	154	and conditions for each such vendor. 10
155	155	‘‘(3) A description of the manner in which each 11
156	156	such agreement is advancing scientific research and 12
157	157	applications, including priorities recommended by 13
158	158	the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, 14
159	159	and Medicine decadal surveys. 15
160	160	‘‘(4) Information specifying whether the Admin-16
161	161	istrator has entered into an agreement with a com-17
162	162	mercial vendor or a Federal agency that permits the 18
163	163	use of data and imagery by Federal Government em-19
164	164	ployees, contractors, or non-Federal users.’’. 20
165	165	(d) C
166	166	LERICALAMENDMENT.—The table of contents 21
167	167	for chapter 603 of title 51, United States Code, is amend-22
168	168	ed by adding at the end the following new item: 23
169	169	‘‘60307. Commercial Satellite Data Acquisition Program.’’.
170	170	Æ
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