Sec. 322. Near-Earth objects
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Congress makes the following findings: Near-Earth objects pose a serious and credible threat to humankind, as many scientists believe that a major asteroid or comet was responsible for the mass extinction of the majority of the Earth’s species, including the dinosaurs, nearly 65,000,000 years ago. Similar objects have struck the Earth or passed through the Earth’s atmosphere several times in the Earth’s history and pose a similar threat in the future. Several such near-Earth objects have only been discovered within days of the objects’ closest approach to Earth, and recent discoveries of such large objects indicate that many large near-Earth objects remain to be discovered.
The efforts taken to date by the Administration for detecting and characterizing the hazards of near-Earth objects must continue to fully determine the threat posed by such objects to cause widespread destruction and loss of life. For purposes of this section, the term near-Earth object means an asteroid or comet with a perihelion distance of less than 1.3 Astronomical Units from the Sun. The Administrator shall continue to discover, track, catalogue, and characterize the physical characteristics of near-Earth objects equal to or greater than 140 meters in diameter in order to assess the threat of such near-Earth objects to the Earth, pursuant to the George E.
Brown, Jr. Near-Earth Object Survey Act ( 42 U.S.C. 16691 ). It shall be the goal of the Survey program to achieve 90 percent completion of its near-Earth object catalogue (based on statistically predicted populations of near-Earth objects) by 2020. Congress reaffirms the policy set forth in section 20102(g) of title 51, United States Code (relating to detecting, tracking, cataloguing, and characterizing asteroids and comets). The Administrator shall transmit to the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate, not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, an initial report that provides— recommendations for carrying out the Survey program and an associated proposed budget; analysis of possible options that the Administration could employ to divert an object on a likely collision course with Earth; and a description of the status of efforts to coordinate and cooperate with other countries to discover hazardous asteroids and comets, plan a mitigation strategy, and implement that strategy in the event of the discovery of an object on a likely collision course with Earth.
The Administrator shall annually transmit to the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate a report that provides— a summary of all activities carried out pursuant to subsection
(c)since the date of enactment of this Act; and a summary of expenditures for all activities carried out pursuant to subsection
(c)since the date of enactment of this Act.
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Sec. 322
Near-Earth objects
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