Sec. 307. Commercial remote sensing licensing reform
717 words·~3 min read·
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The following is the sense of Congress: The process for licensing commercial remote sensing under section 60121 of title 51, United States Code, should be reformed to allow license applicants to understand the legitimate and identifiable technical, national security, or foreign policy issues being considered and which specific department or agency is considering them, in an established, responsive timeline. In order to protect United States leadership and commercial viability in remote sensing technologies, the Federal Government should not limit commercial entities from providing remote sensing capabilities or data products that are already offered or available in the international marketplace.
Before the Director of Commercial Remote Sensing Regulatory Affairs denies a license application for, or places any restrictions on, a remote sensing license, the Director should take into account mitigation procedures that are in place under law, regulation, or contract to protect national security. Section 60121(c) of title 51, United States Code, is amended to read as follows: Subject to paragraphs
(2)and (3), the Secretary shall review any license application and make a determination thereon within 60 days of the receipt of such license application. If the Secretary determines that additional time is necessary, the Secretary may extend the 60-day review period for a license application by not more than 30 days. The Secretary may extend the extended review period for a license application provided in paragraph
(2)by not more than an additional 30 days only if the Secretary of Defense or the Director of National Intelligence determines that such an extension is necessary due to national security concerns. The Secretary may not extend the extended review period an additional 30 days if the decision for extension is not made within 3 days of the expiration of the review period described in paragraph (2). . Section 60121 of title 51, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following: In any case in which the Secretary denies a license under this subchapter, the Secretary shall provide the applicant with a copy of the denial within 30 days of the denial, which shall identify any other Federal entity with which the Secretary consulted in making the decision. Subject to paragraph (2), the copy of the denial shall include a clearly articulated rationale for the denial. If the rationale for a denial described in paragraph
(1)includes classified information, the Secretary shall provide to the applicant all such information for which the license applicant has the required security clearance. Not later than 30 days after a license is denied under this subchapter, the Secretary shall submit to Congress a copy of the denial and the clearly articulated rationale for the denial, including all classified information. . Commercial remote sensing licensing restrictions shall only be changed retroactively for national security issues certified by the Director of National Intelligence. Should a retroactive change occur, the affected actors shall be compensated for lost revenue from contracts signed based on services approved under the original license. The Secretary of Commerce, in consultation with the Secretary of Defense and the Director of National Intelligence, shall keep a list of nations with respect to which United States commercial entities may receive expedited licensing action approval to directly downlink raw remote sensing data within resolution and license terms. When determining the list described in paragraph (1), the Secretary shall consider nations where a valid export license can be obtained for space-related technology. The Secretary shall review the list described in paragraph
(1)once every 2 years and update as necessary. Not later than 3 months after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Commerce shall issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to revise regulations contained in part 960 of title 15, Code of Federal Regulations, in order to create different categories of remote sensing licenses, taking into consideration the national security concerns of the United States as well as— the type of entity applying for a license, such as an academic institution or commercial entity; the intended purpose of the license, such as conducting research or developing operational constellations; and whether the license is intended to be used for a one-time payload. Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall revise the regulations described in paragraph
(1)pursuant to such paragraph.