Senate committee delays consideration of bill to streamline FCC satellite licensing

WASHINGTON — A Senate committee has delayed consideration of a bill intended to expedite Federal Communications Commission reviews of satellite license applications amid concerns that the proposal may be too permissive.

The Senate Commerce Committee was scheduled to take up the Satellite and Telecommunications Streamlining Act, S. 3639, during a Feb. 3 session that also included several other bills and nominations.

The bill, introduced Jan. 14 by Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Peter Welch, D-Vt., would require the FCC to rule on applications for satellites and ground stations within one year. The FCC could extend the deadline only under “extraordinary circumstances” involving danger to life or property or national security, and any extension could not exceed 180 days.

The bill’s cosponsors argue the measure is needed to speed approval of new satellite systems.

“We have more rocket launches and satellite deployments today than ever before,” Cruz said in a statement Jan. 14 announcing the bill. “However, innovative companies that want to expand access to high-speed internet for Americans face an outdated regulatory process, leading to massive delays in the deployment of new satellite technologies.”

During the committee session, however, Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., raised concerns about a “deemed granted” provision that would automatically approve applications if the FCC failed to act by the deadline.

She cited a recent SpaceX application to deploy up to one million satellites for an orbital data center constellation, which includes few details about spacecraft characteristics or specific orbits. “Literally, the FCC could fail to take any action on this, and within one and a half years, one million satellites would be approved,” she said.

Cantwell, the committee’s ranking member, said she supports the development of new satellite constellations, noting that satellites for both Amazon Leo and SpaceX’s Starlink are built in her state.

“So, trust me, I want to build more satellites,” she said. “But we are talking about megaconstellations of thousands of satellites sharing spectrum with aviation, GPS, weather forecasting, emergency services and national security operations, and that is exactly the moment where we need to get this process right, not abandon it.”

Cruz, the committee’s chairman, said the provision is needed to address a backlog of applications and to maintain U.S. competitiveness with China, which has proposed very large satellite constellations, including two systems totaling nearly 200,000 satellites.

“Adversarial countries are launching their satellites regardless of anything we do, and if we are going to continue to lead in space and, in particular, to beat China, we need to be able to move with speed and be agile,” he said.

“Nothing in this proposal limits the FCC’s ability to deny an application,” Cruz added. “The FCC can say no to one satellite or a million satellites. All this is doing is speeding up the process, which is a commonsense step.”

Cruz noted that a previous House bill, also called the SAT Streamlining Act, which passed out of committee unanimously, included a similar “deemed granted” provision. However, that bill limited automatic approvals to ground station applications and minor modifications for geostationary orbit satellite licenses.

Cantwell said the provision could set a “bad precedent” for satellite systems. “I’m very anxious about a process, particularly with interference, that just says negligence by the FCC gets you your permits for a million satellites,” she said.

She offered an amendment to remove the “deemed granted” provision. However, the committee lacked a quorum and could not vote on either the amendment or advancing the bill to the full Senate. Cruz said he would seek to reschedule the markup as soon as Feb. 4, but the committee has not announced a new date.

The bill has broad support from industry and policy groups.

“Standardizing the regulatory review process to prevent unnecessary licensing delays will help ensure continued American innovation, industry investment and U.S. leadership in the global space economy,” Tom Stroup, president of the Satellite Industry Association, said in a statement after the bill’s introduction.

“Our current regulatory system for space is disjointed and overly burdensome, which makes it challenging for the innovative commercial space sector to out-innovate China,” said Mary Guenther, head of space policy at the Progressive Policy Institute. “This bipartisan bill would take an important step toward simplifying the regulatory environment for the space industry and helping the United States remain the leader in space, which benefits all Americans.”

The lack of a quorum also stalled consideration of another space-related measure. The ORBITS Act, introduced last May by Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., and several other senators, would support development of active debris removal services by identifying debris for remediation and authorizing a debris removal demonstration project. The bill also directs updates to U.S. government debris mitigation standards and development of standard practices for space traffic coordination.