A new bipartisan bill introduced in the House this week would designate US space systems as critical infrastructure, offering them protection from the Department of Homeland Security.
The Space Infrastructure Act seeks to codify in statute that space assets are so vital to the nation’s economy and security that their disruption would have a debilitating impact.
“We’ve come to understand the critical nature of what this infrastructure means for our national security, for our commerce, our economy; GPS, agriculture, financial transactions, all of those things that are essential to our way of life as we know it,” Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-CA), a co-sponsor of the bill, told Payload.
Playbook: The bill, which is spearheaded by Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA), would task the Department of Homeland Security to identify and mitigate threats facing everything from satellites and space vehicles, to ground infrastructure, production facilities, and digital architecture.
If it passes, the space sector would become the 17th designated as critical, joining the energy, financial services, transportation, and communications sectors, among others.
Will it pass? While Congress has had a hard time agreeing on the particulars of legislative actions in recent years, the bill’s bipartisan sponsors are hopeful the proposal will gain momentum.
“We might agree or disagree… when there’s a price tag on what’s entailed, and we might have a robust debate on what that means. But right now, in terms of the need to adopt this framework and move forward with this type of bill, it’s bipartisan,” Carbajal said.
