Executive Order 12465 versus Legislation
The problem with becoming the “lead agency” to facilitate the “expendable launch vehicle” industry via Executive Order 12465 was that it gave DOT no authority other than a facilitation role. Already by the time the President was talking about privatizing expendable launch vehicles, visionaries were beginning to think beyond that concept to the day when there would be commercial vehicles carrying passengers into space.
The concern of Steve Koumanelis from the Department of State about the safety of the launch itself was valid. Ensuring the safety of a launch entailed being able to control or assure the safety of the most hazardous dimensions of the launch itself. Mr. Koumanelis’ approval was a go or no go for the launch without any controls over the launch process.
In addition, the other Agencies with approval authority for various components essential for launch (e.g. FCC for communications, or BATF for “range safety” explosive devices) were understandably uncomfortable with the launch because they could see that while an export license was required for the launch, the launch activity itself was not regulated. In other words, if no Agency was specifically responsible for ensuring the safety of the launch, there was added impetus for each Agency to go beyond its part to address the safety issue, resulting in many Agencies trying to do the same thing. A regulatory thicket resulted.
The problem was that the Administration did not feel legislation was necessary and was opposed to the legislation, i.e. the Commercial Space Launch Act, proposed and prepared by the House subcommittee staff. This put DOT in an extremely awkward position. Every time we visited the Hill staff, we were chastised and “beaten up” for not supporting the legislation. When Jenna Dorn was asked to come up to the Hill to testify on the commercial launch industry, she was raked over the coals by Congressional members who legitimately asked how it was possible to work without enabling legislation.
The problem was compounded by the fact that without legislation, Congress didn’t have to treat us as if we existed. That meant they didn’t have to approve funds for the Office of Commercial Space Transportation. In fact, they routinely asked where the funding for its staff was coming from. They had not voted funds for us; that meant that our funding was coming from other programs they had approved. If that were the case, then in their eyes, those other programs were being “shorted” of the resources Congress had approved for those programs.
Our first meeting with the Hill staff was not friendly and for good reason. DOT had not visited the Hill the entire time the lead agency role was being discussed within the Administration. The reason related to both the separation of powers and the fact that the Administration had not made up its mind as to which Agency would be designated “lead agency”. DOT was a team player, and we were not about to visit the Hill without Administration approval. Finally, after we got approval to visit the Hill to discuss the lead agency role, we told them we didn’t want legislation. The White House had decided no legislation was necessary and so we were prohibited from talking to the Hill staff about legislation.
So the Hill staff was understandably not happy with us. However, that was about to change because OCST found a way to get the White House to change its mind about legislation. Click here to learn how that happened.