MSNBC’s Alan Boyle has a detailed update on the status of the bill formerly known as HR 3752: “formerly known” because the version that House and Senate negotiators compromised on now has a new designation, HR 5382. As of late Wednesday the bill appeared dead, at least in the eyes of the House Science Committee, but on Thursday the House Transportation Committee, which had raised objections to the compromise version of the bill, dropped their opposition and released the bill after being reassured that the legislation contained stronger safety provisions than the original version of HR 3752. However, one Congressman, Rep. James Oberstar (D-MN), the ranking Democrat on the transportation committee, still objects to the bill and could block any attempt to pass the bill by unanimous consent. In the words of Jim Berard, communications director for the transportation committee’s Democratic staff:
Congressman Oberstar believes that legislation puts into law a ‘tombstone mentality’… where we’re just going to stand by idly and wait until people die. That is something that he’s fought against in commercial airline regulation during his entire time in Congress.
If Oberstar can be persuaded otherwise, the bill could come up for approval as early as today. However, there are only a few days, at most, left in this lame-duck session for the bill to either pass or die.
The gentleman fron Minnesota is confused. What does commercial airline safety have to do with space tourism safety? Maybe there will be a correlation in twenty or thirty years. A more appropriate analog is private aircraft flights. Does anyone know how many people are killed in those flights each year. They will outweigh anything that happens in space tourism by at least ten or twentyfold or more.
Legislative Alert!
Its still alive and you can do something. So call Oberstar and DeFazio now.
Oberstar’s number is (202) 225-6211
DeFazio’s number is (202) 225-6416