The U.S. House of Representatives officially approved by unanimous consent a motion to go to conference to reconcile its version of the annual defense policy bill with the Senate’s.
Despite not formally going to conference yet, the so-called “Big Four”: House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry, ranking member Rep. Adam Smith, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain and ranking member Sen. Jack Reed met to discuss differences in the bills.
Thornberry has told reporters negotiators hope to resolve all major differences by the end of October, including negotiations to to flesh out is the Space Corps. The House desiring to create the new military branch dedicated to space by Jan 2019, while the Senate bill would explicitly prohibit its creation instead the appointment of a Chief Information Warfare Officer reporting directly to the Secretary of Defense with authority over space, cyberspace, and information programs.
“I don’t meant to be too dismal, but I’ve been in too many classified briefings,” Thornberry, told reporters Thursday. “As I look at what Russia and the Chinese are doing, we don’t have a lot of evolutionary time to sit and hope we kind of drift in the right direction. We are more dependent than anybody else on space.”
Source: The Hill / Spacepolicyonline /
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