Bill Posey: “I thank the majority leader for yielding. Mr. Chairman, earlier this morning, during debate, there have been a number of…”

“I thank the majority leader for yielding. Mr. Chairman, earlier this morning, during debate, there have been a number of letters--a litany of letters--by various organizations offered for the Record, so I thought it would be appropriate, in the interest of intellectual honesty, actually, to enter a couple of records myself. Let me read from one of them here: On May 13, 2015, the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology conducted a markup of four critical space-related bills. Among the bills considered was H.R. 1508, the Space Resource Exploration and Utilization Act of 2015. During the markup--I will leave the Member's name out--submitted a letter for the record from Joanne Gabrynowicz, a former professor of space law at the University of Mississippi. After reviewing the letter, we, the undersigned, feel it is important to clarify some errors in Ms. Gabrynowicz' interpretation of H.R. 1508 and to highlight some constructive elements of the bill. There is a duplicate bill in the Senate cosponsored by Senators Patty Murray and Marco Rubio. Our comments apply to both. The basic claims made in the letter rest on two issues: an allegation that the bill violates article II of the Outer Space Treaty and an allegation that the U.S. Government has no licensing regime in place for commercial space activities envisioned by the bill. Both statements are based on a misreading of the intent and words of the bill.…”