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Commercial Remote Sensing Amendment Act of 2025

Floor Speech

Date: March 25, 2025
Location: Washington, DC

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Ms. LOFGREN. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 1325, the ``Commercial Remote Sensing Amendment Act of 2025.''

I would like to thank the gentleman from Oklahoma, Congressman Frank Lucas, who was former Chair of the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology where I serve as Ranking Member, for reintroducing this legislation. I am pleased to be an original cosponsor of this bill and continue working with Congressman Lucas with whom I collaborated on our Committee's bipartisan work.

H.R. 1325 is a no-nonsense, good government bill that amends existing statute to conform with updated regulatory guidelines. This legislation also directs reporting to Congress on commercial remote sensing licensing, which is carried out under statutory authority granted to the Department of Commerce. H.R. 1325 provides Congress with the necessary transparency to carry out ongoing oversight of the Department's implementation of its authority and regulatory responsibilities.

Ensuring that our U.S. commercial space-based remote sensing industry leads the world is not only important for our economy, it is essential for securing the power that space-based information has for our Nation--from natural disaster assessments and responses to precision agriculture and applied uses for national security. For example, commercial remote sensing images provide an important means of shining a light on the world's actions in a way that satellites designated for national security, or the intelligence community cannot. Commercial imagery of the advancement of Russia into Ukraine is but one example.

It is not surprising that several commercial remote sensing companies are in the Bay area of Northern California where my District is located. California is an incubator of space technology, and the Bay area and Silicon Valley are drivers of information technology innovation. Coupling commercial space-based remote sensing data with analytical tools and information technology is a force multiplier that augments and enables essential decision-support products.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues in the House to vote ``YEA'' on H.R. 1325, the ``Commercial Remote Sensing Amendment Act of 2025.''

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