Senate Bill S724 Progress Report

05/11/03 00:00:00    

By Michael Mealling

p. (via ARSA News May 11, 2003) - Senate bill S724 is currently being reviewed by the Senate Judiciary Committee staff. While S724 has not yet passed the Senate, the House Judiciary Committee has taken a preliminary look at the bill. The staffs of both the House and Senate Judiciary Committees have had discussions on the bill. There will be changes made to the section of the bill listing prohibited payloads on rockets. Biological agents will be added to the list and the list of prohibited gas payloads will be clarified.

p. On May 9th, a meeting was held with Senator Enzi's staff and the Senate Judiciary Committee staff. The committee staff was sympathetic towards the plight of rocketeers and was willing to work on finding a solution to the problem. The letters and faxes have definitely been effective. It appears that both the Senate and House committees agree that the ATFE explosive storage requirements for APCP are an excessive burden and should be eliminated. The respective committee staffs are still uncertain about the remaining provisions of the bill with the House committee staff being the most uncertain. However, as more information is provided to the staffs, reservations on the bill seemed to be reduced. It is not surprising that the House committee would have the most reservations as the letter and fax campaign has not yet been directed towards the House. This is expected to change very soon.

p. You will notice that we have done an end run on the normal schedule by engaging the House Judiciary committee before the bill passes the Senate. The Senate and House staffs have had extensive discussions on the bill so that what is approved by the Senate should be approved by the House. This is to save time. Finally, Senator Enzi is going to request an extension of the May 24th permit deadline for rocketry as we work our way through the legislative process.