Commercial Remote Sensing Amendment Act of 2025
Latest action. Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
Commercial Remote Sensing Amendment Act of 2025
This bill makes certain changes related to the licensing of private remote sensing space systems. (Under current regulations, remote sensing refers to the collection of data by instruments in Earth's orbit, such as satellites, that can be processed into imagery of Earth's surface; private remote sensing space systems refer to remote sensing instruments not owned by the U.S. government.)
The bill decreases from 120 to 60 days the amount of time in which the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration must review and act on an application for a license to operate a private remote sensing space system.
Further, the bill expands annual reporting on the licensing of private remote sensing space systems to include a list of all applications, organized by tier, as well as the rationale for each tier categorization. (Currently, each license is categorized into one of three tiers based on whether the system produces or is capable of producing data that is already available from other entities). Additionally, the report must include all terms, conditions, or restrictions placed on licensees.
The bill also reinstates this annual reporting requirement, which expired on September 30, 2020, through September 30, 2030.
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Introduced in House" stage on February 13, 2025. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
4 steps remain before this bill could become law.
The record's latest action, on March 25, 2025: Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
- Clearing the committees it was referred to, and being scheduled for a floor vote
- Passage by the House
- Passage by the Senate
- The President's signature. If the President vetoes it, two-thirds of both chambers must vote to override.
How likely is it to become law?
Civibrief does not forecast outcomes and this page has no opinion about this one. What the record supports is a base rate, which is a fact about the whole pile, not a prediction about this measure.
In the 118th Congress (2023-24), 274 of the 16,565 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 1.7 percent. That count covers every measure at every stage, including the many that never left committee.
This one is not there yet: 4 steps are still outstanding, listed above.
Has anyone actually voted on it?
No. No roll call in this Congress cites this measure. That is the ordinary outcome: most measures never reach a recorded floor vote, and a committee ends most of them simply by not acting.
A vote is not the only thing that happens to a measure. Hearings, markups, and referrals are all recorded actions, and none of them is a vote of the full chamber.
Who is behind it?
Frank Lucas (R-OK) introduced it on February 13, 2025, and 1 member has since signed on as a cosponsor.
They are 1 Democrat.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
How long has it been in play?
It was introduced on February 13, 2025, 574 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 534 days ago, on March 25, 2025.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 119th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2027 dies when the term ends, and has to be introduced again from the start in the next Congress.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.
Vote history
- HouseIn committee, no floor vote yet
- SenateAwaits House passage
- PresidentAwaits both chambers