U.S. Congress Passes Risk-Sharing Bill on Commercial LaunchesQuoteOn January 1, The U.S. Congress extended for one year the government risk-sharing arrangement for commercial launch companies that had expired on December 31, 2012. The bill passed the House and Senate in the closing hours of the 112th Congress and it has been sent to the President for signature.
"The American launch industry has become a highly competitive and important sector, both in the orbital and suborbital markets," said Michael Lopez-Alegria, President of Commercial Spaceflight Federation (CSF). "I commend Congress' attention to this issue, as it will continue to support high-tech jobs in the launch industry and will allow the U.S. to compete in the international market."
QuoteThe bill, submitted as HR 6586, was originally intended to provide a two-year extension to commercial launch indemnification. However, the Senate replaced the House bill with a scaled back version of the Space Exploration Sustainability Act introduced last month by Sens. Bill Nelson (D-FL) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX). The House agreed unanimously to the new amended version making HR 6586 one of the last bills passed by the House in the 112th Congress. Although the bill provides only a one-year extension to commercial launch indemnification instead of the two initially presented, it includes an extension of NASA's waiver to provisions of the Iran North Korea Syria Nonproliferation Act (INKSNA) until 2020. Therefore, NASA will be allowed to continue to purchase goods and services from Russia for operating the International Space Station. Moreover, the amended bill also includes a "Sense of Congress" supporting the development of both the Space Launch System and Orion vehicles as well as commercial crew systems.
SOURCE:
http://www.spacesafetymagazine.com/2013/01/03/u-s-congress-passes-risk-sharing-bill-commercial-launches/
Firstly I would like to state to the editors of Space Safety Magazine that I only found your site today whilst on a holiday break, and in saying so if i have breached any of your Copyright rules or _more hopefully_ are happy to have your links here then please chime in as its a topic space watchers here missed the boat on so to speak
Right now I am posting this in Breaking News as all I read around the globe was the BS regarding The Fiscal Cliff... No need to say more on that as we all know money creation is Debt, Right ?
We need to check this article out a bit more for references to the Bill and what have you seeing it was passed around the same time as the dreaded Fiscal Cliff ;)