The fiscal year 2013 National Defense Authorization Act would return authority to the President to determine appropriate export control requirements for commercial satellites and related technologies. The AIA is hoping for the passage of this Act, as it is designed to free the administration to treat commercial satellite technology like all other regulated technology and propose appropriate adjustments to requirements for export.  

"Even if you don’t factor in the threat of sequestration, our space industrial base faces an immediate 22 percent reduction in the national security space budget next year," AIA President and CEO Marion C. Blakey said in a statement.  "Ending this self-imposed burden on U.S. competitiveness in the global commercial satellite marketplace is critical to our national security and to ensuring the U.S. space industrial base stays second to none."