[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4917 Introduced in House (IH)]







110th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 4917

To formulate situation and decision analyses, and to select procedures 
 and systems, for deflecting and mitigating potentially hazardous near-
                             Earth objects.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           December 19, 2007

 Mr. Rohrabacher introduced the following bill; which was referred to 
                the Committee on Science and Technology

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To formulate situation and decision analyses, and to select procedures 
 and systems, for deflecting and mitigating potentially hazardous near-
                             Earth objects.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``NEO Preparedness Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds the following:
            (1) Asteroid and comet collisions rank as one of the most 
        costly natural disasters that can occur.
            (2) According to the October 2007 report to Congress by the 
        National Aeronautics and Space Administration (in this Act 
        referred to as ``NASA''), 140-meter-in-diameter asteroid 
        collision will generate the equivalent power of a 100 megaton 
        TNT explosion.
            (3) There are approximately 100,000 near-Earth objects 140 
        meters wide or larger.
            (4) The time needed to eliminate or mitigate the threat of 
        a collision of a potentially hazardous near-Earth object with 
        Earth is measured in decades.
            (5) Unlike earthquakes and hurricanes, asteroids and comets 
        can provide adequate collision information, enabling the United 
        States to include both asteroid- and comet-collision disaster 
        recovery and disaster avoidance in its public-safety structure.
            (6) Basic information is needed for technical and policy 
        decisionmaking for the United States to create a comprehensive 
        program in order to be ready to eliminate and mitigate the 
        serious and credible threats to humankind posed by potentially 
        hazardous near-Earth asteroids and comets.
            (7) As a first step to eliminate and to mitigate the risk 
        of such collisions, situation and decision-analysis processes, 
        as well as procedures and system resources, must be in place 
        well before a collision threat becomes known.
            (8) Without establishing such processes, procedures, and 
        resources, the full range of options to eliminate and to 
        mitigate the risk of such collisions is restricted or even 
        lost.
            (9) The public safety of the United States and the planet 
        requires the competence and expertise found in NASA to prepare 
        and to validate the potentially hazardous near-Earth object 
        deflection situation and decisionmaking analysis, as well as to 
        select systems and procedures, to prepare the United States for 
        readiness to avoid or to mitigate collisions with potentially 
        hazardous near-Earth objects.

SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

    As used in this Act--
            (1) ``potentially hazardous near-Earth object'' means an 
        asteroid or comet with a trajectory that passes less than 0.05 
        Astronomical Units from Earth's orbit;
            (2) ``Administrator'' means the Administrator of NASA;
            (3) ``adequate-warning'' refers to a time period starting 
        from the time that the near-Earth object is considered 
        potentially haradous to the predicted time of possible 
        collision, which allows the full range of readiness options to 
        be implemented;
            (4) ``short-warning'' refers to a time period that allows 
        only limited options to be implemented; and
            (5) ``comet'' means near-Earth or short-warning comets.

SEC. 4. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE OFFICE OF POTENTIALLY HARADOUS NEAR-EARTH 
              OBJECTS, IDENTIFICATION OF SITUATION- AND DECISION-
              ANALYSIS FACTORS, AND SELECTION OF PROCEDURES AND 
              SYSTEMS.

    (a) Establishment.--The Administrator shall establish the Office of 
Potentially Hazardous Near-Earth Object Preparedness (in this Act 
referred to as ``Office''). The purpose of the Office shall be to 
prepare the United States for readiness to avoid and to mitigate 
collisions with potentially hazardous near-Earth objects in 
collaboration with other Agencies through the identification of 
situation- and decision-analysis factors and selection of procedures 
and systems.
    (b) Identification of Situation- and Decision-Analysis Factors.--
The Office shall identify situation- and decision-analysis factors, in 
collaboration with other Agencies, by determining--
            (1) the needed objective technical and nontechnical 
        criteria upon which to analyze potentially hazardous near-Earth 
        object collision information and to base key threat 
        elimination-decisions and options;
            (2) the implications of such decisions and options;
            (3) the human skills needed to make key threat elimination-
        decisions and the preparation required for individuals making 
        such decisions;
            (4) the factors needed to formulate key techical and policy 
        questions involving such decisions;
            (5) methods for determining and sequencing the minimum 
        possible time periods needed to make such decisions;
            (6) a model deflection and mitigation decision logic flow, 
        including provisions for minimizing--
                    (A) human exposure,
                    (B) energy, cost, and time, and
                    (C) the risk of return of potentially hazardous 
                near-Earth objects; and
            (7) additional critical information needs, technological 
        developments, public confidence building initiatives, and any 
        other needs involving the threat of collisons of potentially 
        hazardous near-Earth objects with Earth.
    (c) Selection of Procedures and Systems.--The Office shall select 
procedures and systems by--
            (1) surveying the existing deflection proposals and 
        examining each proposal for critical elements including 
        capability, suitability, feasibility, cost, cost effectiveness, 
        required human and capital resources, and maturity of needed 
        key technologies;
            (2) with the results from subsection (a) and input from 
        other appropriate sources, performing an architectural tradeoff 
        assessment and selecting a set of deflection proposals as 
        primary procedures and systems that will provide the best 
        opportunities for deflection-preparation, taking into account 
        adequate- and short-warning collision timelines, as well as 
        relevant asteroid and comet characteristics;
            (3) for each selected primary procedure and system--
                    (A) identifying the best backup;
                    (B) defining the steps needed to realize immature 
                key technologies;
                    (C) developing preliminary models;
                    (D) performing a predicted results error-analysis 
                in order to confirm the characteristics described in 
                subsection (a);
                    (E) projecting time to readiness;
                    (F) formulating an implementation phase to achieve 
                full deflection readiness;
                    (G) establishing implementation timelines with 
                measurable interim goals, and steps to transfer the 
                procedure and system resources to the implementation 
                phase; and
                    (H) identifying the crucial policy decisions needed 
                for implemention; and
            (4) indicating possible coordination with other Agencies to 
        facilitate such activities.

SEC. 5. REPORTS.

    The Administrator shall submit to the Congress the following 
reports:
            (1) Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of 
        this Act, an interim report that summarizes a preliminary 
        result of the activities of the Office carried out under 
        sections 4(b) and 4(c)(1)-(2).
            (2) Not later than 2 years after the date of enactment of 
        this Act, a concluding report that summarizes all activities of 
        the Office carried out under section 4.

SEC. 6. NASA ADVISORY COUNSEL.

    The Administrator shall convene the NASA Advisory Council--
            (1) not later than 90 days after submitting the interim 
        report required by section 5(1), to provide the Administrator 
        with advice for the concluding report; and
            (2) not later than 90 days after submitting concluding 
        report required by section 5(2), to provide the Administrator 
        with advice for subsequent activities under section 4.
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