[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3823 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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118th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 3823

  To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to treat spaceports like 
          airports for purposes of exempt facility bond rules.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           February 28, 2024

 Mr. Rubio (for himself and Mr. Lujan) introduced the following bill; 
     which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to treat spaceports like 
          airports for purposes of exempt facility bond rules.

    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 ``Secure U.S. Leadership in Space Act 
of 2024''.

SEC. 2. SPACEPORTS ARE TREATED LIKE AIRPORTS UNDER EXEMPT FACILITY BOND 
              RULES.

    (a) In General.--Section 142(a)(1) of the Internal Revenue Code of 
1986 is amended to read as follows:
            ``(1) airports and spaceports,''.
    (b) Treatment of Ground Leases.--Section 142(b)(1) of such Code is 
amended by adding at the end the following new subparagraph:
                    ``(C) Special rule for spaceport ground leases.--
                For purposes of subparagraph (A), spaceport property 
                located on land leased by a governmental unit from the 
                United States shall not fail to be treated as owned by 
                a governmental unit if the requirements of this 
                paragraph are met by the lease and any subleases of the 
                property.''.
    (c) Definition of Spaceport.--Section 142 of such Code is amended 
by adding at the end the following new subsection:
    ``(p) Spaceport.--
            ``(1) In general.--For purposes of subsection (a)(1), the 
        term `spaceport' means any facility located at or in close 
        proximity to a launch site or reentry site used for--
                    ``(A) manufacturing, assembling, or repairing 
                spacecraft, space cargo, other facilities described in 
                this paragraph, or any component of the foregoing,
                    ``(B) flight control operations,
                    ``(C) providing launch services and reentry 
                services, or
                    ``(D) transferring crew, spaceflight participants, 
                or space cargo to or from spacecraft.
            ``(2) Additional terms.--For purposes of paragraph (1)--
                    ``(A) Space cargo.--The term `space cargo' includes 
                satellites, scientific experiments, other property 
                transported into space, and any other type of payload, 
                whether or not such property returns from space.
                    ``(B) Spacecraft.--The term `spacecraft' means a 
                launch vehicle or a reentry vehicle.
                    ``(C) Other terms.--The terms `launch', `launch 
                site', `crew', `space flight participant', `launch 
                services', `launch vehicle', `payload', `reenter', 
                `reentry services', `reentry site', a `reentry vehicle' 
                shall have the respective meanings given to such terms 
                by section 50902 of title 51, United States Code (as in 
                effect on the date of enactment of this subsection).
            ``(3) Public use requirement.--Notwithstanding any other 
        provision of law, a facility shall not be required to be 
        available for use by the general public to be treated as a 
        spaceport for purposes of this section.
            ``(4) Manufacturing facilities and industrial parks 
        allowed.--With respect to spaceports, subsection (c)(2)(E) 
        shall not apply to spaceport porperty described in paragraph 
        (1)(A).''.
    (d) Exception From Federally Guaranteed Bond Prohibition.--Section 
149(b)(3) of such Code is amended by adding at the end the following 
new subparagraph:
                    ``(F) Exception for spaceports.--A bond shall not 
                be treated as federally guaranteed merely because of 
                the payment of rent, user fees, or other charges by the 
                United States (or any agency or instrumentality 
                thereof) in exchange for the use of the spaceport by 
                the United States (or any agency or instrumentality 
                thereof).''.
    (e) Exclusion From State Ceiling.--Section 146(g) of such Code is 
amended by striking ``and'' at the end of paragraph (5), by striking 
the period and inserting ``, and'' at the end of paragraph (6), and by 
inserting after paragraph (6) the following new paragraph:
            ``(7) any exempt facility bond issued as part of an issue 
        95 percent or more of the net proceeds of which are to be used 
        to provide a spaceport (as defined in section 142).''.
    (f) Conforming Amendment.--The heading for section 142(c) of such 
Code is amended by inserting ``Spaceports,'' after ``Airports,''.
    (g) Effective Date.--The amendments made by this section shall 
apply to obligations issued after the date of the enactment of this 
Act.
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