[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 90 (Monday, June 8, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3879-S3880]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

  SA 1846. Mr. WARNER submitted an amendment intended to be proposed to 
amendment SA 1463 proposed by Mr. McCain to the bill H.R. 1735, to 
authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2016 for military activities 
of the Department of Defense, for military construction, and for 
defense activities of the Department of Energy, to prescribe military 
personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for other purposes; which 
was ordered to lie on the table, as follows:

       At the end of subtitle A of title XVI, add the following:

[[Page S3880]]

     SEC. 1614. COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW OF POLICIES AND PRACTICES FOR 
                   PLANNING AND ACQUIRING SATELLITE SYSTEMS AND 
                   ARCHITECTURES.

       (a) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of the Congress 
     that--
       (1) consistent with National Space Policy issued on June 
     28, 2010, the United States Government should make maximum 
     use of mature commercial space capabilities and acquisition 
     practices for national security systems for which the 
     required performance can be met with commodity technology to 
     reduce acquisition timelines and costs, promote competition, 
     capitalize on the pace of commercial technology advances, and 
     avoid unnecessary government-unique investments;
       (2) investments by elements of the intelligence community 
     and the Department of Defense in technology development 
     utilizing a unique, dedicated industrial base should be 
     reserved for cases in which commercial commodity technology 
     does not exist or in which revolutionary technology is judged 
     to be achievable and worth the risk, cost, and time to 
     acquire;
       (3) satellite systems and architectures should be designed 
     in such a way that a number of elements common to multiple 
     spacecraft could be standardized, to reduce costs, simplify 
     execution, and preserve a competitive industrial base;
       (4) the entire overhead satellite architecture of the 
     United States, including programs funded by the Department of 
     Defense or by an element of the intelligence community, 
     commercial providers, and foreign partners, should be viewed 
     and treated as an integrated whole, not simply as a series of 
     independent and unrelated satellite systems;
       (5) deficiencies in, and improvements to, the current state 
     of the space systems architecture, and planning for the 
     future architecture, should receive priority personal 
     attention from the President, the senior national security 
     and scientific advisors to the President, the Director of 
     National Intelligence, the Secretary of Defense, and the 
     Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to ensure that 
     architecture planning--
       (A) meets the needs of the United States in peace time and 
     in war time;
       (B) responsibly stewards the taxpayers' dollars;
       (C) accurately takes into account cost and performance 
     tradeoffs;
       (D) meets realistic requirements;
       (E) produces and fosters excellence, innovation, and 
     competition;
       (F) aims to produce innovative satellite systems in less 
     than 5 years that are able to leverage common, standardized 
     design elements and commercially available technologies;
       (G) takes advantage of rapid advances in commercial 
     technology, innovation, and commercial-like acquisition 
     practices; and
       (H) fosters competition and a robust industrial base.
       (b) Strategy on the United States Overhead Satellite 
     Architecture.--
       (1) Requirement for strategy.--The Director of National 
     Intelligence, the Secretary of Defense, and the Chairman of 
     the Joint Chiefs of Staff shall develop a strategy, with 
     milestones and benchmarks, to ensure that there is a 
     comprehensive review of policies and practices for planning 
     and acquiring satellite systems and architectures, including 
     under programs of the Department of Defense, programs of 
     elements of the intelligence community, and programs carried 
     out by the commercial satellite industry, and taking into 
     account capabilities of foreign partners, to ensure that such 
     systems and architectures comport with the principles 
     expressed under subsection (a) and in the National Space 
     Policy.
       (2) Report on strategy.--Not later than 180 days after the 
     date of the enactment of this Act, the Director of National 
     Intelligence, the Secretary of Defense, and the Chairman of 
     the Joint Chiefs of Staff shall report to the congressional 
     defense committees, the Select Committee on Intelligence of 
     the Senate, and the Permanent Select Committee on 
     Intelligence of the House of Representatives on the strategy 
     required by paragraph (1).
                                 ______