By Dale Skran, National Blitz Coordinator
Sponsors: The August 2016 Home District Blitz was jointly sponsored by the National Space Society (NSS), Space Frontier Foundation (SFF), and the Alliance for Space Development (ASD).
Highlights:
- The Blitz team in Maryland obtained a picture of the team with Rep. Ruppersberger (above).
- There was a fierce battle between Illinois and Florida for blitz leadership, but Florida finished with five total visits, topping Illinois with three. Overall, a total of 20 visits were conducted spread over ten different states.
- The Senate Authorization sub-committee solicited input privately from ASD. ASD responded with a letter of comment jointly signed by NSS, SFF, and SEDS. This may be the first time that this has occurred, and it is certainly the first time in recent memory. It represents a real breakthrough for NSS in terms of DC influence.
- 25% of the members of the Senate Authorization Committee were visited.
- The combination of March Storm and the August Blitz appears to have had a significant effect on the Senate Authorization process, with the current version of the Senate “NASA Transition Act of 2016,” which was marked up by the Committee on 9/21/16, reflecting strong ISS “gapless” language and weaker but still significant support for space settlement.
Budget: No NSS, SFF, or ASD money was spent on the Blitz. All activities were of a volunteer nature.
Themes/Objectives: The two major themes of the 2016 Home District Blitz were:
- Moving into legislation calling for a gapless transition from the ISS to future commercial LEO stations (ASD developed draft text).
- Moving forward H.R.4752 (Space Exploration, Development, and Settlement Act) in both the House and the Senate.
