2020 Federal Agenda

Federal Agenda 2020 HUNTSVILLE/MADISON COUNTY CHAMBER, ALABAMA

TO THE MEMBERS OF THE ALABAMA CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION AND THEIR STAFF: We are grateful to the members of the Alabama congressional delegation for their leadership on the issues critical to our Nation’s defense and space policies, especially those affecting the Huntsville/Madison County region. With your support, our region continues to prosper as a science and technology powerhouse.

Our federally focused business community functions best with predictable and dependable funding for federal programs. We request that our members vigorously support efforts to pass appropriations bills in a timely manner, thus avoiding the implementation of a continuing resolution. We ask that congress support full funding for our Nation’s space exploration and defense department programs. We believe that implementing a responsible and transparent method of Congressionally directed appropriations, or earmarks, would restore the Constitutional “power of the purse,” bring more lawmakers to the negotiating table and make federal spending more responsive to the taxpayers’ needs.

The technological heart of Redstone Arsenal lies in the research labs in its Aviation and Missile Center (AvMC).

These labs (formerly known as AMRDEC when it was under the Army Materiel Command), are currently a part of the Army Futures Command’s (AFC) Combat Capabilities Developmental Command (CCDC). Employing nearly a quarter of the entire workforce of Redstone Arsenal, the people and facilities of the AvMC are at the forefront of innovation and prototype development for the Army and a number of other federal agencies. Approximately 84 percent of CCDC AvMC funding comes from reimbursable customers who have leveraged these government and industry investments in science and technology. Recent arbitrary restrictions on the AvMC’s ability to perform reimbursable work creates a very substantial threat to the region and threatens to diminish the technological prowess of this resource. The synergies of the existing weapons systems development science and technology infrastructure, capabilities, and resources resident at Redstone Arsenal should be fully utilized by – and available to – all federal customers and NOT duplicated elsewhere.

Huntsville/Madison County is proud of its proactive approach to infrastructure development. Average local commute times are a fraction of those in other peer cities. Continued burgeoning economic expansion however will challenge our existing infrastructure’s capacity and our ability to accommodate further growth. Investments now in key infrastructure including new and improved roads, upgraded air service and airport facilities, and enhanced workforce development will be critical. As the Congress prepares to consider legislation to address our national infrastructure needs, the Huntsville region has shovel-ready, worker-ready, high priority projects.

This Agenda summarizes the most critical federal issues facing our region. Additional information regarding these issues and a number of other important federal programs and issues that have significant local and national impact is included in an accompanying Issues Book.

THANK YOU FOR ALL THAT YOU DO ON OUR BEHALF, THE HUNTSVILLE/MADISON COUNTY CHAMBER

2020 FEDERAL AGENDA

U.S. Human Space Flight & Exploration Policy The Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) continues to generate significant economic impact to the state, region and nation. Programs managed and supported by the Center have national significance and represent the most technically-diverse portfolio of any NASA Center. MSFC has a recognized 60-year heritage leading complex engineering human-rated space transportation and propulsion systems, large space structures and systems, and scientific research to make human space exploration a reality. More than 6,000 jobs support the mission of MSFC, with 28,000 jobs and $4.5B economic impact statewide. As well as development of historically-significant space transportation systems, MSFC continues its decades-long legacy in high-impact Earth and Space Science research. Continued support of MSFC, its development/integration of large, complex human spaceflight hardware and science programs, and sustenance of its critical propulsion skills and expertise are crucial to the Huntsville region, Alabama, and the nation.

Requested Actions: PROGRAMMATIC ■ Ensure SLS funding at a level to complete development for inservice date no later than 2021 with core and upper stages in parallel, ultimately capable of delivering 130 MT to low-Earth orbit.

■ Support the transition of the SLS from a development program to a commercial exploration launch services model that will be managed by NASA’s MSFC to provide launch support (program management, payload integration and operations) to customers flying on SLS. This will lead to cost efficiencies and better enable the transition to a fixed price model.

■ Support and fund MSFC’s leadership role in the development of the Human Landing System.

■ Support and fund MSFC’s role as a leader of the Artemis Lunar Exploration Program Office in FY21. At a minimum, MSFC’s experience should result in designation as technical integration lead for Artemis.

■ Support and fund MSFC’s leadership role in design and development of crewed and related cargo planetary descent/ ascent vehicles (especially those with throttleable capability), next-generation propulsion systems, cryogenic fluid management, and in-space transportation systems.

■ Support and fund MSFC’s leadership role for advanced manufacturing, including the On-orbit Servicing, Assembly and Manufacturing (OSAM) initiative and in-situ resource utilization manufacturing.

■ Support and fund MSFC’s leadership role in design and development of nuclear-thermal propulsion systems, and stage for deep-space, long-duration exploration missions; support a goal of a flight demonstration by no later than 2026.

■ Ensure funding of the SLS Exploration Upper Stage at levels required to support the EM-3 flight no later than 2024.

■ Support a launch of SLS no less than once per year starting with EM-2 no later than 2023.

■ Encourage the fullest use of SLS as a national asset for crewed, science, and national security missions that can benefit from its unparalleled lift and payload capabilities – specifically, utilization of SLS for Europa or outer planet

page 1 missions, reducing time to achieve science return for these strategic science missions.

■ Ensure a leadership role for MSFC in development of longduration, deep-space habitation, including design and development of the entire system and advanced life support systems (including oxygen generation and water recovery).

■ Support continued funding of the ISS to realize full potential with utilization of MSFC ISS Payload Operations.

■ Support utilization of MSFC engineering and management expertise by commercial interests in their development of liquid and solid rocket propulsion systems, engines, motors, and space vehicles, ensuring the industry has vibrant and competitive suppliers.

■ Maintain and enhance MSFC’s critically important roles in Earth, Space, and Planetary Science research, applications, and missions such as the Lynx X-Ray Observatory, Europa Clipper and Lander, and Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV).

■ Support robust funding for NASA’s SERVIR and SPoRT Earth Science programs, providing data for agriculture and disaster mitigation.

■ Support continued funding for operation of NASA’s Fermi and Chandra Observatories, as well as research and analysis utilizing these national assets.

■ Support funding for the Imaging X-Ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE), competitively chosen to observe black holes, neutron stars, and pulsars.

■ Support a substantive role for MSFC and the University of Alabama Huntsville (UAH) in the National Space Weather Action Plan, including funding for the Parker Solar Probe’s SWEAP instrument.

INSTITUTIONAL ■ Request that Congress engage NASA to assess its Mission Support Future Architecture Program (MAP) to ensure that the current and planned consolidation efforts are not negatively impacting NASA’s ability to manage and execute its programs. This should include an assessment of the plan to consolidate contracts from a center to a corporate level, and its associated impact on institutional budgets and the small business community.

■ Sustain MSFC critical core technical capabilities by augmenting FY21 funding requested for the NASA Center Management and Operations activity within the Safety, Security, and Mission Services account.

U.S. Army’s Combat Capabilities Development Command (CCDC) Aviation and Missile Center (AvMC) The U.S. Army’s Combat Capabilities Development Command (CCDC) Aviation and Missile Center (AvMC) has been a cornerstone of research and development (R&D) on Redstone Arsenal for over 50 years. Since inception, the AvMC has evolved into a world-class organization employing thousands of engineers and scientists housed within laboratories and facilities exceeding 1.9M square feet. The Army has recognized AvMC more than any other Army R&D lab. As Redstone Arsenal has grown, so has the need for the valuable expertise and capabilities that reside within the Center. Approximately 84 percent of CCDC AvMC funding

2020 FEDERAL AGENDA comes from reimbursable customers who have leveraged these government and industry investments in science and technology.

These reimbursable customers include Intra-service [agreements within the Army], Intra-agency [agreements between Department of Defense (DoD) components], and Interagency [agreements between a DoD component and a federal agency].

National Impact: Because of their extensive capabilities, the nation has come to rely upon the Center as a crucial resource for solving engineering challenges. The Center’s lifecycle understanding of missile and aviation technologies, coupled with industry and government investments in supporting infrastructure, has enabled the rapid introduction of new technologies and capabilities to the battlefield such as the weaponization of the Predator and Grey Eagle UAVs. Key to maturing these technologies was CCDC AvMC, where experienced scientists and engineers, specialized laboratories, and repositories of proven models and performance data could be evaluated to determine maturity, applicability, and robustness of candidate technologies.

There are helicopters that would not be flying and missiles that would not be firing today without some of the unique articles developed by CCDC AvMC. Community Impact: Nearly a quarter of Redstone’s 42,000 employees, including more than 180 Huntsville companies, work in the AvMC’s three directorates. The Center and its cost-reimbursable model create a win-win scenario. Funding organizations gain access to unparalleled engineering expertise and facilities within AvMC that would otherwise be cost-prohibitive to duplicate on their own.

The Army and AvMC, in turn, receive funds that sustain the essential laboratories and engineering talent needed to propel Army Futures Command priorities. The financial impact to the north Alabama business community from policies that restrict reimbursable customer choice can be measured in hundreds of millions of dollars.

Requested Actions:

page 2 its focus to ensure the U.S. has both offensive and defensive capabilities to exceed and counter these evolving threats. The department’s sense of urgency, reflected in the 2018 National Defense Strategy, is demonstrated by numerous prototyping efforts to rapidly close hypersonic test and evaluation gaps and to rapidly develop, demonstrate, and ultimately field hypersonic capability for ground-, air-, and ship-launched long-range strike missions.

Similarly, the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) has responded to the National Defense Strategy prioritization with significant investment in bolstering the national Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS) to advance U.S. capability against hypersonic threats.

Community Impact: Key organizations leading hypersonic weapon system development, the Army Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office (RCCTO), and MDA are headquartered on Redstone Arsenal. Numerous Huntsville-based companies are actively involved in technology development efforts related to hypersonic materials, manufacturing capability, ground and flight test infrastructure improvements, program development, and technical and acquisition program support to DoD agencies overseeing hypersonic weapon system development and demonstration. These programs provide positive impact to the Huntsville community through the creation of new jobs related to the development, integration, and fielding of Hypersonic weapon systems. As a result, the Huntsville community is developing a sustained workforce in hypersonics with experience in modeling and simulation, ground test and evaluation, and manufacturing of complex high-performance systems which will provide future offensive and defensive capability to address the evolving adversarial hypersonic threat.

Requested Actions: ■ Fully fund Hypersonic Weapon System development, demonstration, and procurement to the FY21 President’s budget level in RDT&E, defense-wide for development of Hypersonic weapons.

■ Continue to support using CCDC AvMC to assess commercial and defense component and system-level prototyping innovations (6.2 and 6.3 funded technologies) prior to transition to a developmental program to reduce technology and programmatic transition risk.

■ Fully fund High Speed Systems Test (HSST) and Hypersonic Test and Evaluation Investment Program (HyTIP) to the FY21 President’s budget level, defense-wide for development of hypersonic ground and flight test infrastructure.

■ Provide CCDC AvMC program managers with the flexibility to effectively manage programs to react to mission, technology, or reimbursable customer requirements by aligning funding Program Element (PE) lines with the local executing organization.

Directed Energy Weapons

■ Ensure CCDC reimbursable policies provide Army reimbursable customers with the flexibility to select the most cost-effective provider of high value services and solutions.

■ Include language in the Defense Appropriation Bill to allow Army organizations to accept payment from other Army organizations (Intra-agency) and from other organizations (DoD components and federal agencies) when the work is aligned with Army core competencies and directly supports Army priorities, or provide derived benefits to the Army and to the CCDC.

Hypersonic Weapon System Development & Demonstration (Strike And Defense) National Impact: Due to the recent demonstrations of Hypersonic Strike Capabilities by near-peer adversaries, the DoD has intensified

Continued technological innovations in Directed Energy Weapons (DEW) are of increasing interest to the DoD, Department of Justice (DoJ), and Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Most notably, the development of solid-state High Energy Lasers (HEL), advances in High Power Microwaves (HPM) technologies, and advances in the size reduction of weapon system subsystems have transformed DEWs from “tomorrow to today.” HEL and HPM provide new and promising innovations that will keep the U.S. ahead of the power curve on the modern battlefield, whether against near-peer nations or in the fight against non-state actors.

This perspective is reinforced by the shift in the National Defense Strategy from counterterrorism to great-power competition with near-peer adversaries. DEWs provide the Warfighter with the ability to engage a target at the speed of light and produce scalable effects from temporary to permanent, thereby reducing the possibility of collateral damage. They also provide a relatively unlimited number of low-cost shots, constrained only by the fuel supply of the platform, which greatly reduce the logistics tail and associated cost.

National Impact: Hostile events witnessed throughout the world

2020 FEDERAL AGENDA display real-world threats around practically every corner. Just a few examples of such events include attacks on Saudi Arabian oil refineries, the presidential assassination attempt in Venezuela, and drone attacks at Heathrow Airport in London. With the proliferation of low-cost (yet capable) small UAS, the U.S. Government and Military requires a sophisticated system to identify, classify, and potentially destroy any threat with hostile intent. Threats are not limited to just UAS but also include Rocket, Artillery, and Mortars (RAM), rotaryand fixed-wing aircraft, and guided missiles. Senior leaders have expressed an urgent need to field efficient DEW systems to accurately counter these threats on foreign battlefields as well as on U.S. soil.

Community Impact: The Army and the Joint Services are leveraging commonalities in DEW initiatives to increase combat effectiveness and maximize resources for possible future Programs of Record.

As part of this focus, the Army has realigned DEW science and technology efforts in support of the Army’s modernization priorities.

The Huntsville-based Army RCCTO has been created with the mission to execute the strategy to deliver prototypes with residual combat capability to operational combat units beginning in FY22.

The RCCTO’s DEW focus is on two capability sets: Directed EnergyManeuver Short Range Air Defense (DE-MSHORAD) and Indirect Fire Protection Capability-High Energy Laser (IFPC-HEL). Additionally, RCCTO is exploring existing HPM solutions as part of the Indirect Fire Protection Capability-High Power Microwave (IFPC-HPM).

Requested Actions: ■ Increase funding to support additional procurement and fielding of DE-MSHORAD and IFPC-HEL. This assures the full fielding of the necessary combat capability to properly equip Army units with the tools to win on the battlefields of today and tomorrow.

■ Continue to fund and support the development of follow-on DEMSHORAD and IFPC-HEL configurations in order to capitalize on DEW emerging technologies and capabilities.

■ Continue to fund IFPC-HPM efforts in order to serve as a combat multiplier with other DEW capabilities already in Army combat formations.

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Increase Cap on Local Passenger Facility Charges (PFCs) Congress has not adjusted the $4.50 cap on PFCs since it set the cap in 2000. Since then, construction costs have risen more than 50 percent, severely eroding the purchasing power of the PFCs. Previous legislation, backed by Senator Susan Collins and Senator Jack Reed, would have increased the PFC cap to $8.50. This increase would restore the PFC’s lost purchasing power and allow airports to set their own levels based on locally determined needs to ensure the continued safety, security, and modernization of their facilities.

America’s airports need nearly $130 billion in infrastructure over the next five years in order to match increased passenger traffic, which has doubled since 2000 to approximately one billion annually.

Airports across the country and organizations like Airports Council International-North America and the American Association of Airport Executives have endorsed proposals asking Congress to eliminate the PFC cap entirely, or alternately, raise the cap and adjusting it periodically for construction cost inflation. The PFC is a user fee that fairly and directly funds infrastructure improvements at airports. The Huntsville International Airport terminal, now 30-50 years old, requires an immediate infrastructure investment in order to meet the increased flow of passengers and goods. As larger airports are able to adjust the PFC, they will forego entitlements (AIP) and thus more funds will be available in the small community discretionary fund for airports like HSV. Requested Action: ■ We urge Congress to support infrastructure legislation that would increase the federal cap on local Passenger Facility Charges from $4.50 to $8.50 for origin and destination passengers only, and to index for construction cost inflation.

At a time when there is increasing pressure to reduce federal spending, eliminating the PFC cap would provide airports with the self-help they need to finance and complete critical infrastructure projects without relying on scarce federal funds.

For more information, please contact: Mike Ward, CCE, IOM Senior Vice President, Government & Public Affairs Huntsville/Madison County Chamber 256-535-2030 mward@hsvchamber.org Amberly Kimbrough 225 CHURCH STREET NW, HUNTSVILLE, AL 35801 256-535-2000 HSVCHAMBER.ORG

Events Coordinator, Government & Public Affairs Huntsville/Madison County Chamber 256-535-2031 akimbrough@hsvchamber.org