Ranking Member Lofgren Urges Appropriations Committee Leaders to Protect Railroad Valley
The Railroad Valley site is an area of public land in Nevada with specific surface characteristics that make it the only location in the US that can calibrate Earth-observing satellites critical to science, national security, and public safety
WASHINGTON, DC — This week, Ranking Member Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) sent a letter to Chairman Simpson and Ranking Member Pingree of the Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies. In the letter, Ranking Member Lofgren expresses her concern over the current form of H.R. 4821, the Department of Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2024, which includes a provision that would remove an Interior Department order currently in place that protects the Railroad Valley site from new activities that could disrupt the land surface and subsurface environment, and make it unusable for satellite calibration. The protection order at risk of being removed ensures that Earth-observing satellites critical to public safety, research, and national security can continue to use the unique characteristics of the Railroad Valley dry lakebed, or playa, for instrument calibration. Ranking Member Lofgren has also submitted an amendment to H.R. 4821 that would remove the harmful provision in the bill’s current form and protect the Railroad Valley site.
“We write to you to express our concern over Section 466 in H.R. 4821, the Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2024,” Ranking Member Lofgren wrote in the letter. “If enacted, this provision would prevent any FY2024 funds to ‘implement, administer, or enforce Public Land Order 7921 (relating to the withdrawal of public land for satellite calibration in Railroad Valley; Nye County; Nevada).’ We believe that enactment of this provision would have negative consequences for agencies and industries in the Science Committee jurisdiction, among other entities, because it would severely hinder the calibration processes essential to the operations of Earth-observing satellite systems by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the commercial remote sensing industry. We therefore strongly oppose this provision and urge you to remove it when this legislation comes to the House Floor.”
The Ranking Member continued, “We respectfully urge you to reconsider Sec. 466 of the Interior-Environment FY2024 bill and support its removal to ensure protection of the surface features of the Railroad Valley site for the continued calibration of Earth-observing satellite instrument data in the interest of scientific research, public safety, national security, and the U.S. economy.”
The letter can be found here.
Aerospace stakeholders have expressed their major concern over the provision in H.R. 4821 that would prevent the protection of the Railroad Valley site and its unique surface features for its essential use in satellite calibration. Read a letter from Aerospace Industries Association (AIA)—which represents over 320 aerospace organizations—strongly opposing any changes to the Railroad Valley site. Additional stakeholder letters are available below.
Stakeholder and government organization letters expressing concern over removing protection of the Railroad Valley site:
Aerospace Industries Association
Commercial Spaceflight Federation
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
United States Geological Survey
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