Comment: Flexible Staffing: A Tangible Near-Term Move for U.S. Space Regulation’s Unclear Future

Abstract

The recent rapid growth of the commercial spaceflight industry in the United States has strained the current piecemeal federal regulatory oversight of spaceflight activities. A bipartisan desire to overhaul different regulators’ scope of authority has therefore emerged among policymakers, though a split has also arisen along party lines over preferred approaches. However, political gridlock risks exposing the current regime to challenges, such as through the major questions doctrine. The combination of the consequent foreseeability of imminent change and the national significance of this industry counsels in favor of formalized interim steps that facilitate structural changes regardless of a final resolution’s details. This Comment thus proposes the codification of a relatively heightened emphasis on staffing flexibility across the space-regulating agencies for the purpose of expediting later agency reorganization.

Details

Publisher:
Stanford University Stanford, California
Citation(s):
  • Matthew R. Gaske, Comment: Flexible Staffing: A Tangible Near-Term Move for U.S. Space Regulation’s Unclear Future, 35 Stan. L. & Pol'y Rev. Online 10 (2024).
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