“Of all people, it’s the ‘space warmongers’ doing the most to try to sustain the (space) environment,” one DoD official said.

“I see no reason why a satellite the size of a shoebox, with the life expectancy of a guinea pig, should be regulated the same way as a spacecraft the size of a school bus that will stay in orbit for centuries,” says FCC Chairman Ajit Pai.

Space Situational Awareness (SSA) and debris mitigation can be seen as just “another high-end data analytics problem,” says Kevin O’Connell, of the Commerce Department.

House appropriators rejected Trump’s plan to put satellite regulation under the Commerce Department and chide Secretary Wilbur Ross for his refusal to testify on the 2020 budget request.