S. 1437 · 119th Congress

ASCEND Act

Introduced on Apr 10, 2025 by John W. Hickenlooper (D-CO). One cosponsor. Latest action (Dec 10, 2025): Held at the desk.

Stage
Passed one chamber
Introduced
Apr 10, 2025
Cosponsors
1
1 from the other party
Policy area
Science, Technology, Communications
Open in the Congress explorerCongress.govAlert me

Progress

The furthest stage the measure reached. Simple and concurrent resolutions do not go to the President.

  1. Introduced
  2. Reported by committee
  3. Passed one chamber
  4. 4Passed both chambers
  5. 5Sent to the President
  6. 6Became law

Official title

A bill to require the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to establish a program to identify, evaluate, acquire, and disseminate commercial Earth remote sensing data and imagery in order to satisfy the scientific, operational, and educational requirements of the Administration, and for other purposes.

Subjects

  • Congressional oversight
  • Earth sciences
  • Photography and imaging
  • Space flight and exploration
  • Spacecraft and satellites

Summary

By the Congressional Research Service (Passed Senate, Dec 9, 2025). Public domain.

Accessing Satellite Capabilities to Enable New Discoveries Act or the ASCEND Act

This bill provides statutory authority for the Commercial SmallSat Data Acquisition (CSDA) program run by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Through the CSDA program, NASA acquires remote sensing data and imagery from commercial satellites to support its Earth science research. (Remote sensing generally refers to the collection of data by instruments in Earth’s orbit, such as satellites, that can be processed into imagery of Earth’s surface.)

Under the bill, NASA may establish or modify end-use agreements to allow for broad use of data and imagery acquired under the program, including by individuals outside of NASA (e.g., other federal agencies). The terms of any data or imagery acquisition may not prevent the publication of such data or imagery for scientific purposes or the publication of information derived from it. To the extent practicable, NASA must acquire such data and imagery from U.S. vendors.

Sponsor and cosponsors

Cosponsors by party as of the day they signed on. Original cosponsors signed on the day of introduction.

John W. HickenlooperD-COSponsor

Republicans · 1

Roll calls

Recorded votes on the measure. Most measures move by voice vote or unanimous consent, which record no individual positions.

No recorded roll call on this measure: it moved by voice vote or unanimous consent, or has not reached the floor.

History

Every action as published, oldest first. Roll calls link to how each member voted.

  1. Apr 10, 2025Introduced in Senate
  2. Apr 10, 2025 · SenateRead twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
  3. Apr 30, 2025 · SenateCommittee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Ordered to be reported with an amendment in the nature of a substitute favorably.
  4. Sep 29, 2025Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Reported by Senator Cruz with an amendment in the nature of a substitute. With written report No. 119-68.
  5. Sep 29, 2025 · SenateCommittee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Reported by Senator Cruz with an amendment in the nature of a substitute. With written report No. 119-68.
  6. Sep 29, 2025 · SenatePlaced on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 173.
  7. Dec 9, 2025Passed/agreed to in Senate: Passed Senate with an amendment by Unanimous Consent.
  8. Dec 9, 2025 · SenatePassed Senate with an amendment by Unanimous Consent. (consideration: CR S8581; text: CR S8581)
  9. Dec 10, 2025 · HouseReceived in the House.
  10. Dec 10, 2025 · SenateMessage on Senate action sent to the House.
  11. Dec 10, 2025 · HouseHeld at the desk.

Committees

Committees and subcommittees the measure was referred to.

Agencies in its committees' jurisdiction

Analisa's mapping of committee jurisdiction to federal agencies; the bill may touch others, or none of these.

Who lobbied on it

Organizations whose lobbying reports (LD-2) name this measure. Spending is what they reported for those quarters on all issues, not on this measure alone.

  1. NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANIES5 reports
    $2.4M reported (all issues)
  2. Planet Labs PBC5 reports
    $1.7M reported (all issues)Federal contractor: PLANET LABS INC.AI match · 100%
  3. Aerospace Industries Association of America, Inc.4 reports
    $2.4M reported (all issues)
  4. VANTOR PARENT INC.3 reports
    $550K reported (all issues)
  5. Maxar Intelligence1 report
    $230K reported (all issues)
  6. Vantor Parent Inc (formerly reported as Maxar Intelligence)1 report
    $230K reported (all issues)

Reports filed in 2025, 2026.

Sources and method

Every figure on this page traces to these records.

  • Bill status: bills and resolutions, sponsors, actions, subjects and CRS summaries (U.S. Government Publishing Office (GovInfo), from Congress.gov (Library of Congress))GovInfo Bill Status bulk data (Congress.gov; summaries by the Congressional Research Service) · data current to Oct 8, 2026 · loaded Oct 8, 2026 · license: Public domain (U.S. Government work, 17 U.S.C. § 105)
  • Members of Congress, their terms, committees and identifiers (The @unitedstates project (from the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress, the House and the Senate))unitedstates/congress-legislators: legislators, committees and current committee membership · data current to Oct 3, 2026 · loaded Oct 3, 2026 · license: CC0 1.0 (public domain dedication)
  • House roll-call votes (Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives)Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives, roll-call vote records · data current to Oct 3, 2026 · loaded Oct 3, 2026 · license: Public domain (U.S. Government work, 17 U.S.C. § 105)
  • Senate roll-call votes and DW-NOMINATE scores (Voteview (UCLA Department of Political Science))Lewis, Jeffrey B., Keith Poole, Howard Rosenthal, Adam Boche, Aaron Rudkin, and Luke Sonnet (2026). Voteview: Congressional Roll-Call Votes Database. https://voteview.com/ · data current to Oct 3, 2026 · loaded Oct 3, 2026 · license: Free to use with the required citation
  • Lobbying disclosures (LD-1 registrations, LD-2 quarterly reports, LD-203 contribution reports) (Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives)Clerk of the House, Lobbying Disclosure Act filings (organizations only; lobbyists' names are not loaded) · data current to Oct 7, 2026 · loaded Oct 7, 2026 · license: Public domain (U.S. Government work, 17 U.S.C. § 105)
  • Positions are shown only where a roll call recorded them; voice votes and unanimous consent record none.
  • Money and votes are shown side by side; neither explains the other.