“To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to treat spaceports like airports for purposes of exempt facility bond rules.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section amends the Internal Revenue Code to treat spaceports as exempt facilities eligible for tax-exempt private activity bonds under section 142(a)(1), alongside airports. Specifically, it (1) provides a special rule under section 142(b)(1) treating spaceport property on land leased from the United States by a governmental unit as owned by that unit if lease requirements are met; (2) defines a spaceport under new section 142(p) as a facility at or near a launch or reentry site (as defined in 51 U.S.C. §50902) used for manufacturing, assembling, or repairing spacecraft or space cargo, flight control operations, launch or reentry services, or transferring crew, spaceflight participants, or space cargo, with no general public use requirement and an exception from industrial park restrictions; (3) excepts spaceport bonds under section 149(b)(3) from the prohibition on federal guarantees based on U.S. government payments for spaceport use; and (4) excludes spaceport bonds from state private activity bond volume caps under section 146(g)(7). The amendments apply to obligations issued after enactment. (Thus, state and local governments may finance spaceport development with tax-exempt bonds exempt from volume limits, facilitating commercial space infrastructure akin to airport financing.)