Dark and Quiet Skies Act of 2025
Analysis under review: This bill has generated analysis that may be too generic or incomplete. Clause-level evidence remains available below.
Summary
What This Bill Does
Creates a federally supported Center of Excellence for Dark and Quiet Skies to research, develop, and disseminate voluntary mitigation techniques that reduce satellite interference with astronomy and other sky-observing scientific research.
Who Benefits and How
Astronomers, observatories, and research institutions could benefit from federal support for interference mitigation, best-practice development, and related research.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Commerce would need to stand up the grant competition, coordinate with multiple agencies, oversee the center, and report annually to Congress.
Key Provisions
- States the Act's purpose of increasing collaboration on voluntary mitigation techniques for dark and quiet skies.
- Requires Commerce to award a competitive grant to establish a Center of Excellence for Dark and Quiet Skies.
- Authorizes $20 million for fiscal years 2026 through 2030 and requires annual congressional reporting on the center's effectiveness.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Creates a federally supported Center of Excellence for Dark and Quiet Skies to research, develop, and disseminate voluntary mitigation techniques that reduce satellite interference with astronomy and other sky-observing scientific research.
Key Policy Areas
Science & Space, Technology, Government Operations
Primary Purpose
Creates a federally supported Center of Excellence for Dark and Quiet Skies to research, develop, and disseminate voluntary mitigation techniques that reduce satellite interference with astronomy and other sky-observing scientific research.
Policy Domains
Main Provisions
Identified Gains
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation- Research institutions, observatories, and astronomers affected by satellite interference
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation
Identified Costs
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation- Commerce and partner agencies coordinating the center and reports
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeMr. Hickenlooper (for himself and Mr. Crapo) introduced the following …
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, …
Introduced in Senate
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Research institutions, observatories, and astronomers eligible to participate in or benefit from the center
Nonprofit organizations eligible to lead or participate in the center
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology