President Donald Trump will reintroduce the National Space Council despite heavy lobbying to cut the panel from SpaceX, the aerospace company owned by his top adviser Elon Musk.
Politico reported on Friday that the White House is currently looking to staff the council, which, according to law, is chaired by the vice president and crafts federal policies involving space and coordinating with agencies whose portfolios include space policies.
The panel was previously revived by Trump during his first term and continued by former President Joe Biden. The council's last meeting took place near the end of Biden's term in 2023.
Reuters reported earlier this year that SpaceX's top lobbyist, Mat Dunn, was pushing the administration to terminate the policy panel, with Dunn reportedly calling it a "waste of time" in conversations with associates.
Audrey Schaffer, the former Director for Space Policy on the National Security Council in the Biden administration, wrote an opinion piece defending the National Space Council as being "key to whether the White House can effectively drive an ambitious space policy agenda that is part and parcel of the president's broader foreign policy and domestic policy agenda."
Wrote Schaffer: "Failing to quickly establish a clear and strong White House space policy structure risks slowing the significant progress made over the past decade in maintaining U.S. leadership in space exploration, unleashing the innovation of the U.S. commercial space sector and protecting and defending America's significant and growing interests in space."