The White House has proposed a “mission authorization” framework that would allow the Federal Aviation Administration to oversee asteroid mining, transportation of payloads to the lunar surface and other emerging commercial space missions, Space News reported Monday.

Jeff Foust writes the White House’s office of science and technology policy included the proposal in a report to Congress as part of its compliance with the Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act of 2015.

OSTP’s report is in response to industry concerns that such commercial space activities are not covered by the licensing system for commercial spacecraft and launches as mandated in the Outer Space Treaty of 1967.

“If the United States wants to be perceived as being compliant with the Outer Space Treaty, somebody has to authorize and oversee those operations,” said George Nield, associate administrator for commercial space transportation at FAA.

According to the report, the White House’s mission authorization measure does not aim to create a “comprehensive regulatory framework” for such “unprecedented” space activities.

Michael Watkins, director of the center for space research at the University of Texas in Austin, has been appointed as the new director of NASA‘s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.

“Dr. Watkins is no stranger to the NASA family,” NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a statement issued Tuesday.

Watkins has worked with JPL for more than 20 years aiding the Mars Curiosity Rover, Cassini, Mars Odyssey, GRAIL and GRACE missions.

“I am confident that he will do an excellent job as he begins a new chapter in the incredible legacy that [California Institute of Technology] and NASA have written together through JPL for generations,” Bolden said.

Watkins, who also serves as the Clare Cockrell Williams Centennial chair in engineering at UT Austin, will succeed the retiring Charles Elachi.

NASA JPL currently handles spacecraft, rovers/landers, instruments, airborne/ground and technology demonstration missions including the Jason 3, Disturbance Reduction System, Soil Moisture Active Passive, ISS-RapidScat and Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2.

Caltech manages JPL for NASA.

Sens. Mark Warner (D-Virginia) and Kelly Ayotte (R-New Hampshire) have introduced a bill that would eliminate or merge approximately 223 outdated or redundant reports that federal agencies produce for Congress.

The bill aims to build on Warner’s Government Performance and Results Modernization Act of 2010 that implemented efforts to dispose 53 reports deemed obsolete or duplicative by agencies, Warner’s office said Thursday.

“Too often, Congress requires federal agencies to produce reports that overlap with existing ones, or document programs that no longer exist, aren’t funded, and even programs that have never been funded,” noted Warner.

“American taxpayers deserve a government that doesn’t waste their tax dollars, which means focusing resources on delivering results, not writing reports that are no longer necessary,” Ayotte added.

NASA and the Commerce Department are examples of federal agencies that have been required to submit reports on certain unfunded programs, according to the statement issued by Warner’s office.

Warner’s office provided a list of the 223 government reports that the bill seeks to consolidate or eliminate.