Rep. Kendall’s bill to designate space as a transportation mode advances in House subcommittee

Rep. Kendall’s HB 335, which would recognize space as a formal state transportation mode and streamline some statutory oversight of spaceports, was reported favorably by the House Economic Infrastructure Subcommittee.

Kendall told the committee the bill ‘‘is focused on bringing Florida into the next gen of aerospace,’’ saying the legislation does three things: establish a ‘‘quintimodal’’ designation that recognizes space as a definitive mode of transportation; adjust certain membership and voting provisions related to Space Florida; and support spaceport autonomy for day‑to‑day management and master planning.

The measure, Kendall said, reflects questions and feedback her delegation gathered from federal partners. She cited four points she said came from NASA: ‘‘Kennedy Space Center is on federally owned property. … Space Florida is actually just a tenant on NASA federally owned property.’’ She added that ‘‘NASA is federally required to do their own master plans, missions operations, safety responsibility, federal property management, national security functions’’ that cannot be delegated to the state.

Committee members pressed Kendall on terminology and authority. Rep. Skidmore asked why the bill uses ‘‘quintimodal’’ instead of the more common ‘‘multimodal’’ and whether NASA treats space travel as transportation; Kendall said partners were ‘‘very receptive’’ to the quintimodal phrasing but she would consult co‑sponsors on possible language. When asked whether the state could require military or NASA facilities to adopt operational governance plans, Kendall said the state ‘‘can’t demand it,’’ but it could request copies of public documentation to aid partnership development.

Kendall offered an amendment, she said, following input from Space Florida. The amendment keeps the two ex officio Space Florida board members as nonvoting and adds an annual requirement that spaceports provide an itemized list of shovel‑ready projects to help promote economic development. She told members the changes reflected Space Florida’s preferences and that she and her cosponsors agreed to them.

Several committee members praised the outreach behind the bill and urged continued coordination with Space Florida as the measure moves forward. After brief debate the committee took a roll‑call vote and the bill was reported favorably. The committee also approved the Space Florida‑requested amendment by voice vote.

What happens next: HB 335 will move on from the subcommittee for further consideration in the House process.