A senator and member of the Senate Appropriations Committee’s science subcommittee wants the U.S. government to ensure that any hosted payloads hitching rides on commercial satellites are subject to “launch America” requirements.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) sent an Aug. 23 letter to Vice President Mike Pence requesting that the National Space Transportation Policy that calls on NASA and the Defense Department to use U.S.-built space transportation vehicles “to the maximum extent possible” remove an exemption for hosted payloads. Pence serves as the chairman of the National Space Council. 
The policy included a stipulation that agencies must purchase domestic launch services for government-owned satellites, unless the agency was granted a waiver by the National Security Adviser and the Assistant to the President for Science and Technology and Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy. However, the waiver didn’t apply to hosted payloads, Rubio noted in the letter.
“When the NSTP was published in November 2013, it included an exemption for hosted payloads because the United States had no meaningful participation in the global commercial launch market at the time,” Rubio said.
Now that U.S. businesses have begun carrying government missions to space again, “I urge you to direct United States Government agencies who intend to place hosted payloads on commercial spacecraft to ensure the hosting satellites are launched on American rockets,” he continued.
Rubio is a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, serving on the subcommittee on justice, science and related agencies, as well as the military construction, veterans affairs and related agencies subcommittee.