WASHINGTON — The House version of the fiscal 2026 Intelligence Act would restore funds cut by the White House for commercial imagery buys by the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), according to industry and congressional sources.
The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI), chaired by Rep. Rick Crawford, R.-Ariz., passed the intelligence policy bill on Sept. 10.
While the line item for NRO’s commercial spending, like the rest of the spysat agency’s budget is classified, it has previously been reported that NRO’s commercial budget hovers at about $400 million a year. Most of that goes to the Electro-Optical Commercial Layer, and the rest goes to study contracts for other types of remote sensing — such as synthetic aperture radar that can see through clouds — under the agency’s Strategic Commercial Enhancements Broad Agency Announcement program.
Two industry sources working on the issue said that the legislation fully supports the long-running Electro-Optical Commercial Layer program to buy imagery from satellites equipped with visible and infrared cameras. Congressional sources, while careful to avoid tripping over the classification line, concurred.
“In a bipartisan effort, HPSCI authorized funding for the Electro-Optical Commercial Layer program at a strong level that will send a significant demand signal to the commercial imagery industry. Commercial imagery purchases are critical to our national security and provide key support to both policymakers and warfighters,” a spokesperson for the committee said.
“Crucially, commercial imagery is not classified, so other parts of the U.S. Government can use it to support disaster relief efforts, for example, something our IC’s imagery analysts are allowed to do. This investment will continue to yield greater capacity and new, exciting capabilities. This committee remains committed to funding commercial imagery procurement at a level that meets the needs of policymakers and warfighters,” the spokesperson added.
The FY26 “passback” proposal by the Office of Management and Budget to chop an array of NRO funding for commercial intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance data generated vocal push back from the US remote sensing industry and market analysts, as well as some in Congress. Critics argued that the reductions would undercut national security and wreak economic havoc on the burgeoning sector.
Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., who has expressed concern about the proposed reductions, welcomed the move to restore funding. While not a member of the HPSCI, Moulton is a member of the House Armed Services subcommittee on strategic forces that oversees Pentagon space activities.
“OMB’s proposed cuts to commercial space-based sensing were shortsighted. But it is clear there is strong bipartisan support on the Hill for restoring this funding. America’s commercial space industry is a major competitive advantage, delivering speed, resilience, and innovation at a competitive price. By maximizing our use of commercial imaging, we can free up our most exquisite satellites to do more of the tasks that only they can perform,” he told Breaking Defense.
In addition, the HPSCI bill includes a new requirement for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to appoint a single official to oversee buying all commercially available information (CAI) for all the agencies making up the Intelligence Community (IC). These include all the military services, as well as the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA).
“After many months of oversight briefings and hearing from a variety of stakeholders, it became abundantly clear that an official was needed to oversee the acquisition and management of CAI by the IC elements. After an official is selected to oversee these responsibilities, the designated official is required to brief Congress annually for two years on the IC’s acquisition and management of CAI,” the HPSCI spokesperson said.
While the version of the Intelligence Act passed by the HPSCI’s Senate side equivalent does not contain a similar provision to create an IC-wide acquisition czar, it does instruct the NRO and NGA to create a joint program management office for commercial GEOINT data and services.
As neither the full House or Senate have passed the FY26 Intelligence Act, it remains unclear when the two sides will get together to hash out the differences. While there is no guarantee that the House language will stand, the industry sources said that there is strong bipartisan support by the IC policy committees on both sides of Capitol Hill for continuing, and even increasing, acquisition of commercial remote sensing for use by the intelligence agencies and allies.
That bipartisan support, one of the industry sources noted, also is echoed in the House and Senate Armed Services Committees that oversee the Defense Department.