HR 7339: To make revisions in title 51, United States Code, as necessary to keep the title current, and to make technical amendments to improve the United States Code.

HR 7339 in plain English: This bill makes technical and organizational revisions to Title 51 of the United States Code, which covers national and commercial space programs, to keep the law current and improve the legal code's accuracy. It restates existing law rather than creating new policy.

Stated purpose

This bill updates and reorganizes the section of federal law covering U.S. space programs (Title 51 of the U.S. Code) to keep it current, fix technical errors, and improve clarity, without changing the substance of existing law.

Key points

• Updates and consolidates existing space program law into Title 51 of the U.S. Code
• Requires the NASA Administrator to notify Congress for programs with development costs expected to exceed $200,000,000
• Makes technical corrections to improve the U.S. Code without changing underlying policy

Arguments supporters make

• Keeping the legal code accurate and up to date reduces confusion for agencies, courts, and businesses that rely on it.
• Fixing outdated language and drafting errors prevents unintended legal disputes or misinterpretations down the road.
• This is a housekeeping measure that makes no policy changes, so it is a low-risk way to improve the quality of federal law.

Arguments opponents make

• Even technical rewording can shift legal meaning in subtle ways that courts or agencies may interpret differently than intended, despite the bill's stated promise not to change existing law.
• Congressional time and resources spent on purely technical code revisions could instead address unresolved policy questions in space law that actually need legislative attention.
• Consolidating and reorganizing statutes can obscure the original legislative history that courts and practitioners depend on to understand congressional intent.

Tradeoffs

Cleaner, more consistent legal language makes the law easier to use and understand, but any rewording — even when intended as neutral — carries some risk of altering how courts or agencies apply the law in practice.

Current status in Congress: Passed House.

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