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Congressman Doug Lamborn (CO-05) is chairing a House Natural Resources subcommittee oversight hearing today in Colorado Springs at the Pikes Peak Regional Building.

To view the hearing live via the internet, click here.

The hearing,"Federal Geospatial Spending, Duplication and Land Inventory Management," will consider the following legislation:

H.R. 4233(Lamborn), To establish the National Geospatial Technology Administration within the United States Geological Survey to enhance the use of geospatial data, products, technology, and services, to increase the economy and efficiency of Federal geospatial activities, and for other purposes. "Map It Once, Use It Many Times Act"

H.R. 1620(Kind), To improve Federal land management, resource conservation, environmental protection, and use of Federal real property, by requiring the Secretary of the Interior to develop a multipurpose cadastre of Federal real property and identifying inaccurate, duplicate, and out-of-date Federal land inventories, and for other purposes. "Federal Land Asset Inventory Reform Act of 2011"

Excerpts from Congressman Lamborn’s opening statement:

Sometimes the agencies are mapping the same area not once but maybe two or three times over rather than sharing information or coordinating to make sure all the geospatial requirements to meet a group of agencies needs be collected in one survey contract.

In other instances agencies are acquiring equipment – such as planes, ships or computer equipment – instead of contracting with private sector companies that are set up to conduct state of the art geospatial surveys. 

In fact my state of Colorado is proud to be home to many outstanding geospatial and mapping companies and surveyors ready and willing to work with the federal government to meet their geospatial surveying requirements.

Using the private sector for this purpose leaves more resources for infrastructure projects such as highways, airports and addressing the maintenance backlog in our National Parks and other federal facilities.
 

To view entire opening statement, as prepared, click here.

WITNESSES AND TESTIMONY:

Panel I

Anu Mittal (H.R. 1620)
Director, Natural Resources and Environment Division
U.S. Government Accountability Office

Brian R. Raber
Vice President
Merrick & Company
(Truth in Testimony Form)

John M. Palatiello
Executive Director
MAPPS
(Truth in Testimony Form)

Leonard Gilroy (H.R. 1620)
Director of Government Reform
Reason Foundation
(Truth in Testimony Form)

Brian Myers (H.R. 4233)
Licensed Land Surveyor
National Society of Professional Surveyors
(Truth in Testimony Form)

Dr. Steve Jennings (H.R. 1620 and H.R. 4233)
Assoc. Prof. & Acting Chair, Dept. of Geography and Enviro. Studies
University of Colorado
(Truth in Testimony Form)

BACKGROUND:

The hearing will focus on the federal government’s mapping and geospatial management programs. The Oversight portion of the hearing will focus on federal data reliability and management. Advances in mapping technology and demands for mapping products have created greater demand in the federal government for geospatial services. However, the coordination between agencies often fails to produce the best information for the best price. Frequently, multiple federal agencies will request mapping of the same area at the same time, wasting federal resources, and taxpayer dollars.