MAPPS to Testify at Congressional Field Hearing on Federal Geospatial Spending

Reston, VA  - May 1, 2012 - MAPPS (www.mapps.org), the association of private geospatial firms, will testify before a Congressional oversight field hearing to advocate for greater coordination of the Federal government's geospatial activities, a coordinated effort to inventory the land the government owns, and a reduction of government duplication of and competition with the private geospatial profession.

John Palatiello, MAPPS Executive Director, will testify before the House Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources of the House Committee on Natural Resources. The hearing is on Thursday, May 3 at 9:00 AM (MT) at Pikes Peak Regional Building, 2880 International Circle, Colorado Springs, CO.

The hearing "Federal Geospatial Spending, Duplication and Land Inventory Management" will focus on the Federal government's reliance on geospatial data, a need to understand how much of the federal budget is spent on geospatial activities, and the amount of duplication that exists between agencies and the private sector. The hearing will concentrate on legislation introduced by Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO), H.R. 4233, Map It Once, Use It Many Times Act, a bill to enhance the use of gesoapatial data, products, and services and increase the efficiency of Federal geospatial activities. Witnesses will also testify on the H.R. 1620, Federal Land Assets Inventory Reform (FLAIR) Act, a bi-partisan bill to improve Federal land management by developing a multipurpose cadastre of Federal real property by eliminating duplicative and out of date land inventories.

MAPPS has advocated for the reorganization of Federal geospatial activities, including governance, strategic investment in data, structure, and defining the proper roles and responsibilities of various stakeholders, including government and the private sector.

In 2009, Palatiello testified at a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee on Energy and Natural Resources hearing stating "Bold, decisive action is needed to eliminate the extraordinary waste, duplication and inefficiency in the Federal government's geospatial activities, the lack of a strong partnerships in Federal agencies' relationship with State and Local government, and the insidious extent to which there continues to be unfair government competition with the private sector".

Joining Mr. Palatiello as witnesses will be Brian Raber, CMS, GLS, GISP, Vice President, Merrick & Company (Aurora, CO), a member of the MAPPS Board of Directors; Leonard Gilroy, Director of Government Reform at the Reason Foundation; Anu Mittal, Director, Natural and Environment Division, U.S. Government Accountability Office; Brian Myers, PLS,  Licensed Land Surveyor, on behalf of the National Society of Professional Surveyors (NSPS) and Dr. Steve Jennings, Associate Professor & Acting Chair, Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at the University of Colorado - Colorado Springs.

Following the hearing, the Colorado chapter of MAPPS, CO-MAPPS, will hold a quarterly membership meeting with Rep. Lamborn as the guest speaker. The chapter members will discuss topics involving the private geospatial community in the State. CO-MAPPS has been working with Governor John Hickenlooper's (D) administration on an economic development initiative focused on leveraging the significant concentration of geospatial firms in the state.

Formed in 1982, MAPPS is the only national association exclusively comprised of private firms in the remote sensing, spatial data and geographic information systems field in the United States. The MAPPS membership spans the entire spectrum of the geospatial community, including Member Firms engaged in satellite and airborne remote sensing, surveying, photogrammetry, aerial photography, LIDAR, hydrography, bathymetry, charting, aerial and satellite image processing, GPS, and GIS data collection and conversion services. MAPPS also includes Associate Member Firms, which are companies that provide hardware, software, products and services to the geospatial profession in the United States and other firms from around the world. Independent Consultant Members are sole proprietors engaged in consulting in or to the geospatial profession, or provides a consulting service of interest to the geospatial profession.

MAPPS provides its 160+ member firms opportunities for networking and developing business-to-business relationships, information sharing, education, public policy advocacy, market growth, and professional development and image enhancement.

For more information on MAPPS, please visit www.MAPPS.org.