From state capitols to the nation’s capital, Capitol Coverage tracks news and policies affecting the geospatial & mapping profession across the nation. This alert is an online publication available to MAPPS MEMBERS ONLY.

March 1st, 2005

MAPPS News

Federal Programs Conference, March 14-16 in Washington, DC – Some 100 MAPPS member firm principals from 56 firms in 20 states will be on Capitol Hill on March 16, visiting the offices of more than 100 members of the U.S. House and Senate advocating legislation and policies favorable to the private geospatial community during the MAPPS Federal Programs Conference. These MAPPS members will also receive briefings by a dozen major Federal agencies with some $4 billion in budgets that require contracting for private firms’ data and services, liaison committee meetings with major agencies such as NGA, NOAA, USGS, USACE, and DHS, and will participate in a special symposium on the role of geospatial technologies in emergency response. The Federal Programs Conference is the most important even on the annual MAPPS calendar. Don’t miss out. To register, go to: http://www.mapps.org/FederalProgramsConference.asp

Nominations Committee for MAPPS Board Elections – MAPPS President Ken Fleming is choosing individuals to serve on the 2005 Nominations Committee. The committee will be appointed at the Federal Programs Conference, March 14-16 in Washington, DC and will serve over the next 90 days to select candidates for election to the MAPPS Board of Directors. If you would like to serve on the Nominations Committee, please email your interest to kfleming@landairmap.com.

Member-Get-A-Member Contest – Late last year, MAPPS launched a Member-Get-A-Member contest to assist in recruiting new member firms to MAPPS. The first prize in the contest, which runs through May 1, is an all expenses paid trip to the MAPPS Summer Conference, July 16-21 in Asheville, NC. Currently there is a 7-way tie in the contest. See below the new firms which have joined MAPPS since the contest began, thanks to the existing members listed below who recruited them:

Contest Referrals Standings

(as of February 24, 2005)

New Member Firm Referred by

Axis GeoSpatial, LLC Kurt Allen

Cardinal Systems Richard Crouse

GeoSearch, Inc. Shawana Johnson

Pine Design Engineering Services Roger Crystal

Space Instruments Mary Potter

Spatial Data Integrations, Inc. Ken Fleming

Terra Image USA, LLC Clark Nelson

Aerial Photo Committee Releases ATC Slide Show - The MAPPS Aerial Photography Committee has developed a PowerPoint presentation for use by all MAPPS member firms to educate Air Traffic Control (ATC) on the unique requirements of aerial photo missions. MAPPS members can use the presentation for meetings with ATC in project areas to explain how aerial photo missions operate, why special clearances for flightlines are needed, and how aerial photo crew and ATC can work cooperatively. This presentation is an additional benefit of MAPPS membership and will soon be housed in a password protected “Members Only” section of the MAPPS web site. MAPPS members can access the presentation at: http://www.mapps.org/SupportingFiles/documents/Aerial_Photography_TSA_Briefing.ppt

Read the Committee Chairman's Letter to MAPPS Members Here.

Alternatively, you can also access the accompanying presentation notes here: http://www.mapps.org/SupportingFiles/documents/Presentation_Narrative.pdf

MAPPS Winter Meeting - More than 200 persons representing more than 80 MAPPS member firms gathered in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands on January 28 through February 1 for a very successful MAPPS Winter Meeting. To view the presentations, go to: http://www.mapps.org/MeetingProgram.asp

A busy 109^th Congress has already begun work, already passing class-action lawsuit reform and moving other legislation more quickly than many recent sessions. Here are some geospatial and mapping related bills already introduced.

H. R. 3 by Mr. Young of AK and 76 cosponsors, to authorize funds for Federal-aid highways, highway safety programs, and transit programs, and for other purposes. In this reauthorization of “TEA-21”, also known as the Highway bill, MAPPS is working to include provisions strengthening the requirement that states use QBS when spending Federal highway funds, and utilize the private sector for surveying, mapping and geospatial services.

H. R. 426 by Mr. UDALL of CO, to encourage the development and integrated use by the public and private sectors of remote sensing and other geospatial information. MAPPS opposes this bill in its present form and seeks to strike the use of public sector data and remove the bill’s section 8 study of private sector pricing.

H. R. 469 by Mr. KOLBE of AZ, to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to cooperate with the States on the border with Mexico and other appropriate entities in conducting a hydrogeologic characterization, mapping, and modeling program for priority transboundary aquifers.

S. 214 by Mr. BINGAMAN of NM (for himself, Mr. DOMENICI of NM, and Mr. KYL of AZ), to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to cooperate with the States on the border with Mexico and other appropriate entities in conducting a hydrogeologic characterization, mapping, and modeling program for priority transboundary aquifers.

H. R. 585 by Mr. RADANOVICH of CA, to require Federal land managers to support, and to communicate, coordinate, and cooperate with, designated gateway communities, to improve the ability of gateway communities to participate in Federal land management planning conducted by the Forest Service and agencies of the Department of the Interior, and to respond to the impacts of the public use of the Federal lands administered by these agencies.

State Legislation

Many state legislatures are currently in session, and others are very part time and have completed their 2005 session. Here are some geospatial and mapping related bills. MAPPS contracts with the firm MultiState Associates to track legislation in all 50 state legislatures. For more detailed information on state legislation affecting your firm, go to:

http://mapps:johnp99@www.multistate.com/MAPPS.nsf?opendatabase

Arkansas, H.B. 1178, concerns the Office of Information Technology appropriation for the 2005-2007 biennium. Section 5, Appropriation - Geographic Information System Office – Operations, appropriates, to the Office of Information Technology, to be payable from the Geographic Information Systems Fund, to carry out the duties, responsibilities and authority of the Arkansas State Land Information Board; to create, operate, and maintain GeoStor, the Arkansas Spatial Data Infrastructure and to create, update, maintain and disseminate framework spatial data of the Office of Information Technology Geographic Information System Office Operations for the biennial period ending June 30, 2007.

Maine, H.B. 564, the funds provided by this bond issue, in the amount of $ 6,000,000, will be used for the enhanced development of public geographic information through the Maine Library of Geographic Information for digitizing town parcel maps, for complete orthoimagery, for orthoimagery updates, for digitizing zoning and conservation and open space, for land cover and land use updates, for development of tracking applications, for data validation tools and for generic browser and viewer library portal upgrades.

New Jersey, A.B. 3807, creates a statewide first responder building mapping information system; appropriates $ 5 million to the Office of Information Technology. The purpose of this bill is to supply first responders with the public building mapping information necessary to evacuate a public building in the event of an emergency. The bill requires the Office of Information Technology to create a statewide first responder building mapping information system.

New York, S.B. 2359, creates the statewide first responder building mapping information system under the supervision of the Superintendent of the Division of the State Police.

Oregon, S.B. 562, directs Office of Emergency Management to develop and operate statewide first responder building mapping information system.

Virginia, S.B. 1306/H.B. 2863, provides for licensing of Photogrammetrists. This bill, which MAPPS supports and helped draft and introduce, clarifies that surveying, which in Virginia had long included activities to determine topography or contours, or to depict physical improvements, can be performed by persons licensed by the Board, which” may impose different licensure requirements for a limited area of the practice of land surveying for persons who determine topography, contours, or depiction of physical improvements utilizing photogrammetric methods or similar remote sensing technology”, through a grandfather process. These bills have passed the House and Senate and are on their way to the Governor.

Washington, H.B. 2010, authorizes a county real estate excise tax to fund a geographic information system.

Policy News

Ruling Finds Federal Prison Industries is NOT a Small Business

The Small Business Administration (SBA) has ruled that Federal Prison Industries (or FPI, which trades under the government corporation name of “UNICOR”), is not a small business for Federal procurement purposes. The ruling came in a formal size determination under SBA’s size standards. On February 3, 2005, in response to two protests filed by small business contractors challenging the award of a contract to UNICOR (Federal Prison Industries or "FPI") under the EPA's Recycling Electronics and Asset Disposition ("READ") solicitation, which was issued as a total small business set-aside, SBA made a formal size determination that UNICOR is other than small under the applicable size standard. UNICOR had contended that irrespective of its size, it is eligible to compete for small business set aside procurements because recent changes in the law and March 26, 2004 implementing rules in the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) now define small business set asides as including UNICOR. The SBA rejected UNICOR's argument and held that the requirements for agencies to include UNICOR in the solicitation process and consider a timely offer from UNICOR are not mandatory if the solicitation involves "acquiring services," as opposed to purchasing items listed on FPI's schedule. SBA held that "FPI may not participate in a competition with small businesses to provide services under a total small business set aside." UNICOR is not appealing the regional office decision. A discussion of Federal Prison Industry competition on National Pubic Radio (NPR) can be found at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4505313

Federal Regulations

In the Federal Register: February 22, 2005, the Department of Defense (DoD) Issued 
a proposed rule with request for comments on a plan to amend the Defense 
Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) to update text pertaining to the 
 acquisition of advisory and assistance services. This proposed rule is a result of  a 
 transformation initiative undertaken by DoD to dramatically change the 
purpose and content of the DFARS.To view and comment, go to: 
http://frwebgate1.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/waisgate.cgi?
WAISdocID=108074232213+2+2+0&WAISaction=retrieve