March 3, 2004

The Honorable Gail Norton
Secretary of the Interior
1849 C Street, NW
Washington, DC 20240
FAX (202) 208-5048

Dear Secretary Norton:

The Management Association for Private Photogrammetric Surveyors (MAPPS) is a national association of more than 170 private sector firms in photogrammetric mapping, remote sensing, and related geographic information systems (GIS) services.

MAPPS has recently learned there is a shortfall of more than $5 million in the Landsat program. This shortfall is due to plummeting sales of Landsat data since the failure last summer in the ETM+ sensor Scan Line Corrector. This issue was recently raised with you in a hearing on the FY’05 budget before a Senate Committee.

In the past, when shortfalls of this nature have occurred, the solution has often been to reprogram funds from other activities, including those within the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

I am writing to urge you not to consider such a reprogramming that would adversely affect the USGS’s Cooperative Topographic Mapping (CTM) Program generally and the Cartographic Services Contracts (CSC) in particular to help make up the $5 million Landsat shortfall. MAPPS strongly opposes any such reprogramming of funds from the CSC activity.

MAPPS member firms are engaged in surveying, photogrammetry, satellite and airborne remote sensing, aerial photography, hydrography, aerial and satellite image processing, GPS and GIS data collection and conversion services. MAPPS' primary objective is to develop strength and unity on matters affecting the interests of its member firms. All of the CSC prime contractors and most of their sub contractors are MAPPS members.

The Cartographic Services Contract is consistent with your 4-Cs vision for the Department and aligned with the President’s management objectives. The data produced in the CSC contracts helps to populate The National Map and Geospatial One Stop, which are leading E-Government initiatives in the President’s Management Agenda, and the contracting that occurs in CSC is a model for competitive sourcing, also a top item on the President’s Management Agenda.



Secretary Gail Norton
March 3, 2004
Page 2


The CSC is critical to the success of USGS’s mission of providing reliable scientific information to describe and understand the Earth; minimize loss of life and property from natural disasters; manage water, biological, energy and mineral resources; and enhance and protect our quality of life. The contract represents a strong and successful partnership between the private mapping sector and USGS. Over the past 10 years, much of the nation has been imaged or mapped under CSC, with the resulting information used to support critical public decision making for resource management, local and state planning, and emergency response during catastrophes, ranging from 9/11 to the fire storms throughout the Western United States last summer. Due to continued growth, development and other phenomena in our Nation, it is critical that USGS continues to keep that data current and accurate with regular updates.

The failure of the ETM+ Scan Line Corrector has made data captured by Landsat 7 virtually unusable to public and private users alike. As a result, data purchases have plunged and associated revenue has fallen precipitously. Reprogramming any funds from the CSC -- a program producing valuable information -- to support the creation of useless Landsat ETM+ data is both unacceptable and a waste of taxpayer’s dollars. We urge you to reconsider any such decision and to refrain from any other reprogramming of CSC funds.

The effective means of addressing the Landsat program shortfall is to focus on the source of the shortfall – the lack of buyers for ETM+ data. Rather than searching for other sources of funding, USGS should reduce Landsat Program costs by discontinuing the processing and distribution of ETM+ data.

We appreciate your consideration of our views on this important issue and would be pleased to meet with you to discuss it in further detail.

Sincerely,



John M. Palatiello
MAPPS Executive Director