MAPPS Advocates Private Sector Utilization at "Private Sector Jobs Now!" News Conference
Friday, January 15, 2010
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Posted by: Nick Palatiello
Washington, DC -"There
is a dangerous trend toward in-sourcing - building in-house government
capabilities at the expense of private sector jobs creation - in the geospatial
market," MAPPS Government Affairs Manager John "JB" Byrd said
today at a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington, DC.
"MAPPS
has documented examples of Federal agencies purchasing equipment to build their
own agency capacity to conduct what are considered commercial activities:
mapping, surveying, and charting. We're also seeing agencies bring
contracted geospatial and remote sensing services into the government for
performance by Federal employees. And we are witnessing state
transportation departments buying equipment, such as airplanes, digital cameras
and LIDAR systems and ground based mobile mapping systems that duplicate and
compete with the private sector," Byrd said.
The
news conference was organized by the Business Coalition for Fair Competition
(BCFC) to commemorate the 55th anniversary of the publication of Bureau of the
Budget Bulletin 55-4 (now OMB Circular A-76) by the Eisenhower Administration
on January 15, 1955. That policy stated: "The Federal government
will not start or carry on any commercial activity to provide a service or
product for its own use if such product or service can be procured from private
enterprise through ordinary business channels." "On this anniversary
of the Federal policy, it is critical that attention be paid to how poorly this
policy has been implemented and how devastating the consequences are in today's
economy," said Byrd.
Joining
Byrd at the news conference was: Grover Norquist, President of Americans for
Tax Reform (ATR); Tom Schatz, President of Citizens Against Government Waste
(CAGW); Pete Sepp, Vice President of Policy and Communications of the National
Taxpayers Union (NTU); Michael Hough, Director of Commerce, Insurance &
Economic Development Task Force, and Public Safety & Elections Task Force
of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC); Phil Kerpen, Director of
Policy for Americans for Prosperity (AFP); Mark Casso, President of the
Construction Industry Round Table (CIRT); and John Palatiello, President of the
Business Coalition for Fair Competition (BCFC). Palatiello is also Executive
Director of MAPPS.
Byrd
concluded, "MAPPS respectfully urges the federal government to rededicate
itself to Eisenhower's common sense policy. A robust, qualified and competent
private sector exists within the mapping profession and government at all
levels should utilize it, not duplicate or compete with it." About MAPPS
About
BCFC
BCFC (www.governmentcompetition.org), is
comprised of trade associations, businesses, and organizations dedicated to
free enterprise, relief from unfair government sponsored competition, and
smaller, more efficient government. BCFC is working to elevate the issue of
unfair government competition, promoting legislation and policies to grow the
economy through increased utilization of the private sector and the elimination
of government monopoly and subsidized performance of commercially available
goods and services.
About MAPPS 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 180+ 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.
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