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SpatialNews.com Press Release
STIA President Fred Corle Testifies Before Congress
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WASHINGTON, D.C., June 24, 2004 -- Spatial Technologies Industry Association (STIA) President Fred Corle testified before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Technology, Information Policy, Intergovernmental Relations and the Census during a hearing on June 23rd to review major federal government geospatial programs and policies. The hearing was held at the request of Chairman Adam Putnam (FL-12) to follow up on progress made since the hearing that his subcommittee held on this issue during 2003. Congressman William Lacy Clay (MO-1) is the Ranking Member of the subcommittee.
Corle said, "I commend Chairman Putnam for demonstrating true leadership in holding this hearing. I applaud his vision for having Congress address this highly complex, and often overlooked, issue that is of great consequence to our nation. The business case for spatially enabling government and the completion of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure has never been stronger or more urgent."
STIA is committed to bringing together industry and government to achieve consensus that is mutually beneficial. For example, STIA's SPATIAL-TECH 2004 national policy symposium and exhibition will highlight the need to geospatially enable the homeland security enterprise across America. SPATIAL-TECH 2004 will be held September 26-29 in Orlando, Florida. Congressman Putnam will be among more than forty senior industry and government leaders speaking at SPATIAL-TECH 2004. For more information, view the web site for the symposium at http://www.ntpshow.com/spatialtech/.
Corle urged Congress and federal agencies to take ten priority actions to advance the use of commercial geospatial products and services to spatially enable all levels of government for homeland security, e-government, and other high priority national policy goals. STIA's recommendations for the federal government are:
Action 1. Establish a blue ribbon task force of experts from government, industry, academia, stakeholder groups, White House, and Congress to assess the progress made to date on spatially-enabling the government enterprise, and to recommend options for future policies.
Action 2. Adopt market-driven standards for spatial data and geographic information systems (GIS) software interoperability in a timely manner.
Action 3. Strengthen the management structure for geospatial programs by establishing a dedicated position in the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Office of Electronic Government responsible for administering and coordinating national geospatial policies and programs.
Action 4. Establish a business plan that includes a new grant federal funding program, possibly modeled on many aspects of the Federal-aid Highway Program, to form consistent, standards-based, and equitable partnerships with state, regional, local, and tribal government as well as the private sector to build and maintain a market-driven and sustainable National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) with integrated applications and systems that accomplish high priority functions of government such as homeland security and e-government.
Action 5. Develop a national strategy to achieve the level of geospatial preparedness required to address high priority homeland security threat scenarios identified by Congress and the White House. This strategy should also deal with all major hazards determined by state, regional, local, and tribal government as well as the private sector to endanger lives, property, and critical infrastructure.
Action 6. Support the development of reliable and consistent metrics and data about the geospatial enterprises in the federal government.
Action 7. Ensure that geospatial technologies and spatial data are well-defined and fully integrated in the OMB's Federal Enterprise Architecture.
Action 8. Partner with industry and public sector organizations to raise awareness about "best practices," performance-based business cases, and positive return-on-investment case studies for the use of commercial geospatial technologies and spatial data.
Action 9. More forcefully encourage federal agencies and federal grantees to make use of standards-based commercial geospatial products and services to the maximum extent feasible and appropriate.
Action 10: Empower the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, in conjunction with the Federal Geographic Data Committee Homeland Security Working Group, to take a lead role on issuing regulations and guidelines for spatial data security and access.
"It is my hope that STIA's recommendations will benefit the federal government, the integrated spatial technologies industry, and our entire nation," said Corle. Corle's full testimony can be viewed on STIA's web site at http://www.spatialtech.org.
About STIA
Founded in 1996, the Spatial Technologies Industry Association (STIA) is a private industry trade association with a membership of more than 60 leading companies providing products and services involving geographic information system (GIS) software, remote sensing, photogrammetry, database software, spatial data, the Global Positioning System (GPS), information technology systems integration, World Wide Web, communications, networking, and other location-based technologies. STIA is dedicated to identifying, articulating, and championing the interests of the evolving integrated spatial technologies industry. For more information, visit the STIA web site at http://www.spatialtech.org.
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