Friday, January 9. 2009

COGO Sends Letter to Pelosi, Reid to Establish Geospatial Oversight Committee

In a press release issued today, the Coalition of Geospatial Organizations (COGO) sent a letter to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid asking them "to establish subcommittees in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate with jurisdiction over Federal geospatial activities."

COGO is comprised of 15 professional geospatial organizations and the letter was signed by Cy Smith, chairman, from NSGIC and the statewide GIS coordinator for the state of Oregon. The rationale for establishing congressional oversight is that activities are currently spread among 30 different subcommittees and geospatial technology is in use in over 40 federal agencies and COGO feels that there is a need for "effective structure for oversight and legislation over the increasing federal government activity in geospatial technologies," according to Smith.

The letter recommends that a subcommittee of the House Committee on Natural Resources and Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources "would be appropriate."

It seems like there may be other issues here at work...we'll look to find more information soon about other reasons for this letter. But, my perception is that someone or some organization had serious concerns about the distribution of federal funds for geospatial technology.

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I think that this is an excellent suggestion. As I have said on many occasions, both Federal and non-Federal geospatial activities have been significantly hampered by the lack of any central voice at the Federal level. This could be a significant step in the right direction.

The need for a central voice has also posed a major problem for the effective definition and execution of geospatial research activities within academia and in both the public and private sectors. Basic research has suffered from poorly defined goals and a lack of adequate, long-term funding. Applications-oriented research has also suffered, both inside and outside the Federal establishment, by the limited time horizons of many agencies.

These, and other related problems, could benefit from the proposed Congressional oversight.

#1 Duane Marble on 2009-01-09 13:28 (Reply)

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