[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6475 Introduced in House (IH)]

112th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 6475

 To authorize the Secretary of Commerce, through the National Oceanic 
   and Atmospheric Administration, to establish a constituent-driven 
program that collects priority coastal geospatial data and supports an 
 information platform capable of efficiently integrating coastal data 
with decision support tools, training, and best practices to inform and 
 improve local, State, regional, and Federal capacities to manage the 
                            coastal region.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 20, 2012

Mr. Ruppersberger (for himself and Mr. Young of Alaska) introduced the 
    following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Natural 
                               Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To authorize the Secretary of Commerce, through the National Oceanic 
   and Atmospheric Administration, to establish a constituent-driven 
program that collects priority coastal geospatial data and supports an 
 information platform capable of efficiently integrating coastal data 
with decision support tools, training, and best practices to inform and 
 improve local, State, regional, and Federal capacities to manage the 
                            coastal region.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Digital Coast Act of 2012''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds that--
            (1) the lack of current, accurate, uniform, and standards-
        based geospatial information to characterize the United States 
        coastal region presents a significant liability to adequately 
        manage and maintain the Nation's--
                    (A) environment;
                    (B) infrastructure;
                    (C) economy; and
                    (D) public safety and homeland security;
            (2) more than half of all people of the United States (153 
        million) currently live on or near a coast and an additional 12 
        million are expected in the next decade;
            (3) coastal counties in the United States average 300 
        persons per square mile, compared with the national average of 
        98;
            (4) on a typical day, more than 1,540 permits for 
        construction of single-family homes are issued in coastal 
        counties, combined with other commercial, retail, and 
        institutional construction to support this population;
            (5) over half of the Nation's economic productivity is 
        located within coastal regions;
            (6) highly accurate, high-resolution remote sensing and 
        other geospatial data play an important role in management of 
        the coastal zone and economy, including for flood and coastal 
        storm surge prediction; hazard risk and vulnerability 
        assessment; emergency response and recovery planning; community 
        resilience to longer range climate change impacts; permitting 
        and zoning decisionmaking; habitat and ecosystem health 
        assessments; and landscape change detection; and
            (7) the Digital Coast is a model approach in effective 
        Federal partnerships with local and State government, 
        nongovernmental organizations, and the private sector.

SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act:
            (1) The term ``Digital Coast'' means a constituent-driven 
        effort led by the Secretary to provide an enabling platform 
        that integrates geospatial data, decision support tools, 
        training, and best practices to address coastal and emergency 
        management issues and needs. The Digital Coast strives to 
        sustain and enhance coastal economies and ecosystem services by 
        helping communities address their issues, needs, and challenges 
        through cost-effective and participatory solutions.
            (2) The term ``remote sensing and other geospatial'' means 
        collecting, storing, retrieving, or disseminating graphical or 
        digital data depicting natural or manmade physical features, 
        phenomena, or boundaries of the Earth and any information 
        related thereto, including surveys, maps, charts, satellite and 
        airborne remote sensing data, images, lidar, and services 
        performed by professionals such as surveyors, 
        photogrammetrists, hydrographers, geodesists, cartographers, 
        and other such services.
            (3) The term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary of Commerce, 
        acting through the Administrator of the National Oceanic and 
        Atmospheric Administration.
            (4) The term ``State''--
                    (A) means a State of the United States in, or 
                bordering on, the Atlantic, Pacific, or Arctic Ocean, 
                the Chesapeake Bay, the Gulf of Mexico, Long Island 
                Sound, or one or more of the Great Lakes; and
                    (B) includes Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin 
                Islands, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana 
                Islands, the Trust Territories of the Pacific Islands, 
                American Samoa, and any portion of a State that is 
                located within 100 kilometers of the Atlantic or 
                Pacific Ocean, the Chesapeake Bay, the Gulf of Mexico, 
                or the Great Lakes.
            (5) The term ``coastal region'' means the area of United 
        States waters extending inland from the shoreline to include 
        coastal watersheds and seaward to the territorial sea.
            (6) The term ``Federal Geographic Data Committee'' means 
        the interagency committee that promotes the coordinated 
        development, use, sharing, and dissemination of geospatial data 
        on a national basis.

SEC. 4. BUILDING THE DIGITAL COAST.

    (a) Establishment and Implementation.--
            (1) In general.--The Secretary shall establish and 
        implement the Digital Coast to collect the following priority 
        supporting data and integrate such data with other available 
        data for the benefit of the broadest measure of coastal 
        resource management constituents and applications:
                    (A) Coastal elevation data.
                    (B) Land use and land cover data.
                    (C) Benthic habitat and submerged aquatic 
                vegetation data.
                    (D) Parcels data.
                    (E) Planimetric data.
                    (F) Socioeconomic and human use data.
            (2) Focus on filling needs and gaps.--In implementing this 
        section, the Secretary shall--
                    (A) recognize that remote sensing and other 
                geospatial data acquisition for navigational and 
                positioning purposes is carried out through other 
                authorities and programs; and
                    (B) focus on filling data needs and gaps for 
                critical coastal management issues.
    (b) Data Integration, Tool Development, Training, Documentation, 
Dissemination, and Archive.--The Secretary shall--
            (1) make data and resulting integrated products developed 
        under this section readily accessible via the Digital Coast and 
        other related Internet technologies;
            (2) develop decision support tools that use and display 
        resulting integrated data and provide training on use of such 
        tools;
            (3) document such data to Federal Geographic Data Committee 
        standards; and
            (4) archive all raw data acquired under this Act at the 
        appropriate National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 
        data center or other appropriate Federal data center.
    (c) Coordination.--The Secretary shall coordinate the activities 
carried out pursuant to this Act to maximize data sharing and 
integration and minimize duplication by--
            (1) coordinating activities, when appropriate, with--
                    (A) other Federal efforts, including efforts under 
                the Ocean and Coastal Mapping Integration Act (33 
                U.S.C. 3501 et seq.), the Coastal Zone Management Act 
                of 1972 (16 U.S.C. 1451 et seq.), and the Integrated 
                Coastal and Ocean Observation System Act of 2009 (33 
                U.S.C. 3601 et seq.);
                    (B) coastal States and United States territories;
                    (C) local governments; and
                    (D) representatives of nongovernmental entities;
            (2) participating, pursuant to section 216 of Public Law 
        107-347 (44 U.S.C. 3501 note), in the establishment of such 
        standards and common protocols as are necessary to assure the 
        interoperability of remote sensing and other geospatial data 
        with all users of such information within--
                    (A) the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
                Administration;
                    (B) other Federal agencies;
                    (C) State and local government; and
                    (D) the private sector;
            (3) coordinating with, seeking assistance and cooperation 
        of, and providing liaison to the Federal Geographic Data 
        Committee pursuant to Office of Management and Budget Circular 
        A-16 and Executive Order No. 12906; and
            (4) providing for the utilization of contracts with the 
        private sector, to the maximum extent practicable, to provide 
        such products and services as are necessary to collect remote 
        sensing and other geospatial data; which contracts shall be 
        considered ``surveying and mapping'' services as such term is 
        used and as such contracts are awarded at the discretion of the 
        Secretary in accordance with the selection procedures in 
        chapter 11 of title 40, United States Code.

SEC. 5. COASTAL SERVICES CENTERS.

    (a) Establishment.--The Secretary shall establish, within the 
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Coastal Services 
Centers to facilitate the development of products and services that 
address the needs of local, State, and regional entities involved with 
coastal and ocean decisionmaking including those State coastal 
management and research reserves benefitting from this Act, and to lead 
development and maintenance of the Digital Coast.
    (b) Purpose.--The purpose of the Coastal Services Centers shall be 
to--
            (1) support the environmental, social, and economic well-
        being of the coast by linking people, information, and 
        technology;
            (2) identify and assess coastal and ocean management needs 
        and increase the capabilities and capacities of managers to 
        address them at the local, State, and regional levels;
            (3) manage the Digital Coast program to carry out the 
        intent of this Act;
            (4) convene and engage coastal managers and decisionmakers 
        in dialog concerning coastal issues and share information and 
        best practices across this audience; and
            (5) collaborate with various programs of the National 
        Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, other Federal agencies, 
        and nongovernmental entities to bring data, information, 
        services, and tools to the Nation's coastal and ocean 
        decisionmakers.
    (c) Financial Agreements.--To carry out this Act, including to 
provide program support to non-Federal entities that participate in 
implementing this Act, the Secretary--
            (1) may enter into financial agreements including grants, 
        cooperative agreements, interagency agreements, and contracts 
        with other Federal, tribal, State, and local governmental and 
        nongovernmental entities; and
            (2) may collect registration fees in support of training, 
        workshops, and conferences that advance the purposes of this 
        Act.

SEC. 6. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

    There is authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary $85,000,000 
for each of fiscal years 2013 through 2018 to carry out this Act.
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