[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 41 (Thursday, March 13, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E457]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                REMOTE SENSING APPLICATIONS ACT OF 2003

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. MARK UDALL

                              of colorado

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 13, 2003

  Mr. UDALL of Colorado. Mr. Speaker, today I am introducing the Remote 
Sensing Applications Act of 2003. I am very pleased that my colleague 
Representative Chip Pickering of Mississippi is joining me as an 
original cosponsor of this bill.
  I introduced this bill as H.R. 2426 in the 107th Congress, and the 
House--though not the Senate--passed it last year. I'm eager to work 
with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle in this Congress to see 
my legislation through to passage in both chambers.
  I introduced this bill in the 107th Congress mainly to address a real 
problem we have in Colorado, the problem of excess growth and sprawl. 
My goal was to point to a way to utilize the resources of the federal 
government to help foster wise community planning and management at the 
local level. As a member of the House Science Committee and the Space 
and Aeronautics Subcommittee, it made sense to me to look for ways to 
help communities grow in a smarter way through the use of technology.
  I have reintroduced the bill in this Congress because I still believe 
we need to do more to promote geospatial technology. Geospatial data 
from satellites can produce very accurate maps that show information 
about vegetation, wildlife habitat, flood plains, transportation 
corridors, soil types, and many other things.
  By giving state and local governments and communities greater access 
to geospatial data from commercial sources and federal agencies such as 
NASA, I believe that the federal government can help bring valuable--
and powerful--informational planning resources to the table.
  My bill would facilitate this transfer of information. The bill would 
establish in NASA a program of grants for competitively awarded pilot 
projects. The purpose would be to explore the integrated use of sources 
of remote sensing and other geospatial information to address state, 
local, regional, and tribal agency needs.
  State and local governments and communities can use geospatial 
information in a variety of applications--in such areas as urban land-
use planning, coastal zone management and erosion control, 
transportation corridors, environmental planning, and agricultural and 
forest management.
  But another potential application that has garnered much recent 
attention is the use of geospatial technology to bolster our homeland 
security.
  Emergency management has always been an important responsibility of 
state and local governments. But in the aftermath of the September 11 
terrorist attacks, the scope of this responsibility has broadened. 
Geospatial technology can help states and localities identify the 
location, nature, and scope of potential vulnerabilities and the impact 
of potential hazards, as well as how to respond to events and recover 
from them.
  Certainly it is important that we continue to add to our database of 
available geospatial information--more information is always better 
than less. But we also need to get maximum use of information we 
already have at hand. That is the need this bill would address.
  State and local officials are becoming more familiar with the uses of 
geospatial technology for various planning purposes. However, there is 
a need for federal agencies such as NASA, which has been pioneering the 
uses of satellite remote sensing technologies, to work with state and 
local organizations to demonstrate how remote sensing and other 
geospatial data can offer a cost effective planning and assessment 
tool.
  I'm pleased there was broad bipartisan cosponsorship of the bill in 
the last Congress and that it earned the endorsement of a number of 
important national organizations. These supporters of my bill 
understand the importance of targeting geospatial information at the 
places where it will have the greatest impact--the local and regional 
levels.
  The Remote Sensing Applications Act can help begin to bridge the gap 
between established and emerging technology solutions and the problems 
and challenges that state and local communities face regarding growth 
management, homeland security, forest fire management, and other 
issues.
  Mr. Speaker, this bill will be welcomed by states and localities 
nationwide. I look forward to working with Representative Pickering and 
other Members of the House, including my colleagues on the Science 
Committee, to move forward with this important initiative.

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