[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 95 (Tuesday, June 23, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1534]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          EARMARK DECLARATION

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. CHRISTOPHER JOHN LEE

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 23, 2009

  Mr. LEE of New York. Madam Speaker, pursuant to the Republican 
Leadership standards on earmarks, I am submitting the following 
information regarding an earmark I received as part of the FY10 
Homeland Security Appropriations bill.
  Requesting Member: Congressman Christopher Lee (NY-26)
  Bill Number: H.R. 2892
  Account: Science & Technology--Research, Development, Acquisition, 
and Operations
  Legal Name of Requesting Entity: Rochester Institute of Technology
  Address of Requesting Entity: 30 Lomb Memorial Drive, Rochester, NY 
14623
  Description of Request: Provide an earmark of $500,000 for the Remote 
Sensing for Situational Awareness and Decision Support project, which 
will allow the Rochester Institute of Technology's (RIT) Chester F. 
Carlson Center for Imaging Science to create a Remote Sensing TestBed 
(RSTB) for Border Security and Disaster Management. This research will 
focus on remotely sensed data from an affected area delivered in real-
time or near real-time by using instruments and software developed at 
RIT.
  Of the total amount received, approximately $310,000 (or 62%) is for 
materials and flight services and approximately $190,000 (or 38%) is 
for personnel, including faculty, staff, and students. RIT is seeking 
additional funding from the New York Foundation for Science, Technology 
and Innovation (NYSTAR) and the NYS Department of Homeland Security.
  Timely and effective response to border incursions, disasters, or 
infrastructure failures requires situational awareness on the part of 
decision makers. The lack of such timely and useful geo-spatial data 
was a key aspect of the response to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina 
in 2005. Often the best source of situational awareness is remotely 
sensed data from the affected area delivered in real-time or near real-
time. Using instruments and software developed at RIT, they have 
deployed prototype airborne systems and successfully tested these 
systems to validate their capabilities in addressing these critical 
issues. The demonstrations to be conducted will process and display 
precision geo-referenced imagery to users in an operational setting, 
enable incident managers to command and view sensor information in a 
form that is intuitive and useful to decision makers, and deliver 
training to enable the deployment of these systems as part of their 
ongoing operations.

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