    [United States Statutes at Large, Volume 134, 116th Congress, 2nd Session]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    Public Law 116-223
    116th Congress

    An Act

    To require the Secretary of Commerce, acting through the Administrator
    of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, to establish a
    constituent-driven program to provide a digital information platform
    capable of efficiently integrating coastal data with decision-support
    tools, training, and best practices and to support collection of
    priority coastal geospatial data to inform and improve local, State,
    regional, and Federal capacities to manage the coastal region, and for
    other purposes. <>

    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''.
    SEC. 2. <>  FINDINGS.

    Congress makes the following findings:
    (1) The Digital Coast is a model approach for effective
    Federal partnerships with State and local government,
    nongovernmental organizations, and the private sector.
    (2) Access to current, accurate, uniform, and standards-
    based geospatial information, tools, and training to
    characterize the United States coastal region is critical for
    public safety and for the environment, infrastructure, and
    economy of the United States.
    (3) More than half of all people of the United States
    (153,000,000) currently live on or near a coast and an
    additional 12,000,000 are expected in the next decade.
    (4) Coastal counties in the United States average 300
    persons per square mile, compared with the national average of
    98.
    (5) 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.
    (6) Over half of the economic productivity of the United
    States is located within coastal regions.
    (7) Highly accurate, high-resolution remote sensing and
    other geospatial data play an increasingly important role in
    decision making and management of the coastal zone and economy,
    including for--
    (A) flood and coastal storm surge prediction;
    (B) hazard risk and vulnerability assessment;
    (C) emergency response and recovery planning;
    (D) community resilience to longer range coastal
    change;
    (E) local planning and permitting;

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    (F) habitat and ecosystem health assessments; and
    (G) landscape change detection.
    SEC. 3. <>  DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act:
    (1) Coastal region.--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.
    (2) Coastal state.--The term ``coastal State'' has the
    meaning given the term ``coastal state'' in section 304 of the
    Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972 (16 U.S.C. 1453).
    (3) Federal geographic data committee.--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.
    (4) Remote sensing and other geospatial.--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.
    (5) Secretary.--The term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary
    of Commerce, acting through the Administrator of the National
    Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
    SEC. 4. <>  ESTABLISHMENT OF THE DIGITAL
    COAST.

    (a) Establishment.--
    (1) In general.--The Secretary shall establish a program for
    the provision of an enabling platform that integrates geospatial
    data, decision-support tools, training, and best practices to
    address coastal management issues and needs. Under the program,
    the Secretary shall strive to enhance resilient communities,
    ecosystem values, and coastal economic growth and development by
    helping communities address their issues, needs, and challenges
    through cost-effective and participatory solutions.
    (2) Designation.--The program established under paragraph
    (1) shall be known as the ``Digital Coast'' (in this section
    referred to as the ``program'').

    (b) Program Requirements.--In carrying out the program, the
    Secretary shall ensure that the program provides data integration, tool
    development, training, documentation, dissemination, and archive by--
    (1) <>  making data and resulting
    integrated products developed under this section readily
    accessible via the Digital Coast internet website of the
    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the
    GeoPlatform.gov and data.gov internet websites, and such other
    information distribution technologies as the Secretary considers
    appropriate;
    (2) developing decision-support tools that use and display
    resulting integrated data and provide training on use of such
    tools;

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    (3) documenting such data to Federal Geographic Data
    Committee standards; and
    (4) archiving all raw data acquired under this Act at the
    appropriate National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data
    center or such other Federal data center as the Secretary
    considers appropriate.

    (c) <>  Coordination.--The Secretary shall
    coordinate the activities carried out under the program to optimize data
    collection, sharing, and integration, and to minimize duplication by--
    (1) consulting with coastal managers and decision makers
    concerning coastal issues, and sharing information and best
    practices, as the Secretary considers appropriate, with--
    (A) coastal States;
    (B) local governments; and
    (C) representatives of academia, the private sector,
    and nongovernmental organizations;
    (2) consulting with other Federal agencies, including
    interagency committees, on relevant Federal activities,
    including activities carried out 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.), the
    Integrated Coastal and Ocean Observation System Act of 2009 (33
    U.S.C. 3601 et seq.), and the Hydrographic Services Improvement
    Act of 1998 (33 U.S.C. 892 et seq.);
    (3) participating, pursuant to section 216 of the E-
    Government Act of 2002 (Public Law 107-347; 44 U.S.C. 3501
    note), in the establishment of such standards and common
    protocols as the Secretary considers 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;
    (4) 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 12906 of April 11, 1994 (59 Fed. Reg.
    17671), as amended by Executive Order 13286 of February 28, 2003
    (68 Fed. Reg. 10619); and
    (5) developing and maintaining a best practices document
    that sets out the best practices used by the Secretary in
    carrying out the program and providing such document to the
    United States Geological Survey, the Corps of Engineers, and
    other relevant Federal agencies.

    (d) Filling Needs and Gaps.--In carrying out the program, the
    Secretary shall--
    (1) maximize the use of remote sensing and other geospatial
    data collection activities conducted for other purposes and
    under other authorities;
    (2) focus on filling data needs and gaps for coastal
    management issues, including with respect to areas that, as of
    the date of the enactment of this Act, were underserved by
    coastal data and the areas of the Arctic that are under the
    jurisdiction of the United States;

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    (3) pursuant to the Ocean and Coastal Mapping Integration
    Act (33 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.), support continue improvement in
    existing efforts to coordinate the acquisition and integration
    of key data sets needed for coastal management and other
    purposes, including--
    (A) coastal elevation data;
    (B) land use and land cover data;
    (C) socioeconomic and human use data;
    (D) critical infrastructure data;
    (E) structures data;
    (F) living resources and habitat data;
    (G) cadastral data; and
    (H) aerial imagery; and
    (4) integrate the priority supporting data set forth under
    paragraph (3) with other available data for the benefit of the
    broadest measure of coastal resource management constituents and
    applications.

    (e) Financial Agreements and Contracts.--
    (1) In general.--In carrying out the program, the
    Secretary--
    (A) may enter into financial agreements to carry out
    the program, including--
    (i) support to non-Federal entities that
    participate in implementing the program; and
    (ii) grants, cooperative agreements,
    interagency agreements, contracts, or any other
    agreement on a reimbursable or non-reimbursable
    basis, with other Federal, tribal, State, and
    local governmental and nongovernmental entities;
    and
    (B) <>  may, to the maximum
    extent practicable, enter into such contracts with
    private sector entities for such products and services
    as the Secretary determines may be necessary to collect,
    process, and provide remote sensing and other geospatial
    data and products for purposes of the program.
    (2) Fees.--
    (A) Assessment and collection.--The Secretary may,
    to the extent provided in advance in appropriations
    Acts, assess and collect fees for the conduct of any
    training, workshop, or conference that advances the
    purposes of the program.
    (B) Amounts.--The amount of a fee under this
    paragraph may not exceed the sum of costs incurred, or
    expected to be incurred, by the Secretary as a direct
    result of the conduct of the training, workshop, or
    conference, including for subsistence expenses
    incidental to the training, workshop, or conference, as
    applicable.
    (C) Use of fees.--Amounts collected by the Secretary
    in the form of fees under this paragraph shall be
    available to the extent and in such amounts as are
    provided in advance in appropriations Acts for--
    (i) the costs incurred for conducting an
    activity described in subparagraph (A); or
    (ii) the expenses described in subparagraph
    (B).
    (3) Survey and mapping.--Contracts entered into under
    paragraph (1)(B) shall be considered ``surveying and mapping''
    services as such term is used in and as such contracts are

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    awarded by the Secretary in accordance with the selection
    procedures in chapter 11 of title 40, United States Code.

    (f) Ocean Economy.--The Secretary may establish publically available
    tools that track ocean and Great Lakes economy data for each coastal
    State.
    (g) Authorization of Appropriations.--There is authorized to be
    appropriated to the Secretary $4,000,000 for each fiscal year 2021
    through 2025 to carry out the program.

    Approved December 18, 2020.

    LEGISLATIVE HISTORY--S. 1069:
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    SENATE REPORTS: No. 116-234 (Comm. on Commerce, Science, and
    Transportation).
    CONGRESSIONAL RECORD, Vol. 166 (2020):
    Sept. 30, considered and passed Senate.
    Nov. 16, considered and passed House, amended.
    Dec. 2, Senate concurred in House amendment.