United States Department of the Interior ae?

THE DEPUTY SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR 4
Washington, DC 20240

TAKE PRIDE”
INAMERICA
JAN 1 5 2008
MEMORANDUM
To: Senior Agency Officials for Geospatial Information

Federal Geographic Data Committee Steering Committee

From: P. Lynn Scarlett P 2 5a
Chair, Federal Geographic Data Committee Steering Committee
Deputy Secretary of the Interior

Subject: Next Phase of Geospatial Line of Business

The purpose of this memorandum is to provide an update on the Geospatial Line of Business
(LoB), to inform you about the implementation of the agreed-upon governance structure of the
LoB, and to request your continuing support as we move into the next phase of this important
initiative. 2

Since the initiation of the Geospatial LoB initiative in 2006, we have developed a set of common
solutions and a target architecture, conducted data collections to establish a baseline of geospatial
investments, and refined the goals and objectives of the LoB under three primary areas of focus:
Enhanced Governance, Planning and Investment Strategies, and Optimizing and Standardizing
Geospatial Data and Services. I am pleased that through the combined efforts of the agencies
participating in the LoB, we have achieved a high degree of consensus on goals and objectives of
the fiscal year 2009 Joint Business Case. The partner agencies have agreed upon a set of tasks
and deliverables for the coming year that will help us improve the management of Federal
geospatial resources.

As one of the integral components of the LoB program of work, we have recently established

a new Project Management Office function to support our efforts. In addition, Secretary
Kempthorne will soon complete the appointment of the members of the new National Geospatial
Advisory Committee, which will play an important role in providing external recommendations
and advice on Federal geospatial issues.

To date, we have implemented the LoB activities through an interagency task force that was
established in 2006. The task force, which was created as a short-term solution to initiate work
on the LoB, was never envisioned as a permanent body. With this memorandum, | would like
to inform you that we will be implementing the LoB governance structure described in the
Geospatial LoB Common Solutions and Target Architecture document. This will require us to


sunset the LoB Task Force and transfer the responsibility for interagency oversight of the
Geospatial LoB initiative to the FGDC Coordination Group. As you know, the Coordination
Group is a long-standing committee of agency geospatial managers that supports the work of
the FGDC Steering Committee and the Senior Agency Officials for Geospatial Information.
The Coordination Group is the logical body to assume the long-term responsibility for the
implementation of the LoB. As a part of this transition of responsibilities, we will review the
Coordination Group charter and other governing documents to determine whether additional
updates or modifications are necessary.

In addition, to facilitate the consideration of LoB recommendations and other interagency
proposals such as the Imagery for the Nation initiative, we are creating a new Executive
Committee of the FGDC Steering Committee. The Executive Committee will include the
SAOGIs from agencies with major geospatial responsibilities. A preliminary list of Executive
Committee members is attached. We will provide additional information on plans for the
Executive Committee at the upcoming FGDC Steering Committee meeting, which is scheduled
for January 29, 2008.

We have important work to accomplish through the LoB over the coming year and it is important
that all participating agencies remain fully engaged in FGDC and LoB activities. We have
established a set of workgroups to lead the implementation of the various LoB tasks, and we
need the continuing participation of your staff in these groups to achieve our common goals.
Your agency’s level of staff commitment will be dictated by the subject matter being addressed
by the various workgroups and will require your agency’s assessment to determine your level
participation. We will provide more detailed projections through the workgroup deliberations
and will need your representatives’ participation to accurately determine the support that is
needed.

In order to allow us to effectively coordinate with your agency, I would appreciate it if
you would confirm the designation of your primary and alternate members of the FGDC

Coordination Group to Ivan DeLoatch at (703) 648-5752 or ideloatch@usgs.gov by January 11,
2008.

Thank you for your ongoing participation in the Geospatial LoB and your support of our work
with the FGDC.

Attachment


Federal Geographic Data Committee
Proposed Executive Committee Membership

Department of Agriculture
*Chris S. Niedermayer, Associate Chief Information Officer, USDA

Chrisn@usda.gov
Phone: 202.690.2118

Department of Commerce
*Joseph Klimavicz, Chief Information Officer, NOAA

joseph.klimavicz@noaa.gov

Phone: 301.713.9600

Department of Defense

*Steven P. Wallach, Technical Executive, NGA
Steven.P.Wallach@NGA.mil

Phone: 703.735.2340

Department of Homeland Security
*Scott Charbo, Chief Information Officer, DHS
scott.charbo@dhs.gov

Phone:

Department of the Interior

Tim Petty, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Water and Science, DOI
Tim_petty@ios.doi.gov

Phone: 202.208.3136

Environmental Protection Agency
*Molly A. O'Neill, Chief Information Officer and Assistant Administrator for Environmental
Information, EPA

oneill.molly@epa.gov
Phone: 202.564.6665

National Aeronautics and Space Administration
*(NASA Senior Agency Official for Geospatial Information position vacant)