II 

108TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 2151

To encourage the development and integrated use by the public and private 

sectors of remote sensing and other geospatial information, and for 

other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MARCH 1, 2004

Mr. JOHNSON introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred 

to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation 

A BILL

To encourage the development and integrated use by the 

public and private sectors of remote sensing and other 

geospatial information, and for other purposes.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Remote Sensing Appli5 cations Act of 2004’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 The Congress finds that—

8 (1) although urban land use planning, growth 

9 management, and other functions of State, local, re-
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1 gional, and tribal agencies are rightfully within their 

2 jurisdiction, the Federal Government can and should 

3 play an important role in the development and dem4 onstration of innovative techniques to improve com5 prehensive land use planning and growth manage6 ment; 

7 (2) the United States is making a major invest8 ment in acquiring remote sensing and other 

9 geospatial information from both governmental and 

10 commercial sources; 

11 (3) while much of the data is being acquired for 

12 scientific and national security purposes, it also can 

13 have important applications to help meet societal 

14 goals; 

15 (4) it has already been demonstrated that 

16 Landsat data and other earth observation data can 

17 be of enormous assistance to Federal, State, local, 

18 regional, and tribal agencies for urban land use 

19 planning, coastal zone management, natural and cul20 tural resource management, and disaster monitoring; 

21 (5) remote sensing, coupled with the emergence 

22 of geographic information systems and satellite23 based positioning information, offers the capability 

24 of developing important new applications of inte-
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1 grated sets of geospatial information to address soci2 etal needs; 

3 (6) the full range of applications of remote 

4 sensing and other forms of geospatial information to 

5 meeting public sector requirements has not been 

6 adequately explored or exploited; 

7 (7) the Land Remote Sensing Policy Act of 

8 1992, Presidential Decision Directive 23 of 1994, 

9 and the Commercial Space Act of 1998 all support 

10 and promote the development of United States com11 mercial remote sensing capabilities; 

12 (8) many State, local, regional, tribal, and Fed13 eral agencies are unaware of the utility of remote 

14 sensing and other geospatial information for meeting 

15 their needs, even when research has demonstrated 

16 the potential applications of that information; 

17 (9) even when aware of the utility of remote 

18 sensing and geospatial technologies in the area of 

19 wildland fire management to detect and monitor a 

20 wildland fire in real-time from the early stages of 

21 fire growth, many State, local, regional, and tribal 

22 agencies are hampered by a lack of overall strategy 

23 guiding interagency management of resources and 

24 technology, according to a September 2003 Govern25 ment Accounting Office report; 
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1 (10) remote sensing and other geospatial infor2 mation, especially when used in a coordinated ap3 proach, can be particularly useful to State, local, re4 gional, and tribal agencies in the area of urban plan5 ning, especially in their efforts to plan for and man6 age the impacts of growth, development, and sprawl, 

7 as well as in wildland fire management and environ8 mental impact and disaster relief planning and man9 agement; 

10 (11) the United States Geological Survey, in co11 ordination with other agencies, can play a unique 

12 role in demonstrating how data acquired for sci13 entific purposes, when combined with other data 

14 sources and processing capabilities, can be applied to 

15 assist State, local, regional, and tribal agencies and 

16 the private sector in decisionmaking in such areas as 

17 agriculture, weather forecasting, and forest manage18 ment; and 

19 (12) in addition, the United States Geological 

20 Survey, in conjunction with other agencies, can play 

21 a unique role in stimulating the development of the 

22 remote sensing and other geospatial information sec23 tor through pilot projects to demonstrate the value 

24 of integrating governmental and commercial remote 

25 sensing data with geographic information systems 
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1 and satellite-based positioning data to provide useful 

2 applications products.

3 SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 

4 In this Act—

5 (1) the term ‘‘Director’’ means the Director of 

6 the United States Geological Survey; 

7 (2) the term ‘‘geospatial information’’ means 

8 knowledge of the nature and distribution of physical 

9 and cultural features on the landscape based on 

10 analysis of data from airborne or spaceborne plat11 forms or other types and sources of data; and 

12 (3) the term ‘‘institution of higher education’’ 

13 has the meaning given that term in section 101(a) 

14 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 

15 1001(a)). 

16 SEC. 4. PILOT PROJECTS TO ENCOURAGE PUBLIC SECTOR 

17 APPLICATIONS. 

18 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Director shall establish a pro19 gram of grants for competitively awarded pilot projects to 

20 explore the integrated use of sources of remote sensing 

21 and other geospatial information to address State, local, 

22 regional, and tribal agency needs. 

23 (b) PREFERRED PROJECTS.—In awarding grants 

24 under this section, the Director shall give preference to 

25 projects that—
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1 (1) make use of existing public or commercial 

2 data sets; 

3 (2) integrate multiple sources of geospatial in4 formation, such as geographic information system 

5 data, satellite-provided positioning data, and re6 motely sensed data, in innovative ways; 

7 (3) include funds or in-kind contributions from 

8 non-Federal sources; 

9 (4) involve the participation of commercial enti10 ties that process raw or lightly processed data, often 

11 merging that data with other geospatial information, 

12 to create data products that have significant value 

13 added to the original data; and 

14 (5) taken together demonstrate as diverse a set 

15 of public sector applications as possible. 

16 (c) OPPORTUNITIES.—In carrying out this section, 

17 the Director shall seek opportunities to assist—

18 (1) in the development of commercial applica19 tions potentially available from the remote sensing 

20 industry; 

21 (2) State, local, regional, and tribal agencies in 

22 applying remote sensing and other geospatial infor23 mation technologies for growth management; and 

24 (3) State, local, regional, and tribal agencies in 

25 obtaining and utilizing satellite, aviation, and sensor 
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1 capabilities for wildland fire detection, analysis, and 

2 observation. 

3 (d) DURATION.—Assistance for a pilot project under 

4 subsection (a) shall be provided for a period not to exceed 

5 3 years. 

6 (e) REPORT.—Each recipient of a grant under sub7 section (a) shall transmit a report to the Director on the 

8 results of the pilot project within 180 days of the comple9 tion of that project. 

10 (f) WORKSHOP.—Each recipient of a grant under 

11 subsection (a) shall, not later than 180 days after the com12 pletion of the pilot project, conduct at least one workshop 

13 for potential users to disseminate the lessons learned from 

14 the pilot project as widely as feasible. 

15 (g) REGULATIONS.—The Director shall issue regula16 tions establishing application, selection, and implementa17 tion procedures for pilot projects, and guidelines for re18 ports and workshops required by this section. 

19 SEC. 5. PROGRAM EVALUATION. 

20 (a) ADVISORY COMMITTEE.—The Director shall es21 tablish an advisory committee, consisting of individuals 

22 with appropriate expertise in State, local, regional, and 

23 tribal agencies, the university research community, and 

24 the remote sensing and other geospatial information in25 dustry, to monitor the program established under section 
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1 4. The advisory committee shall consult with the Federal 

2 Geographic Data Committee and other appropriate indus3 try representatives and organizations. Notwithstanding 

4 section 14 of the Federal Advisory Committee Act, the ad5 visory committee established under this subsection shall 

6 remain in effect until the termination of the program 

7 under section 4. 

8 (b) EFFECTIVENESS EVALUATION.—Not later than 

9 December 31, 2008, the Director shall transmit to the 

10 Congress an evaluation of the effectiveness of the program 

11 established under section 4 in exploring and promoting the 

12 integrated use of sources of remote sensing and other 

13 geospatial information to address State, local, regional, 

14 and tribal agency needs. Such evaluation shall have been 

15 conducted by an independent entity. 

16 SEC. 6. DATA AVAILABILITY. 

17 The Director shall ensure that the results of each of 

18 the pilot projects completed under section 4 shall be re19 trievable through an electronic, Internet-accessible data20 base. 

21 SEC. 7. EDUCATION. 

22 The Director shall establish an educational outreach 

23 program to increase awareness at institutions of higher 

24 education and State, local, regional, and tribal agencies 
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1 of the potential applications of remote sensing and other 

2 geospatial information. 

3 SEC. 8. COST SENSITIVITY STUDY. 

4 The Director shall conduct a study of the effect of 

5 remote sensing imagery costs on potential State, local, re6 gional, and tribal agency applications. The study shall 

7 identify applications that are likely to be most affected by 

8 reductions in the cost of remote sensing imagery. Not later 

9 than 2 years after the date of the enactment of this Act, 

10 the Director shall transmit to the Congress the results of 

11 the study conducted under this section. 

12 SEC. 9. REPORT. 

13 Not later than 6 months after the date of enactment 

14 of this Act, the Director shall submit to the Congress a 

15 report on how agencies are implementing the rec16 ommendations contained in the September 2003 General 

17 Accounting Office report entitled ‘‘Geospatial Information: 

18 Technologies Hold Promise for Wildland Fire Manage19 ment, but Challenges Remain’’. 

20 SEC. 10. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 

21 There are authorized to be appropriated to the 

22 United States Geological Survey, $15,000,000 for each of 

23 the fiscal years 2005 through 2009 to carry out this Act.

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