Agencies are encouraged to provide State and regional points of contact on home pages linked to the FGDC home page. Ms. Tosta noted that agencies will be better able to identify opportunities for cooperative efforts if they begin to shift from an organizational to a geographical perspective. The challenge will be to engage State and local resources in cooperative efforts to help implement regional or national programs. The goal is to foster a data sharing mentality that will lead to lower costs and better tools for decision makers. Ms. Tosta received concurrence from FGDC members that this would be appropriate.
Federal agencies are unsure of their roles.
Regional offices may not be aware of the requirements of the Executive Order for documenting data nor for searching the clearinghouse to determine the availability of data before initiating new data collection activities. Agencies are requested to take whatever steps necessary to ensure that all parts of their organizations are fully informed of their responsibilities under Executive Order 12906. Field organizations will be encouraged to begin working with or to continue to work with State and local groups to share data. OMB and congressional committees raise questions about GIS costs in agency budget requests. Agency personnel that handle these queries may not know to whom they should be referred, which sometimes results in submission of an inadequate response.