NSPS Spring Business Meeting Summary 15 Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon | www.plso.org NSPS SPRING BUSINESS MEETING SUMMARY The NSPS Spring Business Meeting was held in conjunction with the National Surveying, Mapping and Geospatial Conference during the week of March 14–18, 2016, in Washington DC at the Hilton in Crystal City, Virginia. e location worked well and we had a very successful and productive meeting. On Monday, the conference consisted of many general sessions along with the student competition and reception. On Tuesday, the conference contained agency briengs and a mock trial. e NSPS business meeting kicked o on Wednesday with Capitol Hill Day, in which members from NSPS and MAPPS brought issues to congress of mutual concern. We had four new issues to pursue this year, due in part to the success of seeing past issues move successfully through congress, as observed by our public aairs consultant John Palatiello and our lobbyist John Byrd. is year we had discussions on the following topics with our congressional representatives: Workforce Development, Private Sector Utilization, Flood Insurance Reform & Modernization Act, and Ocean & Coastal Mapping. MAPPS representative James Anspach and I teamed on behalf of PLSO, NSPS and MAPPS. We met with Congressman Greg Walden and his Legislative Assistant, Kirby Garrett. We also met with Legislative Assistants, Peter Narby, Erika Calderon and, Becca Ward from Senator Je Merkley’s oce; and Legislative Assistants, Malcom McGeary and Ben Widness, from Senator Ron Wyden’s oce; discussing the four legislative issues. In particular, workforce development is a new topic of interest for our directors and the congress in general. Congressional sta appeared to be well aware of the topic and the State of Virginia, through its director Dave Holland, brought a motion forward suggesting NSPS be part of the discussion regarding where our future geospatial professionals and surveyors will come from. Many secondary education programs are struggling from the standpoint of student enrollment and their ability to nd qualied candidates to run the programs. From a congressional standpoint it may be much broader than that but they may very well cra legislation that our situation will apply to. e workforce meeting chaired by Dave Holland was very well attended. In the discussion with Representative Walden and Legislative Assistants from Senators Merkley and Wyden oces about the Private Sector Utilization, three points were made: 1) Surveying, mapping and geospatial have been identied as activities in which the government can utilize the private sector to a greater extent. 2) ere still is a need and role for government in surveying, mapping and geospatial activities. 3) e Freedom From Government Competition Act HR 2044 introduced by John J. “Jimmy Duncan (TN) and S. 1116 by Senator John une (SD) strikes the needed balance by applying the “Yellow Pages” test, a simple test that has been applied by Mayors and Governors, both Democrat and Republican, that says if there are private companies to be found in the Yellow Pages providing products or services in the commercial market that the government is also providing, then the product or service should be subject to market competition to provide a better value to the taxpayer. In the discussion with the oce of Congressman Walden and Legislative Assistants from Senators Merkley and Wyden about the Flood Insurance Reform & Modernization Act, ve points were made: 1) Improved surveying and mapping data will provide more accuracy and solvency in the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) allowing FEMA to oer fairer premiums for homeowners. 2) e National Flood Insurance Program has a debt of $24 billion dollars. 3) Elevation data from USGS ood maps is on average 35 years old. 4) Current ood maps lack an inventory of structures and accurate data. 5) As Congress considers reauthorization of NFIP, NSPS and MAPPS recommend several technical reforms to the ood maps to help increase accuracy, such as 3DEP (LiDAR/elevation data), structures inventory, address/ parcel data, and streamow information. e Ocean & Costal Mapping discussion with Representative Walden and Legislative Assistants from Senators Merkley and Wyden’s oces contained four points. 1) e “Digital Coast” is a geospatially enabled project with NOAA to improve coordination and support work with stakeholders for coastal mapping and management activities while providing accurate geospatial data to end users. 2) S. 2325 was introduced by Senators Baldwin (WI) and Murkowski (AK); Representative Ruppersberger (MD) and Young (AK) will soon introduce a companion bill. 3) e Hydrographic Services Improvement Act (HSIA) is a reauthorization and reform bill for NOAA’s navigationrelated hydrographic surveys and nautical charting program, benetting the harbors and ports of America, where a majority of exports, trade and commerce occurs. 4) It is H.R. 2743 introduced by Representative Young (AK) and S. 2206 by Senator Sullivan (AK). All the proposed legislation contains business opportunities for land surveyors. » continues on next page » „ Bob Neathamer, NSPS Oregon Director
PLSO May June 2016
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