Assessing federal GIS a capitol task: a congressional review of Bush administration GIS initiatives assessed federal efforts to reduce duplicative spatial data collection and enable data sharing.(Capitol Outlook)

Geospatial Solutions, September, 2003 by Sietzen, Frank, Jr.

Led by the Committee on Government Reform, Congress has begun a comprehensive review of the many federal GIS initiatives spearheaded by the Bush administration. The centerpiece of the review was a June 10 Congressional hearing chaired by Representative Adam Putnam (R-FL). The legislative effort was mirrored by other reviews of GIS conducted by the GAO and the White House. Putnam made it clear the effort would take time.

"Getting our arms around the array of geospatial systems, issues, and the technical minutiae surrounding geospatial data and geospatial technology is a monumental task," he commented before the hearing. But some members of the House, as well as the administration, seemed committed to such a task, and in fact, one major review had already...

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