Geospatial data bill before Congress revised to its original intent

The Geospatial Data Act (GDA) of 2017, which was introduced earlier this year in the Senate (S.1253) and a companion bill in the House (H.R.3522), has some history. It was originally proposed in 2015 by Orrin Hatch, a Republican Senator from Utah, and sponsored by five Republicans and five Democrats. The 2015 bill consisted of 10 sections and basically codified and strengthened federal government practices relating to geospatial data. For example, it proposed that the chair of the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) be the Director of the Office Management and Budget (OMB), an agency that has statutory authority and can set standards and enforce practices for all government departments.  This would provide FGDC with the authority to make other agencies follow existing common sense rules. The bill established a clear vision, assigned responsibility, provided authority and ensured oversight of Federal activities by Congress. These improvements were intended to help ensure that the U.S. is able to build a robust National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI).  The 2015 bill enjoyed wide support in the geospatial community throughout the U.S. and was generally viewed as a positive step forward.

However the 2015 bill was blocked in the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. It has been suggested that MAPPS, an organization representing some engineering and surveying firms that is attempting to restrict procurement of geospatial services by extending the Brooks Act to cover the geospatial sector, was instrumental in getting the 2015 bill blocked in committee. As a result the 2015 bill was rewritten with two additional sections that broadly extended the definition of survey data and mandated rules (Brooks Act) for procurement of geospatial services by the federal government. 

The bill has now been revised back to its original intent.  The text of the revised House bill (H.R.4395) is on congress.gov and it does not include Section 11 and 12 which were intended to apply the Brooks Act to geospatial data and services and were not viewed positively by the broad gesopatial community.  The text of the revised Senate bill (S.2128) is not yet available.