FEBRUARY 2006
GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS UPDATE
IN THIS ISSUE …
1. Big
NSPS Victory!
2. White
House Denies Proclamation for Natl’ Surveyor’s Week –
AGAIN
3. 2007
President’s Budget News
4. Donations
STILL Needed for Orlando PAC Auction
Big NSPS
Victory!
On January
31st, the Senate passed its version of the National Surveyor's Week
Resolution. The Resolution, sponsored by Senators George Allen of Virginia and
Ted Stevens of Alaska was introduced, called up and passed by a voice vote. The
bill's number is S. Res. 361 and can be viewed at http://thomas.loc.gov.
This is a
big victory for NSPS. We drafted the legislation, found appropriate sponsors,
worked with staff from Senators Allen and Stevens' offices, got the word about
the bill to our members, and NSPS members helped by contacting their Senators
about the bill. Congratulations to all!
The House
version of the Resolution is due to come up soon. We can repeat this victory by
calling all of our Representatives and asking them to vote for H. Res. 518,
which is the number of the House bill. Finally, if you happen to live in
Virginia or Alaska, please contact Senator Allen (Virginia)at
202-224-4024 or Senator Stevens (Alaska) 202-224-3004 and thank them for their
sponsorship of S. Res. 361.
White
House Denies Proclamation for National Surveyor’s Week – AGAIN
It looks
like the White House is going to deny us a Presidential Proclamation once
again. Laurence Socci spoke with a representative
from the proclamations office and was told that it would not be possible to
receive a proclamation, but we can receive a "formal greeting" from
the President for our conference in Orlando. He was told that the President
issues approximately 100 proclamations a year and ours "simply didn't make
the cut".
After
speaking with the Proclamations Office, we did some research to see what kinds
of Proclamations were issued in 2005. 120 Presidential Proclamations were
issued last year. Approximately 10 of those proclamations related to an
official action that the President was taking. A few related to ethnic
celebrations, i.e. Black History Month. A few more related to
national holidays, like Christmas, etc. The rest were very general in
nature like World Freedom Day or National Family Week. There were no
proclamations issued for any professional or trade groups. This means that the
White House didn’t slight ACSM and surveyors. The President didn’t give a
Proclamation to ANY professional group last year and has not done so this year
either. We DID get official recognition from Congress, though.
2007
President’s Budget News
The White
House recently released its 2007 Budget. Here are some interesting tidbits from
the budget. The Flood Map Modernization Fund was cut by $1 million to $199
million. The total amount was set as discretionary spending. The Flood Map
Modernization Fund is used to update and modernize the inventory of over
100,000 flood maps.
The
Department of Interior received an increase in its Realty and Ownership
Management budget from $95 million to $96 million. Realty and ownership
management funds are used to provide for management and non-reimbursable
processing of authorizations and compliance for realty actions and
rights-of-way, administration of land title records and completion of cadastral
surveys on public land.
We are
still in the process of reviewing the budget and determining what issues we
need to address in it. Look forward to more information on this subject in
future government affairs updates.
Donations
STILL Needed for Orlando PAC Auction
Despite
what you may have read in the papers recently, there will still be fundraisers
for Members of Congress this year, after all, it IS an election year. ACSM
still receives quite a bit of requests for contributions from our friends in
Congress, as well as Members of Congress who are important to our issues. With
that being said, we still hope for a successful PAC Auction this year in
Orlando. In order to make the auction successful we need your help both
financially by your participation in the auction and through your donations.
Please contact Trish Milburn at
Trisha.Milburn@acsm.net to get the forms for your donations. Thanks.