April 2005 Government Affairs Update

 

IN THIS ISSUE …

 

1.         Las Vegas Joint Government Affairs Meeting Wrap-up.

2.         Association Health Plan Legislation Passes House Committee.

3.         ACSM Will Propose National Surveyor’s Week Legislation.

4.         Federal Land Asset Inventory Reform Act of 2005 (FLAIR Act).

5.         PAC News.

 

Las Vegas Joint Government Affairs Meeting Wrap-up.

At our recent Joint Government Affairs Committee meeting in Las Vegas, we covered a number of new and exciting issues affecting our members. We covered issues that we worked on with the various coalitions with whom we are associated, as well as some old issues that we are still working on. Additionally, we discussed new issues like our plans to propose legislation that would make Congress recognize National Surveyor’s Week; the reintroduction of Association Health Plan legislation in Congress; monumentation as part of railroad abandonment; a proposed Bureau of Land Management certification project and other important issues. Look for future government affairs updates to cover these important issues.

 

Association Health Plan Legislation Passes House Committee.

The House Education and the Workforce Committee once again approved legislation to authorize trade organizations to set up “association health plans” to provide health care.

The bill would allow small businesses in the same trade organization to form an association health plan, or AHP, to purchase medical insurance that would not be subject to state mandated benefit packages. Last year, a similar bill passed the House but was not addressed by the Senate. Opponents of the bill say that it would foster the creation of cheap, inadequate health plans that would be immune to state requirements for benefit packages.

 

ACSM Will Propose National Surveyor’s Week Legislation.

ACSM has drafted proposed legislation which would Congressionally designate the third week in March as National Surveyor’s Week. Earlier this year, we asked President Bush for a Presidential Proclamation honoring National Surveyor’s Week. Instead of a Presidential Proclamation, we received a letter of recognition from Department of Interior Secretary Gale Norton. An designation from Congress regarding National Surveyor’s Week will go a long way in helping us get Presidential Proclamations in future years.

 

Federal Land Asset Inventory Reform Act of 2005 (FLAIR Act).

Representative Chris Cannon of Utah recently introduced H.R. 1370, the Federal Land Asset Inventory Reform Act (FLAIR Act). The bill would require the Secretary of the Interior to develop a multipurpose cadastre of Federal real property to assist with Federal land management, resource conservation, and development of Federal real property, including identification of any such property that is no longer required to be owned by the Federal Government.

The legislation proposes that, in carrying out this section, the Secretary shall--

(A) participate in the establishment of such standards and common protocols as are necessary to assure the interoperability of geospatial information pertaining to the cadastre for all users of such information; (B) coordinate with, seek assistance and cooperation of, and provide liaison to the Federal Geographic Data Committee; (C) make the cadastre interoperable with the Federal Real Property Profile; and (D) use contracts with the private sector, to the maximum extent practicable, to provide such products and services as are necessary to develop the cadastre. Contracts entered into with the private sector in carrying out this legislation will be considered `surveying and mapping' services.

The term `cadastre' in this legislation means “an inventory of real property of the Federal Government developed through collecting, storing, retrieving, or disseminating graphical or digital data depicting natural or man-made physical features, phenomena, or boundaries of the earth and any information related thereto, including surveys, maps, charts, satellite and airborne remote sensing data, images, and services, with services performed by professionals such as surveyors, photogrammetrists, hydrographers, geodesists, cartographers, and other such services of an architectural or engineering nature including the following data layers: (A) a reference frame consisting of a geodetic network; (B) a series of current, accurate large scale maps; (C) a cadastral boundary overlay delineating all cadastral parcels; (D) a system for indexing and identifying each cadastral parcel; (E) a series of land data files, each including the parcel identifier, which can be used to retrieve information and cross reference between and among other data files, which contains information about the use, value, infrastructure, resources, and characteristics of each parcel.”

 

PAC News

Those of you who missed the PAC Auction at the Las Vegas conference missed an exciting event. Bidding wars were going on all night long and the PAC was the big winner. Once again, Joe Dolan was the auctioneer extraordinaire “coaxing” bids to go higher. At the end of the night, the PAC got almost $10,000 from the generosity of the participants. A big “Thank You” goes out to everyone who gave their time, efforts and most importantly their money to this worthwhile event.