NSPS Advocacy

PLSO Conference – Salem, Oregon Bob Neathamer, President and Land Surveyor

Neathamer Surveying, Inc.

NSPS Oregon Governor, Water Right Examiner

January 22-23, 2014

NSPS Advocacy

PLSO Conference – Salem, Oregon John “JB” Byrd – NSPS Registered Lobbyist

John M. Palatiello & Associates, Inc.

January 22-23, 2014

NSPS Advocacy

Why advocate?

“If you’re not sitting at the table, then you’re on the menu.”

“The squeaky wheel gets the grease.”

NSPS Advocacy

• In 2013, the National Society of Professional Surveys (NSPS), hired John M. Palatiello & Associates (JMP&A) to manage the organization’s government affairs in the Nation’s capitol.

• The JMP&A staff works with the NSPS Board of Directors and Government Affairs committee to advocate for and bring awareness to the Legislative and Executive Branches of government for NSPS and the surveying profession.

NSPS Advocacy

• John “JB” Byrd is the primary registered lobbyist representing NSPS. Byrd is the Government Affairs Manager for JMP&A and has worked in the public policy arena for 12 years. Prior to joining JMPA, Mr. Byrd worked as an aide to a former U.S. Senator. He graduated from James Madison University (Harrisonburg, VA) with an undergraduate degree in History and earned a masters degree in Business Administration (MBA) from Winthrop University (Rock Hill, SC).

NSPS Advocacy

• NSPS Capitol Hill Day was November 21, 2013

• Objectives: – Provide a national voice for surveyors on issues

facing the profession

– Open lines of communication between the surveying profession and Congress

– Create interest in national issues among all surveyors

NSPS Advocacy

• U.S. Representatives from Oregon

• In the 1st District, Suzanne Bonamici (D),

serves on the following Committees:

Education & the Workforce

Science, Space & Technology

NSPS Advocacy

• U.S. Representatives from Oregon • In the 2nd District, Greg Walden (R) serves on the following Committees: Energy & Commerce -chairs the Communications & Technology

Subcommittee

NSPS Advocacy

• U.S. Representatives from Oregon

• In the 3rd District, Earl Blumenauer (D), continues to push for infrastructure programs and spending by serving on the following Committees:

Budget Ways & Means (tax-writing & revenue)

NSPS Advocacy

• U.S. Representatives from Oregon

• In the 4th District, Peter DeFazio (D)

serves on the following Committees:

Natural Resources (Ranking Member)

Transportation & Infrastructure

NSPS Advocacy

• U.S. Representatives from Oregon

• In the 5th District, Kurt Schrader (D)

serves on the following Committees:

Agriculture

Budget

Small Business

NSPS Advocacy

• To identify House Members/Representatives/Congressmen: – Go to www.house.gov and click on

“Representatives” on upper left hand tab • Names of Representatives will appear, alphabetical by

state

• Name is linked to web site

• Note telephone number

NSPS Advocacy

• To identify House Members/Representatives/Congressmen:

• Go to www.house.gov – “Find Your Representative ” on upper right hand

tab

– Enter your zip code (may need 8-digit) • www.usps.com/zip4/ to look up 8-digit zip code

NSPS Advocacy

• U.S. Senators representing Oregon

• Ron Wyden (D), re-elected in 2010, re-introduced S. 639, the “Geolocation Privacy and Surveillance (GPS) Act” in 2013, and he serves on the following Committees:

Budget Energy & Natural Resources Finance Intelligence

NSPS Advocacy

• U.S. Senators representing Oregon

• Jeff Merkley (D), elected in 2008, he serves on the following Committees: Appropriations Banking Budget Environment & Public Works

Congress Profiled

• House – 234 Republicans

– 201 Democrats (includes 1 vacancy)

• Senate – 51 Democrat

– 46 Republican

– 2 Independents (Caucus with Democrats)

– 1 Vacant Seat (Montana-Sen. Baucus Resignation)

Congress Today

• Don’t expect significant action on major issues in the current Congress

• WRDA & Farm Bill still in play

• NDAA, Railroads, MAP-21, HSIA this year

• Pipelines in 2015

NSPS Advocacy

Contacting a member of Congress/Staff…

• Write a letter (but don’t snail mail)

• Fax

• E-mail/as an attachment

• Call

• New media (facebook, twitter, linkedin, etc.)

How a Bill Becomes Law

19

Map It Once, Use It Many Times Act Locating Pipelines, Railroads & Underground Infrastructure: Enhancing Accuracy and Safety Labor Department Misapplication of the Davis-Bacon Act to Survey Crews Privacy Concerns: Geolocation and Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS)

Four Issues from the 2013 Capitol Hill Visits

Map It Once, Use It Many Times (MIO-UIMT) Act

NSPS Advocacy

Map It Once, Use It Many Times Act

• House Committees: Natural Resources; Oversight & Government Reform

• Senate Committees: Energy & Natural Resources; Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

• GAO reports, Congressional hearings, and other studies have highlighted the need to reform and redesign how surveying, mapping and geographic information activities are funded and managed in the Federal government to eliminate wasteful duplication, improve governance and coordination, and maximize the use of state-of-the art mapping and geospatial technologies.

MIO-UIMT Act

• Establishes the National Geospatial Technology Administration within the USGS to enhance the use of geospatial data, products, technology, and services, to increase the economy and efficiency of Federal geospatial activities

• Creates a National Geospatial Policy Commission to develop and periodically amend a comprehensive plan to be known as the ‘‘National Geospatial Data Plan’’

• Consolidates geospatial activities, eliminates obsolete programs and establishes today’s priorities.

MIO-UIMT Act

• Congressmen Doug Lamborn (R-CO)

introduced H.R. 1604 – HOUSE ASK: Will you (your boss) Co-Sponsor

H.R. 1604?

• NSPS is seeking a Senator to sponsor a companion bill in the Senate – SENATE ASK: Will you (your boss) introduce a

Senate companion bill to H.R. 1604?

MIO-UIMT Act

Locating Pipelines, Railroads & Underground Infrastructure:

Enhancing Accuracy and Safety

NSPS Advocacy

Utility/Infrastructure Location

• House Committees: Transportation & Infrastructure; Energy & Commerce

• Senate Committees: Commerce, Science & Transportation; Environment & Public Works

• The American Public Works Association estimates that an

underground utility line is hit somewhere in the United States every 60 seconds

• The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and other authorities often cite the lack of location data as a factor in pipeline accidents

• As recently as January 2013, the Government Accountability Office released a study (GAO-13-168) on pipeline safety urging “better data” with an emphasis on “location”, “proximity” and “topography”

Locating Pipelines, Railroads, and Underground Infrastructure

• More than 183,000 miles of railroad tracks run throughout the

United States, adjoining tens of thousands of landowners.

• When abandoned railroad tracks adjoining landowners are removed, and there is no monumentation showing where the tracks once existed, thereby affecting property rights.

Locating Pipelines, Railroads, and Underground Infrastructure

• NSPS urges sponsorship of a legislative provision requiring accurate location of pipelines, abandoned railroads and other forms of underground infrastructure, in accordance with FGDC standards and protocols for the collection of geospatial data. – HOUSE & SENATE ASK: Will you (your boss)

sponsor such a legislative provision?

Locating Pipelines, Railroads, and Underground Infrastructure

Labor Department Misapplication of the Davis-Bacon Act to Survey Crews

NSPS Advocacy

Davis-Bacon Act

• House Committees: Education & the Workforce; Oversight & Government Reform; Small Business

• Senate Committees: Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP); Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs; Small Business and Entrepreneurship

NSPS Advocacy

U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) meets with NSPS

Executive Director Curtis Sumner to discuss Davis Bacon expansion into surveying crews

• The U.S. Department of Labor issued AAM 212, on March 22, 2013, an order declaring that members of survey crews are “laborers and mechanics” subject to the controversial Davis-Bacon Act.

• This was done without consultation with the professional surveying community, public notice, or opportunity for public comment.

• AAM 212 reverses more than 50 years of accepted policy, including a ruling by Arthur Goldberg, Labor Secretary under President John F. Kennedy in 1962.

Davis-Bacon Act

• There has been no legislation, court ruling, Comptroller General decision, or other governmental action that changed Secretary Goldberg’s longstanding interpretation.

• The classification of survey crew members as “laborers and mechanics” is inconsistent with other Labor Department classifications, and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) standards for survey technicians employed by the U.S. Government.

• There is no evidence that survey crews are under-paid. • The Department of Labor has not explained the rationale for AAM

212, opened the process to transparency or affected stakeholder input, or detailed its compliance with laws intended to protect small business, such as the Administrative Procedures Act, Paperwork Reduction Act, or Regulatory Flexibility Act.

Davis-Bacon Act

• NSPS urges members of Congress (House and Senate) to sign a letter to the Secretary of Labor asking for more transparency and open dialogue with affected parties, including the surveying profession, and a thorough analysis of AAM 212. – HOUSE & SENATE ASK: Will you (your boss)

sign such a letter?

Davis-Bacon Act

NSPS Advocacy

U.S. Representative Tim Walberg (R-MI) meets

with NSPS Members to discuss Davis Bacon expansion into surveying crews

Privacy Concerns: Geolocation and Unmanned Aerial

Systems (UAS)

NSPS Advocacy

Privacy

• House Committees: Energy & Commerce; Homeland Security; Judiciary; Oversight & Government Reform

• Senate Committees: Commerce, Science & Transportation; Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs; Judiciary

• Numerous legislative and regulatory efforts to protect consumer and citizen “privacy” have cast too wide-a-net creating unintended consequences for the surveying, mapping and geospatial profession

• Legislation and FTC regulation use term “precise geolocation data” without defining the term

• These would require companies, including surveyors, to provide prominent disclosures and obtain affirmative express consent before collecting, storing, or using "precise geolocation data”.

Privacy Concerns: Geolocation and Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS)

• Moreover, legislation restricting the use of domestic unmanned aerial vehicles or systems (UAV/UAS), or even conventional aerial surveys, would restrict the legitimate activities of professionals providing surveying, mapping and geospatial data, services, and products, notwithstanding the profession has used manned, fixed-wing aircraft for these data acquisition activities for nearly 100 years.

• NSPS believes compliance with this requirement is impractical to the point of impossible for surveyors.

Privacy Concerns: Geolocation and Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS)

• A “Sense of the Congress” resolution is needed to express the sense of the Congress that geospatial data is essential to commercial and governmental activities, the collection, storage and use of which can and should continue to be permitted and encouraged for the benefit of the citizens of the United States. – HOUSE & SENATE ASK: Will you (your

boss) introduce or co-sponsor the “Sense of the Congress Resolution”

Privacy Concerns: Geolocation and Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS)

NSPS Advocacy

Additional Issues & Topics: 3DEP (USGS Funding) NSDI Strategic Plan (Underground Utilities as new framework layer) FLAIR Act (H.R. 916)/National Parcel Data (CFPB) Digital Coast Act (H.R. 1382) FEMA – TMAC (Wendy Lathrop) STEM (DoL/DoE) Tax Reform (Accounting rules)

Coalitions: GPS Innovation Alliance – Lightsquared & GPS interference COFPAES - Qualifications Based Selection (QBS) COGO - Geospatial programs, governance and communication BCFC - Federal Prison Industries (FPI) Reform

NSPS Advocacy

NSPS Website for All Advocacy &

Government Affairs Coverage: www.nsps.us.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Page.viewPage&page

Id=1050&parentID=966&nodeID=2

NSPS Radio Hour (Monday mornings at 11:00 AM)

NSPS News & Views (Wednesday afternoons)

- Multi-State online service pick-up/detection of state legislation (thru JMP&A)

Land inventory language in 2014 NDAA • Accompanying the bill, Congress called for a Cadastral Geographic Information

Systems Inventory of land and facilities owned by the Department of Defense. The language, requested by Rep. Robert Andrews (D-NJ) finds:

“The Committee recognizes and supports the efforts of the Installations & Environment Business Enterprise Integration (I&E BEI) to modernize the parcel and land inventory or "cadastral" records to meet the challenges of the future. The work accomplished thus far to develop, modernize, and consolidate the Department's real property asset inventory should continue to be a high priority, particularly given that real property asset management continues to be a GAO High Risk activity (GAO-13-359T) and the Defense Department still cannot accurately account for its real property assets or the environmental liabilities thereon (GAO-13-271R). The Committee recommends that the Department I&E BEI work with other agencies within the federal government to develop a current, accurate, interoperable cadastral geographic information systems based inventory that eliminates duplicate and obsolete activities and contributes to the mantra of "map it once, use it many times.”

HSIA – H.R. 1399

• The "Hydrographic Services Improvement Act (HSIA) Amendments of 2013”, H.R. 1399, was introduced by Rep. Don Young (R-AK) to reauthorize and expand hydrographic surveys to further America’s knowledge of the nation’s coasts, shipping routes, and waterways, with an added emphasis on the Arctic.

• The bill reauthorizes HSIA of 1998 at FY2012 funding levels, while requiring $7 million per year toward Arctic hydrographic work, limiting the administrative costs on contracts to 5% and requiring a GAO study comparing the costs associated with conducting hydrographic surveys by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration with the cost of using contractors.

• June 2013 Congressional hearing

GLONASS – 2014 NDAA • Before leaving the Nation’s Capital for the holidays, Congress passed

the 2014 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which included a provision that virtually bars Russia from building about a half-dozen GLONASS receiving stations on American soil that critics fear Moscow could use to spy on the United States or worse.

• Under the new law, unless the secretary of defense and the director of national intelligence certify to Congress that the ground stations would not be used to spy on the United States or improve the effectiveness of Russian weaponry — or unless they waive that requirement altogether on national security grounds — the plan is dead.

• The waiver would also require that the stations not pose a cyber-espionage threat or weaken the American GPS technology for consumers.

Protocol & Logistics Things to Avoid

• Avoid giving too much detail • Don’t monopolize the meeting or take more time than scheduled • Don’t speak in acronyms or technical terms • Don’t forget to ask for some action!!! • Never argue with the Member of

Congress or staff, or each other! • Don’t make political threats

Protocol & Logistics Office Hierarchy

• Lawmaker (Senator or Congressman) • Chief of Staff reports to Lawmaker • Core Staff: Scheduler, Legislative Director

and Communications Director report to the Chief of Staff

• Legislative Aides/Legislative Assistants report to Legislative Director

• If Lawmaker is Chairman or Ranking Member of a committee, then he/she may also have committee staff

Execution Lawmaker vs. Staff

• Be flexible when scheduled to meet with the Lawmaker; votes, hearings or committee meetings can change their schedules

• Don’t feel slighted if you are meeting with a staff person; staff are important!

• Develop a relationship with the Lawmaker and their staff to assure personal attention throughout the year

• Don’t be surprised or offended if the staff member is in their 20s

NSPS Advocacy

Staff of Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH)

hosted a meeting with a delegation from NSPS to discuss Davis Bacon expansion into surveying crews

• You are the expert • You are a resource • You are a constituent • You are a voter

Assets – YOU!

Protocol Continue the Relationship

• Send a thank you letter (via Fax/E-mail) along with any information you promised to forward

• Invite the Lawmaker to visit/tour your firm/agency to illustrate surveying technology

• Get to know the staff in Washington, DC and in the State; offer to be a resource

• A political relationship is a process, not an event

Role for NSPS Members

• Contribute to the NSPS PAC • Recruit other NSPS members to contribute to the

PAC • Congressional visits in 2014 & 2015 • Attend Town Hall Meetings • Invite Lawmaker to Visit Your Firm/Agency to

Learn about Your Expertise (Solving Problems) and Workforce (Voters & Constituents)

• Correspond with Key Staff – Thank you letters & regular check-in

NSPS Advocacy

My question you need to answer:

“Are you sitting at the table, or, are you on the menu?”

John “JB” Byrd jbyrd@jmpa.us

O: (703) 787-6665 C: (703) 201-9585

Questions