April 10, 2015 (Washington, DC) – MAPPS and NSPS today announced a full slate of high powered Congressional speakers will address their members at the National Surveying, Mapping and Geospatial Conference to be held April 13-17, 2015 at the Hilton Hotel in Crystal City (Arlington), VA.
Conference attendees will travel to Capitol Hill in the Nation’s Capital on Wednesday, April 15 where they will be joined at breakfast by Representative Steve Chabot (R-OH), chairman of the House Small Business Committee, and Representative Paul Gosar (R-AZ).
The Legislative Breakfast will kick off a day of meetings in which more than 100 surveying and mapping professionals will visit some 75 United States Senators and more than 100 Congressmen.
Representative Gosar sits on the Natural Resource and Oversight & Government Reform Committees. He is the sponsor of H.R. 924, the Responsibility in Federal Contracting Act, to reform the Davis-Bacon Act. In addition to chairing the small business panel, Representative Chabot sits on the Committees on Foreign Affairs and Judiciary. He is the sponsor of H.R. 1481, the Small Contractors Improve Competition Act, which includes a ban on reverse auctions for professional services, including surveying and mapping.
On the evening of Tuesday, April 14, contributors to the MAPPS and NSPS political action committees (PAC) will be joined at dinner at the Capitol Hill Club in Washington, DC by Senator Cory Gardner (R-CO) and Representative Raul Labrador (R-ID).
Senator Gardner is a member of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Foreign Relations Committee and the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee. Congressman Labrador sits on the Natural Resources Committee and the Judiciary Committee.
"One of the leading reasons MAPPS and NSPS members go to Capitol Hill is to meet with and hear from legislators," said John "JB" Byrd, government affairs manager for the two geospatial organizations. "These face-to-face meetings are essential to developing relationships with legislators and making the voice of the surveying and mapping profession heard in Congress. We’re pleased to have these lawmakers meet with and speak to our members, and learn about the profession."
About MAPPS
Formed in 1982, MAPPS is the only national association exclusively comprised of private firms in the remote sensing, spatial data and geographic information systems field in the United States. The MAPPS membership spans the entire spectrum of the geospatial community, including Member Firms engaged in satellite and airborne remote sensing, surveying, photogrammetry, aerial photography, LIDAR, hydrography, bathymetry, charting, aerial and satellite image processing, GPS, and GIS data collection and conversion services. MAPPS also includes Associate Member Firms, which are companies that provide hardware, software, products and services to the geospatial profession in the United States and other firms from around the world. Independent Consultant Members are sole proprietors engaged in consulting in or to the geospatial profession, or provides a consulting service of interest to the geospatial profession.
About NSPS
NSPS is the voice of the professional surveying community, with more than 15,000 individual members, primarily within the United States. Through its joint membership program with the respective state surveying societies, NSPS has a strong constituency base for communicating with lawmakers, agencies, and regulators at both the national and state levels. NSPS also collaborates with a multitude of other organizations within the geospatial community to address issues of mutual importance. As the lead society for the evaluation of college-level programs seeking accreditation through ABET, NSPS is instrumental in assuring that prospective professional surveyors receive an education that is relevant to the role they will play in society. NSPS is the U.S. representative to FIG (the international organization for surveyors), placing representatives on the respective practice-area Commissions. NSPS has a Certified Survey Technician (CST) program and a Hydrographic surveying certification program, and offers competitions for both high school and college-level students.