Sponsors (2)
The bill improves national 3D hydrography data to boost flood/coastal resilience and resource mapping, but it may raise federal integration costs, create compliance burdens for state and local governments, and pose data-privacy risks if safeguards are inadequate.
Researchers, federal agencies, and state/local planners will have integrated access to USGS 3D hydrography data, improving flood risk mapping and water-resource planning.
Communities in flood-prone and coastal areas will benefit from better navigation, coastal resilience, and emergency response planning because 3D hydrography can be used in preparedness and response tools.
Energy and mineral planners and utilities will have improved geospatial data to support mineral and critical-mineral mapping, aiding domestic resource assessment and economic planning.
State and local agencies could face new implementation or compliance burdens if the bill's unspecified insertions impose mandates, increasing workload and potential costs at those levels.
Expanding the Initiative's data inventory and integrating new 3D datasets may raise federal data integration costs and require more USGS funding or staff time, potentially increasing taxpayer expense or shifting agency priorities.
More detailed hydrography mapping could expose sensitive infrastructure locations or create data-use/privacy risks for localities and utilities if access controls are not carefully managed.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Adds the USGS 3D Hydrography Program to the Earth MRI list of integrated data sources and makes minor statutory edits to the Initiative's language.
Official title: To amend the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to reauthorize the Earth Mapping Resources Initiative, and for other purposes.
Introduced July 9, 2026 by Robert J. Wittman · Last progress July 9, 2026
Adds the U.S. Geological Survey's 3D Hydrography Program to the list of data sources for the Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (Earth MRI) and makes small statutory edits to the Initiative's authorization text. The bill updates the integration-of-data-sources provision so the Initiative explicitly incorporates 3D hydrography data alongside other mapped datasets. The changes are technical and narrow: they amend the Earth MRI language in the U.S. Code to enumerate an additional USGS dataset as part of the Initiative's data integration responsibilities without creating new funding lines or broad program changes in the provided text.