Sponsors (7)
The bill improves flood mapping, emergency response, coastal resilience, and resource mapping by integrating USGS 3D hydrography, at the cost of added federal expenses, potential privacy risks for mapped infrastructure, and possible new burdens on state and local governments.
State and local governments, researchers, and federal agencies gain integrated access to USGS 3D hydrography data, improving flood risk mapping and water-resource planning.
Communities in flood-prone and coastal areas—and the local agencies that serve them—benefit from better navigation, coastal resilience, and faster, more accurate emergency response enabled by 3D hydrography data.
Utilities, energy companies, and state planners can use richer geospatial datasets to support mineral and critical-mineral mapping, aiding domestic resource assessment and economic planning.
Local governments and infrastructure owners may face increased privacy and data-use risks if more detailed hydrography makes sensitive facilities easier to locate and map.
State and local agencies could incur new implementation or compliance burdens if the unspecified insertions impose additional mandates or reporting requirements.
Expanding the Initiative's data inventory and integrating new data types will likely raise federal data integration costs, requiring additional USGS funding or staff time and potentially increasing taxpayer expense.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Adds the USGS 3D Hydrography Program to the list of data sources integrated into the Earth Mapping Resources Initiative and makes technical statutory edits.
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 integrated into the Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (Earth MRI) and makes minor statutory edits to the Initiative’s existing language. The change formally expands the Initiative’s enumerated data sources to include high-resolution 3D hydrography data, improving the program’s data integration for mapping surface and subsurface water features. The bill is narrowly targeted and technical: it updates the statutory description of Earth MRI's data-source integration, without creating new programs or specifying new funding levels in the provided text.