November 2003 Mid-Month Government Affairs Update

 

In the Halls of Congress …

 

1.                 Federal Prison Industries Legislation Victory!  ACSM and other members of the FPI Reform Coalition celebrated a victory recently when the House of Representatives voted to approve H.R. 1829, the Hoekstra-Frank-Collins-Maloney-Sensenbrenner-Conyers Federal Prison Industries Competition in Contracting Act of 2003. The legislation, which reforms the Federal Prison Industries, passed on a vote of 350 to 65 by the full House of Representatives. The legislation will end FPI’s monopoly power in the Federal marketplace. Federal prison factories will no longer be able to demand that customers take products at prices the agency sets itself. FPI will have to offer customers products like any other vendor. Federal customers will be set free to choose products that best meet their needs. The bill also provides FPI with new education and training resources to assure that prison workers are rehabilitated with skills that are needed in the workplace upon release. There is a similar bill working its way through the Senate, ACSM will work with other coalition members to get that bill passed as well.

 

2.                 Pre-Disaster Mitigation/Stafford Act. On September 25, HR 3181 the Pre-disaster Mitigation Program Reauthorization Act of 2003 was introduced by Rep. LaTourette (R-OH). The bill will: (1) reauthorize the pre-disaster mitigation program for 3 years; (2) reinstate the 15% formula for the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) from 7.5%; (3) fix a mistake made in the Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000 limiting a cap on assistance for individual and household repairs after a disaster, and; (4) calls for a study regarding cost reduction on federal disaster assistance. The bill passed the House on November 21.

 

ACSM is concerned that the bill did not mention anything about flood map modernization as part of disaster mitigation. We will work with the Senate to either get relevant language in their version of the bill, or to get relevant language put in during the conference.

 

Working with Federal Agencies

 

3.                 USGS Gets an Increase in Funding. ACSM worked with other members of the USGS Coalition for more funding for the USGS programs, and the hard work paid off. After the conference for the FY 2004 Interior appropriations bill, USGS has emerged with an increase over both the House-passed and Senate-passed versions of the bill. The conference report (House Report 108-330) provides $949.7 million, up $30.4 million (3.3%) from FY 2003 levels and up $54.2 million (6.1%) above the president's budget request. There is, however, a 0.656% across-the-board reduction in the conference agreement, which means that the final total may be more like $943.5 million.

Mapping programs received $2.3 million less than they received in FY 2003. The reason is most likely because mapping programs received more than the other USGS disciplines in the past few years, many of the mapping programs are now in place and do not need as much money as in the past.

Other Issues

 

4.                 Meet and Greet with Surveyor Senatorial Candidate. Laurence Socci recently attended a “meet and greet” for Wisconsin Senator Bob Welch, who is running for the Congressional Senate seat currently held by Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI). State Senator Welch, a Republican, is a licensed professional land surveyor and is currently the President Pro Tem of the Wisconsin State Senate. He is a conservative who believes in tax cuts, economic growth, infrastructure investment and reliance on the private sector.

 

5.                 DON’T FORGET! COFPAES is sponsoring a SF330 workshop on December 9 at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC. Go to www.cofpaes.org for further details.