Capitol Contours - Fall 2026

PSLS Office

7 minutes ago

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I’m John “JB” Byrd, the registered lobbyist for the National Society of Professional Surveyors (NSPS), and President of Miller/Wenhold Capitol Strategies based in Fairfax City, Virginia.

Welcome to another edition of Capitol Contours with JB.

A few highlights since our last update include:

On September 2, President Trump signed into law H.R. 6500, the “Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2027,” which includes a short-term continuing resolution that provides fiscal year 2027 appropriations to Federal agencies through December 11, 2026, and extends authorities for a broad range of programs including FEMA’S National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), surface transportation, and veteran programs. This bill keeps the federal government open through December 11.

On May 21, the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee held a markup of the House Highway Bill (H.R. 8870), the “Building Unrivaled Infrastructure and Long-term Development for America’s 250th Act” or the “BUILD America 250 Act” which was adopted on a 62-2 vote.

In July, U.S. Senators John Curtis (R-UT) and Mark Kelly (D-AZ) introduced the Mapping Access to Public (MAP) Roads Act, S. 5181 to help states and counties digitize local road networks, and improve navigation. The bill would authorizes this program at $20 Million per year. H.R. 5479 is the companion bill, but it was not included in House Highway Bill (H.R. 8870).

On June 2, The White House announced the release of an Executive Order issued by President Trump. The order states, “It is the policy of the United States to promote AI innovation and security by working collaboratively with the private sector to modernize government and private sector information systems and harden them against external threats; to protect American ingenuity and intellectual property from exploitation and theft by adversaries; and to cultivate America’s advanced AI-enabled capabilities.”

On July 23, U.S. Representatives Jay Obernolte (R-CA) and Lori Trahan (D-MA) introduced the FRONTIER Act (H.R. 9925), bipartisan legislation to create a federal framework for how the United States governs artificial intelligence. This bill would ensure the United States can govern AI effectively, protect Americans from emerging risks, and continue to lead the world in AI innovation.

On June 4, the House Energy & Commerce Committee held a hearing to examine the U.S. capabilities in Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT). GPS Innovation Alliance (GPSIA) Executive Director Lisa Dyer testified (NSPS is an affiliate member of GPSIA). The U.S. lacks a backup or alternative to GPS; and the Department of War and supported by Congress and other federal agencies, has been working for decades to modernize the GPS satellite constellations and ground control systems-- however, these upgrades are behind schedule.

On June 24, the House Natural Resources Committee favorably reported H.R. 9250, the Great American Outdoors Act 250 boasting 189 bipartisan cosponsors. The bill invests $1.9 billion annually in America’s national parks, public lands and Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) facilities over each of the next five years; authorizes a searchable geospatial database on a publicly available website to track, for each priority deferred maintenance project that receives money from the Fund; and divides funding for federal agencies such as NPS (70%), USFS (15%), and USFWS (5%), BLM (5%), and BIE (5%).

On June 23, Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and John Hickenlooper (D-CO) introduced legislation (S. 4870) to reauthorize the Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (MRI) program in USGS while also authorizing the USGS 3DHP without a dollar amount. On June 25, the House Natural Resources Committee held a hearing on Earth MRI. On July 9, U.S. Representatives Rob Wittman (R-VA) and Debbie Dingell (D-MI) introduced the House companion bill, H.R. 9640. This bipartisan legislation reauthorizes the Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (MRI) program in USGS while also authorizing the USGS 3DHP without a dollar amount. On July 21, H.R. 9640 was subject to a legislative hearing.

On April 20, the U.S. Department of Justice issued an interim final rule extending the compliance dates for state and local governments by one year to be compliant with requirements for web content and mobile application accessibility. The Small Business Administration (SBA)’s Office of Advocacy “supports this proposed extension of accessibility requirements for government websites, which will provide immediate, temporary relief for small businesses. During this period, however, the DOJ should withdraw this rulemaking…we are concerned that the expense, resource constraints, and litigation risks created by this rule are causing small governments to remove pertinent material or deactivate websites completely, thereby depriving all citizens of access to important information about government services. To address these concerns, Advocacy recommends that the DOJ consider exempting small governments with a population of fewer than 10,000 from this rulemaking.”

On July 13, NSPS co-hosted a construction coalition reception in the Rayburn House Office Building courtesy of the House Small Business Committee. The coalition teamed with the House Small Business Committee to celebrate Year 250 of our nation and the vital role of surveying profession, among other sectors of the economy. The Construction Industry Procurement Coalition (CIPC) works closely with the Construction Procurement Caucus (CPC) co-chaired by U.S. Representatives Pete Stauber (R-MN) and Hilary Scholten (D-MI), both members of the House Small Business Committee.

On July 14, the House Water Resources Development Act (WRDA), or H.R. 9497, was approved by a 66-0 vote in the Transportation & Infrastructure Committee. On July 15, the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee approved their WRDA bill, S. 4949. These bills help authorize the Corps of Engineers projects and associated policy.

On August 7, NSPS Federal Lobbyist John “JB” Byrd continued the lengthy involvement and leadership of NSPS advocating for robust USGS funding by helping to co-host the annual USGS 3DEP Coalition online meeting with Kyle Connors, the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) analyst for the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Coalition partners highlighted the importance of partnerships, state benefits and state fact sheets for 3DEP, and helpful House report language accompanying the House FY2027 Interior Appropriations bill, while also emphasizing the bipartisan nature and leadership for House and Senate letters to the Appropriations Committees.

On August 18, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) issued a report that found employees who work outdoors may be exposed to extreme heat conditions. The lead federal agency that regulates worker safety and health, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), does not have any standards that specifically address outdoor or indoor heat exposure. On August 30, 2024, OSHA published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) for a standard on "Heat Injury and Illness Prevention in Outdoor and Indoor Work Settings." Over 43,000 public comments on the NPRM were submitted during the comment period, which ended on January 15, 2025. In June and July 2025, OSHA held a virtual public hearing on the NPRM and accepted additional public comments through October 30, 2025. To date, no further action has been taken by OSHA on this NPRM.

On August 7, the U.S. Senate confirmed Cameron Hamilton as FEMA Administrator. He returns to FEMA after previously serving as the agency’s acting leader in 2025. His priorities include streamlining disaster assistance, reducing unnecessary bureaucracy, and improving the speed and effectiveness of FEMA’s support to states, tribes, territories, and local communities.

On August 12-13, Dr. Davey Edwards of Texas and Ryen Johnson of Idaho, both members of the National Geospatial Advisory Committee (NGAC) representing the surveying profession, attended the NGAC meeting held at the Department of Interior (DOI) Headquarters in Washington, DC. This meeting focused on AI, USGS 3DEP, the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI), and a panel on the National Spatial Reference System (NSRS).

On August 20, the U.S. SBA proposed two rules that will transform the small business program. The Revised Size Standards Methodology will update the methodology that SBA has historically used to calculate size standards. The Small Business Size Standards will apply the new methodology to consolidate the number of industry-specific size standards and significantly raise size standard thresholds. The proposed changes will result in a net increase of about 114,541 businesses classified as small, an increase of nearly 37,002 unique firms with FY 2025 contracts as newly eligible small businesses, and a reduction from 995 size standards to 338 size standards. Comments on both proposed rules are due September 21, 2026.

On August 20, a Trump Administration’s memo highlighted plans to build the infrastructure needed to rapidly increase U.S.-led rocket launches in coming years, including links to the nation's modernizing air traffic control systems. This strategy sets a goal of supporting “more than 1,000 launches and reentries” by 2030, largely through working with commercial companies to build sites across the country. It would designate priority airspace for critical space launch corridors and designate Federal land for re-entry sites.

As Congress continues its work, NSPS will provide updates as part of Capitol Contours with JB.