National Land Remote Sensing Outreach Act

Sponsor: Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-SD)

National Land Remote Sensing Outreach Act - Directs the Secretary of the Interior to establish and maintain a national land remote sensing outreach program within the United States Geological Survey (USGS) to advance the availability, timely distribution, and widespread use of geospatial imagery for education, research, assessment, and monitoring purposes in each state and on the lands of an Indian tribe. Requires the Secretary, under such program, to: (1) support geospatial imagery sharing, applied research, and educational programs of each participating state and Indian tribe; (2) identify new geospatial imagery needs and infrastructure; (3) share and cooperate in the development of geospatial imagery applications, education, and training infrastructure in each participating area; (4) cooperate with participating states and tribes to encourage the expansion of geospatial imagery mapping courses taught at educational institutions; (5) encourage expansion of geospatial imagery research at such institutions; (6) encourage expansion of the knowledge and use of geospatial imagery products in the workforce through outreach programs, workshops, and other training opportunities; (7) encourage participating states and tribes to build partnerships with local governments to identify unique research and development needs and geospatial imagery application pilot programs; (8) promote cooperation and sharing of expertise regarding geospatial imagery applications among participating states and tribes; and (9) provide a mechanism to enable the states and tribes to transfer geospatial imagery and applications to USGS. Authorizes the Secretary to provide grants to qualified educational institutions, to state, local, and tribal governments, or to consortia of these entities on a competitive basis to: (1) advance the interest of the federal government in promoting the use of imagery by educational institutions, states, localities, and tribes; and (2) achieve specified program purposes.

Science, Technology, Communications Topic assigned by the Congressional Research Service.