Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 119.djvu/2940

 119 STAT. 2922

PUBLIC LAW 109–155—DEC. 30, 2005

Federal Advisory Committee Act, the advisory committee established under this subsection shall remain in effect until the termination of the program under section 313. (b) EFFECTIVENESS EVALUATION.—Not later than December 31, 2009, the Administrator shall transmit to the Congress an evaluation of the effectiveness of the program established under section 313 in exploring and promoting the integrated use of sources of remote sensing and other geospatial information to address State, local, regional, and tribal agency needs. Such evaluation shall have been conducted by an independent entity.

Deadline.

42 USC 16675.

SEC. 315. DATA AVAILABILITY.

The Administrator shall ensure that the results of each of the pilot projects completed under section 313 shall be retrievable through an electronic, Internet-accessible database. 42 USC 16676.

SEC. 316. EDUCATION.

The Administrator shall establish an educational outreach program to increase awareness at institutions of higher education and State, local, regional, and tribal agencies of the potential applications of remote sensing and other geospatial information and awareness of the need for geospatial workforce development.

Subtitle C—George E. Brown, Jr. NearEarth Object Survey George E. Brown, Jr. Near-Earth Object Survey Act. 42 USC 16691.

VerDate 14-DEC-2004

07:21 Oct 30, 2006

SEC. 321. GEORGE E. BROWN, JR. NEAR-EARTH OBJECT SURVEY.

(a) SHORT TITLE.—This section may be cited as the ‘‘George E. Brown, Jr. Near-Earth Object Survey Act’’. (b) FINDINGS.—The Congress makes the following findings: (1) Near-Earth objects pose a serious and credible threat to humankind, as many scientists believe that a major asteroid or comet was responsible for the mass extinction of the majority of the Earth’s species, including the dinosaurs, nearly 65,000,000 years ago. (2) Similar objects have struck the Earth or passed through the Earth’s atmosphere several times in the Earth’s history and pose a similar threat in the future. (3) Several such near-Earth objects have only been discovered within days of the objects’ closest approach to Earth, and recent discoveries of such large objects indicate that many large near-Earth objects remain undiscovered. (4) The efforts taken to date by NASA for detecting and characterizing the hazards of near-Earth objects are not sufficient to fully determine the threat posed by such objects to cause widespread destruction and loss of life. (c) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this section the term ‘‘nearEarth object’’ means an asteroid or comet with a perihelion distance of less than 1.3 Astronomical Units from the Sun. (d) NEAR-EARTH OBJECT SURVEY.— (1) SURVEY PROGRAM.—The Administrator shall plan, develop, and implement a Near-Earth Object Survey program to detect, track, catalogue, and characterize the physical characteristics of near-Earth objects equal to or greater than 140 meters in diameter in order to assess the threat of such near-Earth objects to the Earth. It shall be the goal of the

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