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October 6, 1999
The Honorable Jerry Lewis Dear Mr. Chairman: The House version of the FY2000 defense appropriations bill contains cuts to the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS) $67.5 million below the level of the request. This has raised a variety of concerns among civil and scientific users of GPS. While I wholeheartedly agree that GPS must remain a defense program first, the availability of civil navigation signals has secured a key place in the nation's critical electronic infrastructure for GPS. The civil signal is used in a variety of non-military applications in civilian search and rescue, the coordination of air traffic, monitoring and efficient planning of ground shipping, and even excavation. It also has a range of scientific uses, including atmospheric measurement, earthquake detection and monitoring, sea surface change, and satellite navigation and pointing. While I understand the fiscal constraints that the committee is under, funding cuts to GPS may prove counterproductive in the end. Many civil and scientific users who depend on GPS and its continual improvement will see projected cost savings erode and current costs rise if GPS upgrades are deferred. Those costs will be borne by the American public twice. First, taxpayers will pay higher costs for private applications of the GPS signal. Second, government's cost of doing business will rise, since the government is one of the larger non-military users of the Global Positioning System. I hope that as the conference process moves forward it will be possible to ensure that this critical infrastructure is adequately funded. Sincerely, F. JAMES SENSENBRENNER, JR.
Chairman |