[Air-L] FYI: HR 482 and SB 103 - attack on geospatial information, antiracism work, and affordable housing

[Kalpana Shankar]

Is there a plain language summary of this bill and its ramifications,
perhaps through AAG?

Kalpana

On 1 February 2017 at 05:30, Jack Jen Gieseking <jgieseking at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Dear AoIR colleagues,
>
> Colleagues and I just posted this collaboratively written email to various
> geography lists. Please help us get the word out and encourage AoIR,
> @theAAG (American Association of Geographers), and other disciplinary
> groups (AAA, ASA, ASA, MLA, AHA, et al) to take action.
>
> With you,
> Jack
>
> **
>
> Dear Geographers,
>
> We are writing to bring your attention to the US HR 482 and SB 103, which
> are an attack on the collection, storage, and distribution of geospatial
> information, antiracism work, and affordable housing (see below). The text
> of the bill
> <https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/482/text?r=117>,
> “Local Zoning Decisions Protection Act of 2017,” will nullify HUD's 2015
> “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing” report to "have no force or
> effect," and does so by eliminating the data to support social change.
>
> In other words, the bill stands at odds with the pursuit of knowledge about
> human geography, including census data. The bill would prohibit a
> significant amount of the work we do on race, racism, and fair housing in
> the US, as well as GIS research more broadly, all of which thwart work
> towards social justice. A key section reads as follows:
>
> SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON USE OF FEDERAL FUNDS.
> Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no Federal funds may be used to
> design, build, maintain, utilize, or provide access to a Federal database
> of geospatial information on community racial disparities or disparities in
> access to affordable housing.
>
> We encourage feedback, wisdom, and action among our respective lists, AAG
> specialty groups, other collectives and collegial relationships, and the
> AAG leadership. We ask you to share word about this bill with colleagues in
> other disciplines and on social media, using the hashtags #datarefuge and
> #datarescue when doing so to connect this issue to larger issues of public
> data and public data collection erasure, obfuscation, and elimination. We
> also encourage US citizens to reach out to your congressional
> representatives or to organize from afar in solidarity to stop this bill.
> Full links to the Senate and House bills are below.
>
> Thanks to Euan Hague for bringing this to the CRIT-GEOG list's attention,
> and for Reed Underwood's response.
>
> Onward together,
> Jack Gieseking, Trinity College
> Emily Mitchell-Eaton, USCS
> Hector Agredano, CUNY Graduate Center
> Elizabeth R. Johnson, Hobart & William Smith Colleges
> Naomi Adiv, Portland State University
> Ryan Burns, University of Calgary
> --
> Jen Jack Gieseking
> Assistant Professor of Public Humanities
> American Studies Program, Trinity College
> 300 Summit Street, Hartford, CT  06106
> www.jgieseking.org
> www.peopleplacespace.org
> @jgieseking <https://twitter.com/jgieseking>
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-- 
Kalpana Shankar
Professor of Information and Communication Studies
Head of School 2015-2018
School of Information and Communication Studies
University College Dublin
Belfield 4
Dublin
+353(1) 716-8359

kalpana.shankar at ucd.ie