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@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> _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/ listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
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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@ucd.ie