Uniform Emergency Response Map Standards

Full Title:
Uniform School Mapping Act

Summary#

This bill, the Uniform School Mapping Act, limits the use of federal money to buy emergency response maps unless the maps meet a set of technical and sharing rules. It also directs the Department of Homeland Security (through CISA) to make a plan to buy and share such maps for federally owned or leased sites the Secretary calls “critical.” The broad goal is to make maps interoperable, verifiable, and available to responding public safety agencies.

  • Federal funds for fiscal year 2026 and later may not be used to procure an emergency response map unless the map meets the bill’s listed requirements.
  • Required map features include a standard digital file format, domestic data storage, printable output, true-north orientation and coordinate grid, floor imagery, labeled site features (doors, hallways, rooms, hazards, etc.), ability to update, and verification by a walkthrough.
  • Maps purchased with federal funds must be made available without subscription fees or other restrictions to the map procurer and each public safety agency that serves the site.
  • DHS (via CISA) must produce, within one year, a strategy to procure and distribute qualifying maps for federal-owned or leased sites deemed critical, and brief Congress on that plan.

What it means for you#

  • Federal agencies
    • Must only use federal funds to buy emergency response maps that meet the bill’s technical and sharing conditions.
    • May need to change procurement rules and contracts to require domestic storage, interoperability, and no subscription limits.
  • State, local, Tribal, and territorial (SLTT) public safety agencies and federal public safety agencies
    • Will be able to get maps purchased with federal funds without paying subscription fees or facing access restrictions.
    • May receive maps that integrate with their existing response software, if those agencies serve the site.
  • Vendors and private contractors who create maps
    • Will likely need to supply maps in open or standard digital formats, host map data in U.S. data centers, support integration with responder software, allow printing and updates, and permit distribution without subscription fees.
    • May face changes to business models if they previously used restricted or subscription-based access.
  • Sites owned or leased by the federal government
    • If the Secretary designates a site as “critical,” DHS will pursue a qualifying map and distribute it to responding public safety agencies.
  • Recipients of federal grants that fund mapping
    • The bill’s prohibition on using federal funds applies broadly. This could affect grant rules if federal grant money was used to buy maps that do not meet the bill’s requirements.
  • General public and building owners
    • The bill does not directly change private property rules. It requires only that maps bought with federal funds meet the conditions and be shared with public safety agencies.

Expenses#

No publicly available information.

  • The bill text does not include a fiscal estimate or cost details.
  • Possible costs that follow from the bill’s requirements (but are not estimated in the text) include:
    • Expenses for federal agencies to procure or update maps to meet the verification, format, and storage rules.
    • Administrative and staffing costs for DHS/CISA to create and implement the procurement and distribution strategy.
    • Costs to vendors to reformat products, change hosting to U.S. data centers, and allow unrestricted sharing.
    • Costs for walkthrough inspections and ongoing map updates.
    • Potential savings if standardization reduces duplicated mapping work across agencies — not estimated in the bill.

Proponents' View#

The bill appears intended to address these problems and offer these benefits:

  • Ensure emergency response maps are in open or standard formats so they can be used on common devices and by many agencies.
  • Keep sensitive map data stored in the United States for security or control over access.
  • Improve interoperability by requiring maps to integrate with software used by the agencies that will respond to an incident.
  • Improve accuracy and usefulness by requiring walkthrough verification, overlayed floor imagery, labeling of key features, and the ability to update maps.
  • Improve access for public safety agencies by requiring that maps purchased with federal funds be shared without subscription fees or other restrictions.

Opponents' View#

The bill’s text raises several practical concerns and trade-offs:

  • The bill does not provide cost estimates. One concern is that requiring domestic storage, walkthrough verification, and software integration could raise procurement and ongoing maintenance costs for federal agencies and their contractors.
  • Requiring maps purchased with federal funds to be freely available to responding agencies may conflict with vendors’ commercial licensing models. This could reduce vendor participation or raise prices.
  • Making detailed floor plans and site features widely available could raise safety or security concerns. The bill does not specify additional protections, redactions, or access controls beyond “no subscription fee or other restriction.”
  • The bill leaves some important points unclear, such as how the Secretary will define which federal sites are “critical,” how compliance will be enforced, and whether federal grant recipients are explicitly covered or exempt.
  • Interoperability requirements (“integrates with software utilized by any covered public safety agency”) may be technically hard to meet across many different local systems and could slow procurement or require new standards that are not described in the bill.