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House Science subcommittee urges faster ocean mapping through public-private partnerships
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Summary
Witnesses at a House Science, Space, and Technology Subcommittee hearing urged Congress to accelerate ocean mapping by expanding public‑private partnerships, modernizing NOAA contracting, and sustaining research funding to preserve the technical workforce.
The House Science, Space, and Technology Committee’s Subcommittee on Environment held a hearing on ocean mapping and “blue economy” technologies, where industry and academic witnesses told lawmakers that public‑private partnerships and faster procurement are needed to meet U.S. mapping goals and scale ocean data collection.
The hearing opened with the subcommittee chair noting the scale of the task: the U.S. exclusive economic zone spans more than 13,000 miles of coastline and contains about 3,400,000 square nautical miles of ocean, and no single agency can meet national mapping targets alone. Representatives from Oceaneering, Xocean, Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Sofar Ocean described complementary roles for federal agencies, research institutions and private companies in mapping, monitoring and operational uses of ocean data.
Why it matters: Accurate bathymetry and persistent ocean observations underpin commercial shipping safety, offshore energy, disaster forecasting, defense planning and scientific research. Witnesses said delays in adopting new autonomous platforms and cumbersome federal contracting slow progress and raise national security and economic risks.
Earl Childress, senior vice president and chief commercial officer of Oceaneering International, urged sustained public‑private collaboration. “Strong public private partnerships can accelerate innovation,” Childress said, describing how oceaneering’s resident remotely operated vehicles and remote operation centers have been repurposed for government uses and can reduce vessel days and emissions.
Shepherd Smith, chief technology officer of Xocean and a retired NOAA rear admiral, summarized the mapping gap: “This year's NOAA ocean mapping progress report shows that 46% of U.S. waters are still unmapped.” Smith said uncrewed surface vessels (USVs) and other autonomous systems could efficiently cover a large portion of that gap if procurement and contract panels allow newer entrants sooner.
Smith recommended two policy changes: a mid‑cycle review to add companies with new capabilities to NOAA’s hydrographic surveys contract before the current award pool is revisited in 2029, and better integration of the Uncrewed Maritime Systems (UMS) IDIQ with the hydrographic survey contracting framework so NOAA can access firms that specialize in autonomous survey operations.
Margaret Leinen, director of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, emphasized the role of academic research and long‑term infrastructure in the ecosystem. She described joint university‑NOAA programs that deploy Argo floats, gliders and buoys used for forecasting, fisheries management and coastal hazard warning. “These are long term commitments that are very difficult to restart once interrupted,” Leinen said, warning that funding pauses reduce institutional capacity.
Several members pressed witnesses on workforce and funding. Leinen told the panel that, after a review of eight oceanographic directors, “Most of them … decreased our admissions by half,” a drop she said totals roughly 200 graduate students across that sample and poses a risk to the talent pipeline for both public and private sectors.
Smaller firms emphasized procurement barriers. Tim Janssen, co‑founder and CEO of Sofar Ocean, urged Congress to streamline contracting and favor milestone‑based or flexible mechanisms that allow startups to compete and accept more outcome‑based risk. “Government contracts … are slow and unnecessarily complicated,” Janssen said, urging reforms to accelerate adoption of commercial technologies by NOAA and other agencies.
Members from both parties repeatedly framed the issue as one of national competitiveness and security. The full committee chairman noted international activity in seabed mapping and asked witnesses about relative U.S. capabilities; witnesses said U.S. technology is strong when deployed but warned that capacity shortfalls and funding interruptions create strategic risks.
The hearing record will remain open for 10 days for additional written questions and comments from members.
