Effort to create geographic data portal moving slowly

The implementation of a federal initiative to create an Internet portal for easy access to geographical data from government sources is facing major challenges, a panel of experts told a House Government Reform subcommittee on Tuesday.

The Office of Management and Budget is developing the portal to share data among federal, state and local agencies in order to aid emergency-response workers and others.

But the General Accounting Office and other mapping experts told the Technology, Information Policy, Intergovernmental Relations and the Census Subcommittee that the portal must contend with more than 40 duplicative sites for collecting "geospatial" data.

Additionally, some federal agencies and state and local governments may be reluctant to abandon their own projects in favor of a federal system, the witnesses said.

Still, OMB touted progress on the portal, citing completion of a new framework to integrate duplicative programs.