Farm Bill and Privacy

In a recent post on his blog, Spatial Law, Kevin Pomfret announces a detail from the recent Farm Bill's conference report that seems to prohibit the Department of Agriculture from disclosing spatial information that it collects, in direct contravention of a recent court case around this issue. He specifically mentions Section 1619(b)(2)(B) of the conference report. Having only recently learned a little about these political devices while at the 2008 Mid-Year meeting in Annapolis, I wonder if NSGIC might want to look into this further. After all our work to encourage the acquisition of standardized, nationwide imagery on a consistent and predictable schedule, it would be a tragedy to have a conference report (sound a little like a signing statement?) undo those efforts without a fight.

I hope I am not making too much of this.