United States Global Positioning System Industry Council

“The board of directors has delegated review of the form 990 to the executive committee of the council.”

“Any relevant documents such as governing documents, financial statements, conflict of interest policy, expense reporting, and tax related filings such as form 990 are available at any time upon request to our office for discussion and review.”

“The council bylaws provides that any member may recuse themselves from participation in any specific council activities and/or issue in which a conflict of interest arise. In addition, the board of directors is small and members work closely together and would be aware of many conflicts of interest. The board of directors, upon information made known to it by any source, may also require recusal on specific issues or specific activities by any member. We have never had an instance where such conflicts have been identified or recusal has been required.”

“The year 2013 brought with it continued issues and challenges to protecting and preserving the stable and quiet radio spectrum environment in which GPS and other satellite navigation services operate. In addition, we faced several issues of working to ensure the compatibility of new and emerging satellite and wireless services with GPS and satellite navigation both in the US and to a growing degree outside of the US. USGIC continued its ongoing dialogue with the US Government on the evolution of the management and regulatory structure governing GPS, as well as on technical aspects of designing and implementing new signal structures for GPS satellite signals. - UGSIC participated in workshops with the GPS Independent Review Team, which reports to the Commander of Air Force Space Command on factors affecting various type of interference to GPS receiver equipment. - USGIC provided comments and technical insights to Air Force Space Command and other US Government agencies on the utility of introducing pre-operational CNAV navigation messages on the GPS L2C and L5 signals, On the Congressional and legislative areas, activities during 2013 included monitoring federal and state legislative and regulatory policies related to Global Positioning Systems ("GPS"), including bills before the US House and Senate, state legislative bodies, and proceedings at all relevant federal and state agencies. Also during 2013, the USGIC met with policy makers to provide educational information and advocate for the GPS industry and user community. Briefed Congressional offices regarding legislative provisions related to GLONASS in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2014. Researched possible impacts of geolocation privacy legislation. Analyzed funding levels for GPS programs in the FY 2014 Department of Defense Appropriations bill. Analyzed funding levels for GPS programs in the FY 2014 Department of Transportation Appropriations bill. Monitored GPS related provisions in the FY 2014 Financial Services Appropriations bill. Educated Congressional offices regarding GPS spectrum issues and advocated for spectrum policies that would best support the long-term success of GPS. As a consequence of the continuing regulatory issues related to US spectrum management policy via the FCC and other Federal agencies, USGIC engaged in a larger effort than previously encountered to monitor these developments and prepare specialized filings within these agencies On the international front, two prominent issues continued over from last year, each with the potential to introduce interference to the reception of GPS signals in critical safety of life applications such as air traffic management, and along the entire range of civilian and commercial applications. The first of these is an ongoing proposal in Europe to allow the deployment and use of outdoor and indoor pesudolites (substitute land-based transmitters that mimic actual GPS or other navigation satellites). Uncontrolled use of pseudolites can, in effect, introduce what appear to be false GPS signals to GPS receivers in use, and lead to erroneous position information. The signals from pseudolites can also, in some circumstances jam or prevent reception of legitimate GPS signals. To address this issue, USGIC has maintained a constructive dialogue with the European Commission and other European regulatory agencies of our concerns, and have proposed that any such pseudolites use signals in radio spectrum that is distinct and separate from the L-band spectrum currently used by GPS. A second source of concern over interference to GPS signals in the international arena arose from a proposal from Japan to launch a new generation radar imaging satellite, the ALOS-2 satellite. This satellite posed the potential to interfere with high-precision GPS receivers used in applications such as commercial vehicle tacking, precision agriculture, land survey, etc., as well as with some components of GPS-based air traf”

“Beginning in 2013, the council began lobbying activities.”