A bill to amend the Digital Coast Act to improve the acquisition, integration, and accessibility of data of the Digital Coast program and to extend the program.

This bill would amend the Digital Coast Act to strengthen how coastal data from the Digital Coast program is collected, combined, and shared. The key changes are: (1) require that Digital Coast data not only be readily accessible but fully and freely available, expanding open-data access for users; (2) broaden the types of data the program can include to explicitly cover underground infrastructure and subsurface utilities (e.g., buried pipes and cables); and (3) extend the statutory timeline of the program to 2030, giving the initiative a longer horizon for ongoing operations and data development. Overall, the bill aims to improve data openness, expand data coverage to critical buried infrastructure, and extend the program’s duration to support coastal planning, resilience, and research.