The federal governments efforts to coordinate its geospatial activities, through the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) and the development of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI), include a strong emphasis on land parcel data. Land parcel databases (or cadastres) describe the rights, interests, and value of property. Ownership of land parcels is an important part of the legal, financial, and real estate system of a society. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is assigned the role of lead agency coordinating land parcel data for federal lands, and is responsible for performing cadastral surveys on all federal and Indian lands. According to BLM, Cadastral surveys are the foundation for all land title records in the United States and provide federal and tribal land managers with information necessary for the management of their lands. Although BLM is steward of federal land parcel data and coordinator for cadastral data under FGDC, a 2007 National Research Council (NRC) report found that a coordinated approach to federally managed parcel data did not exist. Legislation that addresses some of the issues for creating a national cadastre has been introduced in the 111th Congress (H.R. 1520, the Federal Land Asset Inventory Reform Act of 2009). Similar bills were introduced in previous Congresses, but were not enacted. In addition, the E-Government Act of 2002 (P.L. 107-347) contains provisions that specifically address reducing data redundancy and promoting collaboration and use of standards for government geographic information. If the E-Government Act was reauthorized, it could also include language establishing a national cadastre. Coordinating all land parcel data, the bulk of which is produced for local and regional needs on non-federal lands, remains even more of a challenge. Why a national land parcel database? The National Geospatial Advisory Committee (NGAC) observed that the federal governments land parcel data is missing an arrangement for acquiring the detailed property-related data necessary to make decisions during times of emergency, such as a natural disaster. In addition to emergency response to disasters, other perceived needs for a national land parcel database include responding to the home mortgage foreclosure crisis, dealing with wildfires, managing energy resources on federal lands, dealing with the effects of climate change, and possibly more. Both administrative and legislative options have been proposed to achieve the vision for a land parcel database described in the 2007 NRC report: a distributed system of land parcel data housed with the appropriate data stewards but accessible through a web-based interface. Some recommend that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Department of the Interior take a stronger hand in enforcing the requirements of OMB Circular A-16 and Executive Order 12906, which created the FGDC and instigated efforts to create the NSDI. NGAC, for example, also recommended establishing a Geographic Information Officer within each federal department or agency, and establishing a geospatial leadership and coordination function in the Executive Office of the President. The NRC recommended the creation of both a federal land parcel coordinator and a national land parcel coordinator. The first would be responsible for federal lands and property; the second would coordinate parcel data from all sources, both public and private lands. A truly national land parcel cadastre would likely require strong partnerships between the federal government and state and local governments.