On July 14, 2014 at the 2014 Esri International User’s Conference in San Diego, California, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker discussed the Department of Commerce’s expanding role as “America’s Data Agency.” In her remarks, she described how the Commerce Department’s data collection – which literally reaches from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun – not only informs trillions of dollars of private and public investments each year and plants the seeds of economic growth, but also saves lives.