Trump Cuts Threaten Agency That Provides GPS Data

Wired reports:

Cuts made by the Trump administration are threatening the function of a tiny but crucial office within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that maintains the US’s framework of spatial information: latitudes, longitudes, vertical measurements like elevation, and even measurements of Earth’s gravitational field.

Staff losses at the National Geodetic Survey (NGS), the oldest scientific agency in the US, could further cripple its mission and activities, including a long-awaited project to update the accuracy of these measurements, former employees and experts say.

As the world turns more and more toward operations that need precise coordinate systems like the ones NGS provides, the science that underpins this office’s activities, these experts say, is becoming even more crucial. The work of NGS, says Tim Burch, the executive director of the National Society of Professional Surveyors, “is kind of like oxygen. You don’t know you need it until it’s not there.”

Read the full article. GPS is used to map floodplains, measure sea rise, operate driverless vehicles, and much more.

Trump administration cuts are threatening the National Geodetic Survey, a tiny but crucial office within the NOAA that maintains the US’s framework of spatial information: latitudes, longitudes, elevation measurements, and more.https://t.co/m27cI52E7Q

— WIRED (@WIRED) May 21, 2025