https://crsreports.congress.gov
Updated March 27, 2025
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS): Background and FY2025
Appropriations
Background
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in the Department of
the Interior (DOI), provides scientific information to
support the management of water, energy, mineral,
ecosystem, and land resources, and to mitigate risks from
natural hazards. The USGS also collects long-term data to
understand and report on the Earth’s geologic and
ecosystem processes, using satellite imagery, mapping, and
ground-based instruments. The USGS has no regulatory
authority and does not manage federal lands.
Congress created the USGS in 1879 in the USGS Organic
Act (43 U.S.C. §31). The USGS Organic Act defined the
initial scope of the USGS:
[The Director of the USGS] shall have the direction
of the United States Geological Survey, and the
classification of the public lands and examination of
the geological structure, mineral resources, and
products of the national domain.
Since 1879, Congress has expanded the USGS’s statutory
authority to “such examinations outside the national domain
where determined by the Secretary [of the Interior] to be in
the national interest” (43 U.S.C. §31(b)). This expansion
has included activities related to water resources,
ecosystems, and natural hazards that span the globe. The
USGS conducts scientific activities under interdisciplinary
mission areas, and each mission area has its own budget
line (see Table 1). The USGS also has budget lines for
Science Support (administrative activities and information)
and Facilities. Congress typically appropriates funds for the
USGS under its Surveys, Investigations, and Research
account through annual Interior, Environment, and Related
Agencies appropriations acts and, in some years, has
provided supplemental appropriations.
FY2025 Annual Appropriations
President Biden’s budget request for USGS annual
appropriations in FY2025 was $1.578 billion, $122.9
million more than FY2024 annual appropriations of $1.455
billion provided by P.L. 118-42, Division E (an 8%
increase). The House passed its FY2025 Interior,
Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill
(H.R. 8998) on July 24, 2024. That bill contained $1.376
billion for the USGS. The next day, the Senate
Appropriations Committee reported its FY2025 measure (S.
4802); the bill would have appropriated $1.482 billion.
The Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions
Act, 2025 (P.L. 119-4), enacted on March 15, 2024,
appropriated $1.450 billion for the USGS (Figure 1). The
FY2025 appropriation is $128.1 million less than President
Biden’s FY2025 budget request and $5.2 million less than
FY2024 annual appropriations. The FY2024 law had
contained $5.2 million for congressionally directed
spending items under the “Special Initiatives” line item.
P.L. 119-4, Division A, Section 1111, provides that the law
does not include funding for FY2024 “earmarks.”
Figure 1. USGS Annual Appropriations,
FY2020-FY2025
(in millions)
Source: Congressional Research Service, based on enacted
appropriations laws.
Note: The yellow line shows FY2020-FY2024 amounts as adjusted for
inflation to FY2024 dollars, using U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis,
“Table 3.9.4. Price Indexes for Government Consumption Expenditures
and Gross Investment” (accessed March 2025).
P.L. 119-4 generally provides that appropriations for
FY2025 for the USGS (among other agencies) are at the
same rates and under the same terms and conditions as
enacted in P.L. 118-42, Division E, unless otherwise
specified. P.L. 118-42, Division E, specified funding for
USGS satellite operations ($95.3 million) and deferred
maintenance and capital improvement projects that exceed
$100,000 in cost ($74.8 million). P.L. 119-4 did not specify
other USGS funding allocations. Instead, Division A,
Section 1113, generally directed departments and certain
agencies to submit spending, expenditure, or operating
plans to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees,
at the program, project, or activity level or any greater level
of detail required for FY2024. Such FY2025 plans, often
referred to as operating plans, are due not later than 45 days
after enactment of P.L. 119-4.
In earlier action, committee reports accompanying House
and Senate FY2025 Interior, Environment, and Related
