Appropriations Committees Slash President's FY2014 Recommendation

Appropriations committees in both the U.S. House and Senate have voted to make deep cuts in the civil communities' contribution to the GPS system next fiscal year. In the House, the entire $20 million was stripped from President Obama's budget request. The Senate cut $5 million ... 25 percent.

The online publication InsideGNSS reports that WAAS did not fare much better, with the house cutting $29 million from the $100 million budget request. The Senate snipped out $9 million.

The President's budget request for the system was already less than half the amount requested in previous fiscal years, and analysts say the cuts could severely jeopardizing development of the Next Generation Operational Control System (OCX) needed to control GPS III satellites that are being built.

The civil contributions had originally been put in place by the administration of President George W. Bush, who wanted the civilian sector to have "some skin in the game" for civilian uses of GPS. But the allocation has been reduced each of the past two fiscal years because the Department of Defense held "a significant unobligated balance" earmarked for GPS.

The DoD has its own funding issues to contend with, and one expert on the situation told Inside GNSS that the Air Force "just can't step up and fill the gap for civil agencies."

FMI: http://appropriations.house.gov, www.appropriations.senate.gov