As you are likely aware, due to the failure of Congress to reach a deal on balanced deficit reduction to avoid sequestration, the President was required by law to issue a sequestration order on March 1, 2013 canceling approximately $85 billion in budgetary resources across the Federal government for the remainder of the Federal fiscal year.
At this time, the U.S. Geological Survey is taking every step to mitigate the effects of these cuts, focusing first on our most important mission — providing science that helps protect lives and property. But while we seek to minimize the effect these budget cuts will have on our core mission critical functions, sequestration will have a very real impact on our science, and on the support we provide daily to the American public.
As part of our prioritization of resources and missions, we have reviewed our ability to support our partner engagement and outreach programs, and have determined that we must postpone the planned The National Map Users Conference and USGS Community for Data Integration Workshop that was to take place May 21-24, 2013 in Denver. With our deep involvement in the geospatial and data communities, this isn’t an action we took lightly.
Thank you for your continued support of the USGS and for your cooperation as we work together to manage these unfortunate circumstances.
