USGS STATEMAP FY2027: $15 Million, a Mine-Waste Critical Minerals Criterion, and a February 17 Deadline

Every state geological survey in the country is about to write the same proposal at the same time, and this year the pool is smaller.

On November 13 the U.S. Geological Survey posted the FY2027 State Component of the National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program, better known as STATEMAP (funding opportunity G27AS00148, Assistance Listing 15.810). It estimates $15,000,000 for about 45 cooperative agreements, with a federal ceiling of $800,000 per state and a mandatory 1:1 match. Applications are due Wednesday, February 17, 2027, at 5:00 p.m. Eastern.

The FY2026 announcement, which closed in May, estimated $18 million for the same 45 awards. FY2027 is down 17 percent before Congress has even finished the Interior appropriations bill, and the administration's budget request would cut the parent program by 45 percent. The NOFO also adds two new mapping categories, one of them tied directly to the federal critical minerals push, and a new set of certifications. Here is what state geologists and their university partners need to know.

What STATEMAP Is, and Why It Matters

STATEMAP was created by the National Geologic Mapping Act of 1992 (P.L. 102-285), which split national geologic mapping into a federal component (FEDMAP), an education component (EDMAP), and a state component. Congress has reauthorized the Act several times, most recently in the 2019 Dingell Act and then in the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (P.L. 117-58, Sec. 40202), which extended authorization through 2031 and added an "abandoned mine land and mine waste" mapping component that prioritizes areas likely to contain multiple critical minerals. The statute authorizes up to $64 million a year for the whole program; appropriations have never come close.

For most state surveys, STATEMAP is the backbone of their mapping budget. The 1:24,000 quadrangle maps it pays for are what county planners, highway departments, water managers, and mineral explorers actually use, and a large share of the detailed geologic maps in the National Geologic Map Database exist because of it.

The funding history shows how much the program has grown, and how recently:

Those are actual awards from the USGS funding spreadsheet, which totals $221.4 million in federal STATEMAP funds from 1993 through 2025. They also reveal a pattern worth knowing: actual awards have come in below the advertised estimate. FY2023 was advertised at $18 million and awarded $14.69 million. FY2027's $15 million estimate is therefore not a floor, and it is contingent on a final FY2027 Interior appropriation.

The Budget Fight Behind the Number

The administration's FY2027 budget justification requests $23.8 million for the National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program, "a program change of −$19,702,000 and −40 FTE from the 2026 enacted," which puts FY2026 at about $43.5 million and the request at a 45 percent cut. It would move the program into a new Geology, Energy, and Minerals Mission Area and says STATEMAP "will be focused on" public safety, natural hazards, and infrastructure.

The House Interior bill (H.R. 9171) went the other way. According to the American Geophysical Union's summary, it includes $43.5 million for NCGMP, fully reversing the proposed cut. No Senate figure for the program has surfaced, and the government is operating under a continuing resolution that runs through December 11, 2026.

The practical reading: $15 million is USGS's planning number for a year when the final appropriation could land anywhere between the request and the House level. Surveys should build a proposal that works at the amount they are offered, because that is how STATEMAP allocates money.

How Funding Is Actually Decided

STATEMAP does not simply fund or reject proposals. A seven-member panel, made up of four State Geologists selected by the Association of American State Geologists and three USGS geologists, scores every proposal out of 100 points:

The NOFO says that "the final scores… determine baseline State funding distributions relative to total available STATEMAP funds." In other words, scores set each state's share of the pot. States then submit revised proposals sized to the amount they are offered, or opt out. A state that asks for $800,000 and scores in the middle of the pack will be told to rescope; it will not get $800,000.

The 20-point Map Publications criterion is unusual. The program officer selects one of the state's recently published STATEMAP maps from the National Geologic Map Database, and the panel judges its quality. A survey with a backlog of unpublished deliverables, or a recent map with weak cartography or an incomplete GeMS database, carries that into this year's score. Past recipients must also have "fulfilled previously funded deliverables," and failure is grounds for ineligibility or penalties under 2 CFR 200.339–343.

What FY2027 Funds

The NOFO defines detailed mapping as 1:24,000 to 1:63,360 and regional mapping as 1:250,000 to 1:500,000, and lists nine Guidance Criteria:

1. New geologic maps, delivered as PDF plus a GeMS-compliant database
2. Derivative maps, such as mineral and energy resource, hazard, land-use, and aggregate maps
3. Map compilations, now including updates to a state's portion of the Cooperative National Geologic Map
4. New: 1:24,000 mapping of a 7.5-minute quadrangle containing abandoned mine land or mine waste "where multiple critical minerals and (or) metal commodities are anticipated," referencing the 2025 List of Critical Minerals
5. Subsurface and 3D data and models
6. Conversion of legacy maps to GeMS databases
7. Stratigraphic charts and lexicons
8. Coordinated projects with neighboring states
9. New: digital geologic data for state geoheritage sites, including StoryMaps

Two things dropped out. The FY2026 criterion funding geophysical and geochemical data for national databases is gone, and the NOFO steers that work to Earth MRI. The standalone Cooperative National Geologic Map criterion was folded into compilations. Stand-alone digitization belongs in the National Geological and Geophysical Data Preservation Program, not STATEMAP.

The policy framing changed too. The NOFO cites Executive Order 14154 and Interior Secretarial Orders 3417, 3418, and 3436, the last of which concerns recovering critical minerals from mine waste and is new for FY2027. Applicants must certify compliance with the executive orders "Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing" and "Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History," and that compliance is checked in initial review. Neither certification appeared in the FY2026 text.

The mine-waste criterion is the opportunity

Criterion 4 is where the policy priorities and the statute meet. The 2021 reauthorization already directed STATEMAP to map abandoned mine lands for critical minerals; FY2027 is the first NOFO in recent cycles to make it a named category, and the Secretarial Order it cites makes the federal interest explicit. States in the West, Appalachia, and the upper Midwest with legacy mining districts, tailings, and waste rock piles have a natural proposal: a quadrangle that maps the bedrock geology and the mine features together, with sampling that characterizes which commodities may be present.

Two cautions. The criterion requires the quadrangle to be one where multiple critical minerals or metal commodities "are anticipated," so the proposal should cite prior data (USMIN, Earth MRI focus areas, historical production records) rather than speculation. And geochemical sampling that is not specific to the map belongs in Earth MRI. Keep the analytical budget tied to map units.

Eligibility, Match, and Cost Rules

Eligibility is limited to state geological surveys. A state university may apply on behalf of a survey housed inside it, which is how surveys in states such as Kansas, Kentucky, and Illinois apply. Each survey submits one proposal per year, which may contain any number of projects.

Every survey must have a State Mapping Advisory Committee that meets at least annually. The proposal must include a letter, up to four pages and signed by the committee chair, covering state priorities, the long-term mapping plan, how projects were prioritized, the meeting date, and attending members with affiliation, expertise, and voting status. Voting SMAC members cannot be listed as personnel on any proposed project. If your committee has not met since the last cycle, schedule the meeting now; a December or January meeting with minutes is far easier to document than a February scramble.

The 1:1 match is statutory and applies to both total direct charges and the grand total. A proposal that fails the match on direct charges is automatically ineligible. Overmatch is allowed but "does not increase chances of receiving an award."

Federal indirect costs are capped at 18 percent of total direct costs. Unrecovered indirect above that can be shown as uncollected indirect but does not count toward match. Computer hardware, GPS units, vehicles, tuition, routine computer maintenance, map printing, and positions vacant at submission are unallowable as either federal cost or match. Conference travel is capped at $8,000, up from $6,000, and field tablets at $10,000 per unit, up from $5,000. The award floor rose from $0 to $1,000.

The technical section is limited to 25 pages, or 10 pages for requests under $150,000. The data management plan is limited to two pages.

Timeline

FY2027 moves back to a winter cycle after FY2026's spring competition. Funding decisions are not expected before March 1, 2027. Projects may not start before May 1, 2027, may run 12 to 24 months, and the anticipated period is May 1, 2027 to April 30, 2029. Awards must be issued by December 31, 2027. Deliverables are due within 90 days after the period of performance ends and must be published within 12 months after that; 18- to 24-month awards also owe a 12-month progress report.

The calendar produces a familiar squeeze. States still finishing FY2026 field seasons are writing FY2027 proposals now, and the FY2027 Map Publications score depends on getting earlier products into the National Geologic Map Database.

Strategy for the Next 13 Weeks

1. Hold the SMAC meeting early and document it exactly as the NOFO requires.
2. Clear the publication backlog. Anything that can be published in NGMDB before February strengthens the 20-point products criterion.
3. Decide whether you have a Criterion 4 quadrangle. If your state has a mapped mining district with critical-mineral potential and no modern 1:24,000 coverage, it is the most policy-aligned project you can propose this year.
4. Budget for a revision. Build the proposal in modular projects so you can drop or shrink one when USGS sends your allocation, rather than rescoping everything.
5. Line up the match now. State general funds and salaries are the usual sources, and a legislature facing its own budget cuts may not deliver them on short notice.
6. Ask questions in writing. Technical questions go to Kate Ritzel at statemap@usgs.gov and grants questions to Amber Brazil at the Interior Business Center.

STATEMAP has grown nearly threefold since 2019 and has funded 40 or more states every year. FY2027 is the first cycle in a while where the program's size is genuinely in question. Surveys that write proposals that hold up under a smaller allocation, and that put a critical-minerals quadrangle at the top of the list, will be best placed however the appropriation lands. For the companion USGS hazards competition posted two weeks earlier, see our analysis of the FY2027 landslide hazard grants.