This entire A76 process is the perfect example of how poorly the USGS has been managed for the past 20+ years. The entire process is totally unnecessary, and a complete waste of time and money. Given that the age of the average USGS employee (somewhere in the mid 50s), most would be eligible to retire shortly. The DOI is spending millions to axe a few hundred employees just a few years from retirement. This reduction in force could have been done painlessly through attrition rather than turning 400 or so families lives up side down. The downsizing of the USGS could have been accomplished in a methodical, organized, and sensible fashion over a reasonable time frame resulting in a fully functional agency rather than needlessly destroying the premier national civil mapping agency. The concept of using state and local sources to produce national geospatial data seems logical in theory. The technology is there but I question USGS management’s ability to bring hundreds of partners together within just a few years and be able to produce a continuously updated, nationally consistent, seamless national map (given that the post A76 agency will be a shadow of it’s former self). Bringing these partners together in short order might be possible in a perfect world where everyone works together in total and complete cooperation but USGS management cant even work in a cooperative fashion amongst themselves much less bringing hundred of partners together, each with their own agenda, over the course of a few years. What a shame. What a waste of tax dollars.