Fiscal Year 2021 Program Funding

Updated November 13, 2020

On February 11, 2020, the White House released the President's Fiscal Year 2021 budget proposal. This page lists the FY 2021 funding amounts requested for each element of the nation's GPS program.

Each line item below provides external links to original source documents, including bills, report language, and agency budget justifications submitted to Congress.

This page highlights legislative provisions in the funding bills for information only. The executive branch does not endorse any pending legislation except where explicitly noted.

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Defense Appropriations

BILL

The President's request for the GPS program totals over $1.8 billion including procurement and research, development, testing, and evaluation (RDT&E). View source (8 MB PDF)

Starting in FY 2021, the Department of Defense (DOD) is requesting funds for the GPS program through the U.S. Space Force instead of the Air Force.

Bill Status

Funding Marks

• The House decrease for GPS IIIF procurement includes this note: "Unjustified increase". The Senate decrease includes this note: "Maintain program affordability: Excess to need". See table for sources.
• The House decrease for GPS IIIF development includes this note: "Inadequate justification". The Senate increase includes this note: "Improving funds management: Prior year carryover. Program increase: Navigation Technology Satellite–3 (NTS–3) Payload and Launch". See table for sources.
• The Senate decrease for OCX includes this note: "Maintain program affordability: OCX Block 3F early to need". See table for source.
• The House decrease for MGUE development includes this note: "Inadequate justification". The Senate decrease includes this note: "Improving funds management: Prior year carryover—Maritime/ground card integration". See table for sources.

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Transportation Appropriations

BILL

The President's budget request does not designate a specific level of DOT funding to cover civil requirements in the DOD GPS program.

Bill Status

Funding Marks

GPS Backup and Complementary PNT

• The House report includes the following direction regarding DOT's field demonstration of GPS backup and complementary PNT services: "The Committee directs the Department to brief the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations on the results of the field demonstration and the Department's recommendations no later than 30 days after the recommendations have been finalized. This briefing should include estimates on the funding necessary to carry out the Department's recommendations. Further, the Committee provides $5,000,000 to assist the Department in carrying out its recommendations." View PDF (2 MB)
• The Senate explanatory statement states, "The Committee supports the Department's efforts to implement the National Timing Resilience and Security Act of 2018 (Public Law 115–282) and awaits the Department's recommendations from the recent demonstration. The Committee is aware that the Department has six staff positions for this work and encourages the office to fill current vacancies to ensure adequate staffing to fulfill the requirements of this initiative. Within the funds provided, the Committee directs the Secretary to dedicate $2,000,000 to support implementation of the Department's recommendations." View PDF (422 KB)

Geolocation Privacy

• The Senate explanatory statement directs DOT "to require recipients of Federal funds, to the extent permitted by law, to submit and make publicly available a privacy policy regarding the collection, use, sharing, and protection of geolocation information. The Committee directs the Department to develop a public resource of best practices for privacy positive approaches for geolocation data in transportation." View PDF (422 KB)

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Defense Authorization

BILL

The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 includes policy and funding guidance for the GPS program. It does not expend funds from the U.S. Treasury.

Bill Status

Funding Marks

• The House decrease for GPS IIIF procurement includes this note: "Unjustified growth". See table for source.
• The House decrease for GPS IIIF development includes this note: "Execution lagging." See table for source.
• The House decrease for OCX development includes these notes: "Program decrease" and "Unjustified growth". The Senate decrease includes this note: "Funds available prioritized to other space missions". See table for sources.
• The Senate decrease for MGUE includes this note: "The committee understands that the modernized Global Positioning System user equipment program for the Space Force has slipped by over a year and that more delays are possible." View PDF (1.6 MB)

Harmful Interference to GPS

• Section 234 of the Senate bill would require the Secretary of Defense to enter into an agreement with the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine to conduct an independent technical review of the Order and Authorization adopted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on April 19, 2020 (FCC 20–48). The independent technical review would include a comparison of the two different approaches used for evaluation of potential harmful interference. The provision also would require the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine to submit a report on the independent technical review. View PDF (3 MB)
  • The accompanying report states, "The committee is aware that extensive testing performed by 9 federal agencies concluded that the Ligado proposal will cause interference for both civilian and military Global Positioning System (GPS) users. The committee notes that the Department of Defense, Department of Justice, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Department of Transportation, Department of Commerce, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Energy, and Federal Aviation Administration all strongly oppose this proposal. The committee is also concerned that the mitigation conditions imposed on Ligado in the FCC Order are not practical and do not adequately protect GPS." View PDF (1.6 MB)
• Section 1083 of the Senate bill would prohibit any funds authorized to be appropriated by this Act for fiscal year 2021 from being used by the Secretary of Defense to comply with the Order and Authorization adopted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC 20-48) until the Secretary submits to the Congress an estimate of the covered costs and eligible reimbursable costs associated with interference with the Global Positioning System (GPS) resulting from the Order. The provision would require that the Secretary certify that the estimate is accurate with a high degree of certainty. View PDF (3 MB)
  • The accompanying report states, "The committee is concerned that the Federal Communications Commission approved Ligado's proposal despite extensive testing performed by 9 Federal agencies that concluded that the Ligado proposal will cause interference for both civilian and military GPS users. The committee is concerned that the conditions imposed on Ligado in FCC 20-48 are not practical and do not adequately protect GPS. Specifically, the committee is concerned that the requirement for Ligado to repair or replace any potentially affected Federal GPS receiver would only cover the cost of the GPS receiver and not any of the associated development and fielding costs to repair or replace the device, placing a large cost burden on the Department of Defense." View PDF (1.6 MB)
• Section 1609 of the House bill would prohibit funding for the Department of Defense to retrofit any Global Positioning System device or system to mitigate interference from commercial terrestrial operations using certain megahertz bands, with some exceptions. View PDF (5.8 MB)
• Section 1608 of the House bill would prohibit the Secretary of Defense from contracting with an entity that engages in commercial terrestrial operations using specified bands until certification is made that the activity would not cause harmful interference to the Department's Global Positioning System. View PDF (5.8 MB)

PNT Resilience and GPS Backup

• Section 1601 of the Senate bill would require the Secretary of Defense to: (1) Prioritize mission elements, platforms, and weapon systems that require position, navigation, and timing (PNT) and are critical to operations; (2) Mature, test, and produce sufficient quantities of equipment that can generate or process available resilient alternative PNT signals to equip the prioritized force elements; and (3) Integrate and deploy such equipment into the prioritized operational systems, platforms, and weapons. In addition, the provision would require the Secretary, not later than January 1, 2021, to submit a plan to the congressional defense committees for achieving these goals, including budget requirements, and to begin implementation in fiscal year 2021. The bill further directs the Secretary of Defense to coordinate with the National Security Council, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Transportation, and other appropriate departments and agencies to encourage civilian and commercial adoption of Department of Defense-developed technologies and capabilities for resilient alternative PNT to back up the Global Positioning System. View PDF (3 MB)
• Section 1607 of the House bill would limit the obligation or expenditure of funds for fiscal year 2021 to not more than 80 percent for increment 2 of the acquisition of military Global Positioning System user equipment terminals until the Secretary of Defense provides a certification that the Secretary of the Air Force is carrying out the program required under section 1607 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020 (Public Law 116–92), which mandated that the Secretary establish a program to prototype an Mcode based, multi-global navigation satellite system receiver that is capable of receiving covered signals to increase the resilience and capability of military position, navigation, and timing equipment and to deter the likelihood of attack on the worldwide Global Positioning System by reducing the benefits of such an attack. This section would also limit the obligation or expenditure of funds until the Secretary of Defense provides a briefing to the Committees on Armed Services of the Senate and the House of Representatives on how such a program is being implemented. View PDF (5.8 MB)
• The House report "directs the Secretary of Defense to provide a briefing to the House Committee on Armed Services not later than February 1, 2021 containing an assessment of the Department's ability to conduct all-weather, day-night flight operations in GPS-denied environments at military airfields overseas." View PDF (3.4 MB)
• The House report "directs the Secretaries of Defense, Transportation, and Homeland Security to provide a briefing to the appropriate congressional committees by January 31, 2021, on the implementation of an operational backup system required under NTSRA." NTRSA is the National Timing Resilience and Security Act of 2018. View PDF (3.4 MB)

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