It depends: if you are an employee of the federal government then you probably have some exemption. If you are in private practice and the federal government is merely a client then I think you have to comply with whatever the particular state regulations require. See what the CO law says or ask the BOR what their opinion is.
You are talking about land surveying agencies, right?
NGS does not survey land boundaries, USGS is the nations mapping agency, USCE has no survey survey authority and Coot and Carp has no survey authority.
Keith
We have had contracts with several different federal agencies. Typically, the contract will be issued for a certain district and each time, we were required to have a licensed surveyor in each state in that district. These contracts included mostly boundary surveys and/or dam instrumentation projects.
The federal agencies I work with look at it the way i think it should be looked at-yes, for boundary work a state license is required. For all other types of surveying (topo, deformation, control, hydro)-no license required in that state. I have worked on federal projects in all 50 states, but only boundary in PA, where I am licensed.
In my opinion the myriad state regulations that require a license for everything outside of boundary work are restraint of trade, trying to keep the work among the privileged few. It sometimes results in the less-than-qualified but locally licensed being selected over a more qualified individual or firm simply because of the license. This is especially true in the geodetic world.