NavList:

Bob Peterson, you wrote:
"Should we be concerned for Nautical Almanac"

I'll say "no" on this specific question. No matter what agency in the US government presently produces the "orange cover" Nautical Almanac, the standard US issue of the volume, neither the data nor book (paper) editions of the data are under threat. The printed "Commercial Nautical Almanac" is licensed from the UK HMNAO (His Majesty's Nautical Almanac Office), and of course there is also that primary source, HMNAO, for printed copies direct.

It is conceivable that the US standard "orange" Nautical Almanac could cease production, and, in fact, this could have been done twenty years ago. This would achieve negligible, trivial savings of US federal budget money since the primary document is produced entirely by HMNAO and, even there, is presumably little more than a few clicks on a laptop annually to get it out. I would estimate that the cost not covered by sales revenue for the US version is on the order of $20,000 annually --a portion of a salary of one employee. 

Losing the official "orange" Nautical Almanac would also be no significant cost to navigators. There are multiple sources for the data both authorized and with good provenance --like the "Commercial Nautical Almanac"-- as well as unauthorized and with weak provenance (in the latter category is thenauticalalmanac[dot]com which is becoming increasingly popular despite the simple fact that they are "just some folks" with a website).

Most of us in the world of navigation, with roots in the USA, have a strong attachment to the "orange" Nautical Almanac. I like them! But one day they will be done and probably with little fanfare.

Frank Reed