Its 32 members are representatives from the Executive Office of the President, and Cabinet level and independent federal agencies.

The NSDI manages the distribution of these assets across all interconnected systems, federal and private sector, and analyzes it to determine the impact of the world economically, physically and socially upon the United States.

Part of NSDI's mission is to help avoid duplication or erroneous modification of this spatial data.

Accurate and dependable spatial data allows NSDI to analyze current situational trends such as weather patterns, traffic congestions, and other various infrastructures to create a national snapshot in order to make predictions or projections based on these data.

Rep. John Sarbanes of Maryland quoted a U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) report from his briefing material saying that only 4 of the FGDC member agencies were in compliance.