A nearly 18-acre stretch of Menlo Park that was once home to the U.S. Geological Survey has officially changed hands. The U.S. General Services Administration announced on Monday it had finalized the $137 million public sale of Rockaway Grove, the former USGS campus. … In June, 19 U.S. senators with the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources sent a letter to the Department of the Interior, in which they warned that the proposed $564 million in budget cuts, the reported terminations of hundreds of scientists and the potential termination of GSA leases for USGS facilities were representative of a “multi-front assault on the nation’s scientific infrastructure.” They argued that … the federal government should err on the side of caution in moving forward with proposed changes that may undermine key research on disasters, ecosystems, water resources and climate adaptation.