These organizations include six of the twelve laboratories that make up NOAA's Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) Laboratories, formerly (ERL), three of the Data Centers of the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS), one of OAR's eleven Joint Institutes, the Denver Forecast Office of the National Weather Service (NWS), and an Administrative Support Center. Another OAR Joint Institute is located at Colorado State University in Fort Collins but many Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA) employees work in Boulder.

In addition to NOAA, Boulder is home to part of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), both within the Department of Commerce.

The David Skaggs Research Center is the new home for the NOAA-Boulder organizations and is managed by GSA in Boulder.