I based it on https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2015/02/... (somewhere in the middle), but I'm still looking for a specific cite. In the meantime you'll see that MAPS only operates with private funding:

http://www.maps.org/donate-redirect/funding-priorities

A license to research and federal funding are separate issues, and my comment was only intended to address the latter.