The mission of the National Geodetic Survey (NGS) is to define, maintain and provide access to the National Spatial Reference System (NSRS). The NSRS provides a consistent coordinate system that defines latitude, longitude, height, scale, gravity, and orientation throughout the United States and its territories. The current standards and specifications for acquiring and processing terrestrial gravity data date back to 1984, long before the now common use of portable absolute gravity meters and modern relative instruments. We present a proposal for a detailed update of these standards and specifications, which is consistent with the latest resolutions of the International Association of Geodesy: absolute gravity meter accuracies will be traced to international comparisons, and these can, in turn, be linked to other instruments through regional comparisons and fundamental gravity sites. Calibration procedures based on absolute observations will also quantify the accuracy of relative instruments as well.