Democrats Rail Against Downsizing of Weather Agency

April 1, 2025 by Tom Ramstack
Democrats Rail Against Downsizing of Weather Agency
The National Hurricane Center in Miami, Fla. (Photo by Cyclone Bisquit.)

WASHINGTON — National Weather Service officials are expressing concern about whether they will be able to adequately warn the public about storms as this year’s hurricane season approaches.

The Trump administration has terminated more than 800 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration employees since February.

Some fired employees were called back initially but more layoffs are expected soon as part of the Department of Government Efficiency’s downsizing of federal agencies. Hundreds of other NOAA employees have resigned.

Democrats in Congress say they have information one of the next steps will be terminating the leases of 34 NOAA offices nationwide.

NOAA is a $6.8 billion agency within the Commerce Department. It was mentioned in the Trump administration’s Project 2025 policy statement as one of the agencies that needs to have many of its functions eliminated or turned over to private businesses.

Project 2025 called NOAA “one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry.”

Layoffs are forcing the National Weather Service to cut back on balloon launches and other services intended to provide early warning of potentially deadly weather. Hurricane season for the U.S. Eastern and Southern coasts runs from June 1 through Nov. 30, normally peaking around Sept. 10.

The National Weather Service is a subsidiary of the NOAA.

The agency also warns about heightened wildfire, drought, flood and extreme temperature risks.

Democrats on the House Natural Resources Committee say the public is likely to suffer from the NOAA cutbacks.

They sent a letter recently to the Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick asking for a justification of the NOAA downsizing.

“NOAA provides critical information about extreme weather and coastal hazards, manages fisheries, conserves coastal and marine resources, and protects American fishermen and consumers,” the letter says. “Closing field facilities will compromise NOAA’s ability to provide these services and damage the local communities and economies that rely on them.”

The office closings are scheduled to be completed by Aug. 17, 2026, according to the Natural Resources Committee.

Seven NOAA offices in Florida would be closed under the initial plan.Three would be shut down in Alaska, California and Washington and two offices in Idaho, Maryland, New Jersey, Oregon and Virginia.

Six other states and two territories would each lose one NOAA office.

The National Marine Fisheries Service, which is a subsidiary of the NOAA, would be the hardest hit by the planned office lease terminations. Twenty-three of its offices that oversee seafood inspection and law enforcement would be closed.

“These NOAA offices defend American fishermen from unfair fishing practices, bar unsafe food products from American markets, and bolster coastal economies,” the Democrats’ letter says. “As the world’s largest importer of seafood, the United States has a vested interest in ensuring that seafood products are safe and that seafood is not produced through forced labor or illegal practices.”

Employees who asked not to be named in media reports out of fear of reprisal say the implications for science also are severe.

Many of their government spending accounts have been frozen, leaving them with no money for research project supplies or retrieving instruments used to monitor the oceans and weather.

At a “Stand Up for Science” rally last month in Washington, D.C., University of Pennsylvania climate researcher Michael Mann told a crowd of about 5,000 supporters, “This is the most challenging moment I can recall for science.”

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