Latest news with #OfficeofOceanicandAtmosphericResearch
Politico
09-07-2025
- Politics
- Politico
NOAA nominee pledges full weather service staffing
'It's really important for the people to be there, because they have relationships with people in the local community,' he said. 'They're a trusted source.' Nearly every committee member referenced NOAA staff and budget cuts, seeking reassurances the agency retains its ability to quickly and accurately forecast extreme weather events. Democrats in particular pressed Jacobs about the administration's actions at NOAA, including the cutting of more than 2,000 staff positions and a budget proposal that calls for slashing $2.2 billion in discretionary spending. 'Obviously I'm going to ask today about the cuts to NOAA and how as a science agency we preserve the core mission of an agency when you're cutting so much of the science and the science budget,' said ranking member Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.). 'I expect to hear how we're going to defend the science mission without the people and without the science services,' said Cantwell. 'I want to know what our real plan is.' Trump also wants to dissolve NOAA's Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, the government's primary research engine on climate change and its effects on human health and safety. Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), a fierce critic of Trump's NOAA fiscal 2026 budget blueprint, asked Jacobs: 'Do you support these cuts?' Jacobs replied, 'Yes, I support the president's budget.' Many of the nation's 122 forecast offices that provide critical weather watches and warnings are understaffed after the president's Department of Government Efficiency initiated a series of mass firings and compelled resignations and retirements.
Axios
01-07-2025
- Politics
- Axios
New NOAA document spells out further deep Trump cuts
A new NOAA document sheds further light on the Trump administration's proposed cuts and changes for the weather and climate agency. Why it matters: The proposed budget would gut federal climate research efforts and spending at a critical moment in the fight to understand and address human-driven climate change. Driving the news: Most notably, the proposal would eliminate NOAA's Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR), which performs and coordinates climate research. Some of OAR's functions would be transferred to the National Weather Service, but others would be cancelled. "The FY 2026 budget eliminates all funding for climate, weather, and ocean Laboratories and Cooperative Institutes," reads the document. "It also does not fund Regional Climate Data and Information, Climate Competitive Research, the National Sea Grant College Program, Sea Grant Aquaculture Research, or the National Oceanographic Partnership Program." Zoom in: NOAA would also "no longer support climate research grants," the proposal adds. What they're saying: " With that statement, the administration signals its intent to have NOAA, arguably the world's leading oceanic and atmospheric governmental organization, completely abandon climate science," writes meteorologist and former NOAA official Alan Gerard. The big picture: The new details come amid broader Trump administration efforts to slash federal spending on climate research, renewable energy subsidies, electric cars and other fields and technologies widely seen as necessary to our understanding of — and adaptation to — climate change. The budget would also shutter Hawai'i's Mauna Loa laboratory, CNN notes, where decades of atmospheric CO2 measurements have shown evidence of anthropogenic climate change. NOAA referred questions to the White House, which didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
