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Politico
4 days ago
- Politics
- Politico
NOAA places two veteran officials on leave
CNN first reported the administration's move. Dillen and Volz did not immediately respond to requests for comment. It comes less than a week before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee takes up the confirmation of Neil Jacobs, President Donald Trump's nominee to lead NOAA as its administrator. Jacobs served as NOAA's acting administrator during Trump's first term, where he found himself embroiled in the 'Sharpiegate' scandal, in which he and another NOAA official, Julie Roberts, were accused of pressuring scientists to alter the forecast of Hurricane Dorian in 2019, which killed dozens of people. Jacobs and Roberts were attempting to align the forecast with statements made by Trump, who said in the Oval Office that the hurricane would hit Alabama. In 2020, Volz led the investigation into Jacobs and Roberts, and found that the two officials violated the agency's 'scientific integrity policy.' Rick Spinrad, the former NOAA administrator under the Biden administration, said he worked closely with Volz and Dillen, and neither had expressed any opinions about the 'Sharpiegate' incident, 'I mean, these are just rock solid people,' Spinrad said. With respect to Dillen, Spinrad said: 'I relied on him heavily for his legal expertise and his acumen regarding case law.' Spinrad said he 'would characterize Steve Holz as one of the most dedicated, smartest and most savvy people I worked with.' 'This is going to be a big loss for the agency for these two people to be sent packing,' Spinrad said.
Black America Web
09-07-2025
- Climate
- Black America Web
Are NOAA Weather Cuts Leaving Black Communities Vulnerable This Storm Season?
Source: Anadolu / Getty Texans are still reeling from the devastating July 4th flash flood that swept through the Guadalupe River region, leaving at least 109 people dead, including 27 children, according to USA TODAY . The disaster is now considered the deadliest flash flood in recent U.S. history, and experts are raising urgent concerns over whether federal staffing cuts played a role in the tragedy. The catastrophic flood has reignited scrutiny of sweeping layoffs at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), many of which were initiated earlier this year by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). With more than 880 NOAA and National Weather Service (NWS) employees laid off in two rounds of cuts, some meteorologists and climate researchers say the reductions may have compromised the agency's capacity to respond effectively to the extreme weather. As noted by Yale Climate Connections despite facing a 22% staff reduction due to the intense budget cuts, the New Braunfels National Weather Service (NWS) office still managed to issue flood watches over 12 hours in advance and multiple flash flood warnings to residents in the Texas Hill Country areas — including a 'Flash Flood Emergency' alert at 4:03 a.m. for Kerr County. The New Braunfels office also hired more staff in preparation for the storm, boosting its weather team from two to five members. However, Dr. Richard Spinrad, a former NOAA administrator, claimed that one critical role was vacant before the disaster hit: the Warning Coordination Meteorologist. Although staffing levels were deemed adequate and the White House acknowledged that forecasts, watches, and warnings were issued promptly, the critical issue lies in whether those messages were actually received and acted upon. That responsibility typically falls to the Warning Coordination Meteorologist — a key liaison between forecasters and local emergency managers — but that position was vacant at the time of the disaster. 'I am convinced that the staff cuts that we saw were a contributing factor to the inability of the emergency managers to respond,' Spinrad told CNN's Kate Bolduan on July 8. Unfortunately, additional roles are expected to be eliminated in the coming year, as the proposed budget released in June would reduce NOAA's workforce from over 12,000 to around 10,000 employees, according to the Federal News Network. DOGE's staff cuts were not only detrimental to safety, but they could harm future research needed to prevent catastrophic storms from occurring in the future. NOAA's 2026 proposed budget includes sweeping cuts that would eliminate several research labs, including the National Severe Storms Lab (NSSL) in Norman, Oklahoma — the birthplace of the FLASH system, a tool that significantly improves the accuracy and timing of flash flood warnings. The department also developed the Multi-Radar/Multi-Sensor (MRMS) system, designed to enhance decision-making during severe weather events. This advanced technology supports more accurate forecasts and warnings by providing critical data for hazardous weather, hydrology, aviation, transportation, and numerical weather prediction. Alan Gerard, a former researcher and analyst with NOAA's NSSL, warned that eliminating the NSSL could lead the country down a dangerous path, severely limiting our ability to advance warning technologies that help people take life-saving action during extreme weather events. 'If we had advanced modeling and forecasting that would be able to tell you there's a pretty high chance that this area is going to get six to nine inches of rain in three hours tonight—that's a whole different situation,' the weather expert explained during an interview with MSNBC on July 7. 'We don't have that capability right now, but with research and developments that we're doing, like the National Severe Storms Lab, we could within the next several years.' Miami-based hurricane specialist Michael Lowry expressed a similar sentiment in a blog post shared Monday. 'The terrible events in Texas the past few days do serve as a salient reminder of why NOAA-developed tools and National Weather Service forecasts are so critical to this country,' he penned. 'One of the primary tools we use to predict flash floods like the ones in Central Texas come from the Multi-Radar/Multi-Sensor System, a project of the National Severe Storms Laboratory or NSSL in Norman, Oklahoma. I've zero doubt NWS forecasters were leveraging that tool that evening to issue flash flood warnings. The National Severe Storms Laboratory and associated projects like this one are slated for elimination in NOAA's proposed 2026 budget, which would be detrimental to our ability to forecast these types of deadly floods in the future.' Looking ahead, the tragedy in Texas foreshadows broader concerns about climate vulnerability and environmental justice. According to a 2023 Congressional Budget Office (CBO) study, lower-income and Black communities face a rapidly rising flood risk due to climate change and sea-level rise. In 2023, the CBO found that by 2050, Black communities — particularly along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts — will face at least a 20% increase in flood risk. Coastal states like Texas, Florida, and Virginia are home to many of these at-risk populations. Additionally, a 2020 study led by the University of Arizona found that Black and Hispanic communities, as well as individuals with low incomes, are more likely to live in areas at high risk of flooding from natural disasters compared to white and Asian populations, leaving them at a greater risk of danger. It's becoming abundantly clear that flood risk isn't just growing — it's growing unequally. Climate change is making these events more frequent and more deadly. Cutting our ability to predict and prepare for them is a risk we simply can't afford. SEE MORE: 10 Modern-Day Examples Of Environmental Racism Environmental Racism: How Racist Policies Around Climate Affect Black People SEE ALSO Are NOAA Weather Cuts Leaving Black Communities Vulnerable This Storm Season? was originally published on
The Hill
08-07-2025
- Climate
- The Hill
Floods spotlight NWS and disaster cuts
View Online The Big Story The deadly Texas floods are drawing renewed scrutiny to the Trump administration's cuts at the nation's weather and climate research agencies. © Julio Cortez, Associated Press The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which houses the National Weather Service (NWS), lost hundreds of staffers to Trump administration cuts, and positions within the NWS were among them. The Austin/San Antonio Weather Service office's warning coordination meteorologist, who organizes alerting the outside world about agency forecasts, took a Trump administration buyout in April. The office's Science Operations Officer, who implements new technology and data, also retired around the same time. Rick Spinrad, who led NOAA during the Biden administration, said the office's forecasters still did well, but that staffing-related issues could be causing communication problems. 'I do think the cuts are contributing to the inability of emergency managers to respond,' Spinrad said. 'The Weather Service did a really good job, actually, in getting watches and warnings and … wireless emergency alerts out,' he told The Hill on Monday. 'It's really a little early to give a specific analysis of where things might have broken down, but from what I've seen, it seems like the communications breakdown in the last mile is where most of the problem was.' He particularly pointed to the absence of a warning coordination meteorologist. 'Information went out with significant lead time of several hours, and yet no action was taken,' Spinrad said. 'When you send a message, there's no guarantee that it's received, so someone needs to follow up,' he said. 'In the weather forecast offices, the one who follows up with that is the position called the warning coordination meteorologist. And guess what, there is no WCM in the San Antonio/Austin weather forecast office, because that's one of the positions that was lost in the cuts from this administration.' President Trump said staffing cuts didn't impact the handling of the incident. Erica Grow Cei, a spokesperson for the NWS, said the Austin/San Antonio office as well as the San Angelo office 'had additional forecasters on duty during the catastrophic flooding event in Texas's Hill Country during the July 4 holiday weekend' in an email to The Hill. 'Extra staff members from both offices, in addition to the West Gulf River Forecast Center, had extra personnel on the night of Thursday, July 3 into the day on Friday, July 4. All forecasts and warnings were issued in a timely manner,' she said. Staffing cuts are not the only potential headwind coming for the nation's meteorologists. In its proposed budget, the Trump administration is calling for broader cuts to research. This includes eliminating NOAA's Office of Atmospheric Research and reducing the budget for the agency's weather research program It also includes closing the Atlantic Oceanographic & Meteorological Laboratory in Miami, the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Oklahoma and other labs in places including New Jersey, Colorado and Hawaii. Tom Di Liberto, a former NOAA climate scientist and public affairs specialist such cuts would mean that 'we don't have the data and resources that we need to be able to improve our ability to forecast and communicate these risks.' Spinrad similarly expressed concerns that the cuts would hamper the administration's ability to improve. 'The cuts — as proposed — to research guarantee that we will see no improvement to forecasts and services full stop,' he said. He added that, typically, forecasts 'improve by 24 hours every 10 years,' so a '72-hour forecast today is as good as the 48-hour forecast was 10 years ago, and that's because of the research.' Read more at Welcome to The Hill's Energy & Environment newsletter, I'm Rachel Frazin — keeping you up to speed on the policies impacting everything from oil and gas to new supply chains. Did someone forward you this newsletter? Subscribe here. Essential Reads How policy will affect the energy and environment sectors now and in the future: Trump directs Treasury Department to limit wind and solar tax credits President Trump directed the Treasury Department on Monday to take a strict approach to limit which projects are eligible for wind and solar tax credits. In reversal, Trump administration will defend Biden's asbestos ban The Trump administration says it will uphold a Biden-era ban on the ongoing use of asbestos after previously saying it would reconsider the rule. Texas flooding death toll surpasses 100 The death toll from the flash floods in Texas surpassed 100 on Monday as officials in the state continue search and rescue efforts. What We're Reading News we've flagged from other outlets touching on energy issues, the environment and other topics: Michigan utility aided sabotage of Covid lockdown policies, documents reveal (The Guardian) On Tap Upcoming news themes and events we're watching: What Others are Reading Two key stories on The Hill right now: Senate GOP not happy with Trump beatdown of Tillis Republican senators aren't happy about how President Trump treated Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), whom the president blasted last week on social media after Tillis said he wouldn't vote for Trump's 'big, beautiful bill.' Read more Supreme Court allows Trump to resume mass layoffs; Jackson dissents from 'senseless' decision The Supreme Court on Tuesday lifted a judge's order preventing the Trump administration from conducting mass layoffs across the federal bureaucracy, for now. Read more You're all caught up. See you tomorrow! Thank you for signing up! Subscribe to more newsletters here
Newsweek
08-07-2025
- Climate
- Newsweek
DOGE Cuts Contributed to Texas Flood Impact—Former NOAA Administrator
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. A former administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said on Tuesday that some people in the path of the devastating Texas floods didn't receive urgent weather alerts because of a warning coordination meteorologist job vacancy at the National Weather Service (NWS) office in Austin/San Antonio. A NOAA spokesperson told Newsweek in a statement that extra personnel were staffed at the NWS Austin/San Antonio and San Angelo offices during the flood and that the "NWS remains dedicated to our mission to serve the American public through our forecasts and decision support services." Several experts have commended the NWS on its job alerting people in the impacted areas. Flooding left debris including vehicles and equipment scattered in Louise Hays Park on July 5, 2025, in Kerrville, Texas. Flooding left debris including vehicles and equipment scattered in Louise Hays Park on July 5, 2025, in Kerrville, Texas. Eric Vryn/Getty The Context Job cuts that hit NOAA and NWS this year drew renewed focus following catastrophic flooding in Texas over the weekend in which some parts of the state saw more than 20 inches of rain. More than 100 people have died, including 27 campers and counselors at Camp Mystic in Kerr County. The reductions, carried out under the White House's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), impacted hundreds of NOAA and NWS employees, significantly raising vacancy rates at forecast offices. In June, NWS began a hiring process to fill more than 100 vacant positions, NPR reported. What To Know In an interview with CNN on Tuesday, former NOAA administrator Rick Spinrad said the NWS "did their job" in regard to issuing watches, warnings and wireless emergency alerts to notify people in the path of the floods before danger arrived. However, some people didn't receive the warnings. "We need to understand why that last mile is where the problem was in terms of getting alerts out," Spinrad said in an interview with CNN. Spinrad added that "one of the problematic issues" with the most recent flood was the "lack of a warning coordination meteorologist" at the Austin/San Antonio office, which he said was a critical position. "The individual who had that position took one of the retirements that the administration had offered up a couple of months ago," Spinrad said. In an interview with CNN earlier this week, Tom Fahy, the legislative director for the NWS employees' union, said the NWS forecast offices had "adequate staffing and resources" but confirmed that the Austin/San Antonio office was missing a warning coordination meteorologist. Critics have raised concerns that job cuts at the NWS and NOAA left offices short-staffed and compromised forecasting coordination and emergency communication. Representative Joaquin Castro, a Texas Democrat, said there needed to be an inquiry into whether NWS job cuts played a role in people in the flood zone not being prepared. However, other experts believe that the job cuts that hit NOAA earlier this year didn't disrupt NWS services at all. Alan Gerard, former director of the analysis and understanding branch at the National Severe Storms Laboratory of the NOAA, wrote in a Substack post that "just as what I have been able to see about this event shows me the NWS did a solid job, similarly there is little evidence that any of the recent cuts to NOAA/NWS negatively impacted services for this event, regardless of what may be being said on social media." Houston-based meteorologist Matt Lanza wrote in a Substack post that there was "absolutely nothing" to suggest that current staffing or budget issues at the NOAA or NWS played a role. What People Are Saying Former NOAA administrator Rick Spinrad, in an interview with CNN on Tuesday morning: "I've talked with any number of my friends in the weather service and colleagues in the commercial weather community and to a person, one of the first questions they asked was, 'Where was the WCM—the warning coordination meteorologist?' I am convinced that the staff cuts that we saw were a contributing factor to the inability of the emergency managers to respond. The staffing was just fine, and the White House has concurred with this, to get the forecast out and to get the watches and warnings issued, but when you send a message there's no guarantee it's being received. So someone needs to follow up, and that's the warning coordination meteorologist—a position that was vacant." A NOAA spokesperson told Newsweek: "All forecasts and warnings were issued in a timely manner. Additionally, these offices were able to provide decision support services to local partners, including those in the emergency management community." President Donald Trump told reporters, after being asked on Sunday if he thinks the government needs to hire back meteorologists whose jobs were cut: "I would think not. This was a thing that happened in seconds. Nobody expected it. Nobody saw it. Very talented people are there, they didn't see it. It's, I guess they said, once in 100 years. They've never seen anything like this." Tom Fahy, the legislative director for the NWS employees' union, said, according to a Breitbart report: "[T]he forecasters did their job. There [are] very few times when I'll be in a position that I have to agree with the President of the United States. When he spoke last night that the forecasters at the National Weather Service offices at San Angelo and San Antonio got the forecast right, the President said they did their job, and they did." CBS Austin meteorologist Avery Tomasco, on X, formerly Twitter: "All I'll say is this. The National Weather Service issued a flood watch for Kerr County more than 12 hours ahead of the catastrophic flood. A flash flood warning was issued for Hunt & Ingram 3 HOURS before the Guadalupe started to climb. They did their job and they did it well." White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, during a press conference: "These offices were fully staffed. The San Angelo office was fully staffed with 12 forecast meteorologists. There were no vacancies. The San Antonio office was operating with 11 forecasters union themselves said there was adequate staffing, so I think those words speak for themselves, and the numbers speak for themselves. This was a once-in-a-century flash flood, a tragic natural disaster, and the administration is doing all that we can on the ground to help these families during this time of need." What Happens Next Debate about DOGE job cuts at NOAA and NWS will likely continues. Meanwhile, flood warnings have expired for most of Texas.
E&E News
08-07-2025
- Climate
- E&E News
Flood predictions could worsen when Trump's cuts take hold
The White House is rejecting assertions from Democrats and former NOAA officials that its cuts to weather and disaster spending contributed to the Texas flooding that killed more than 100 people. But that stance sidesteps a looming reality: The vast majority of President Donald Trump's rollbacks to the agencies' funding, staffing and science have yet to land. Scientists and weather prediction experts warned that once he fulfills his agenda, areas around the country could face new risks as federal programs are degraded — from disaster warning systems and satellite observations to funding for flood projects and disaster aid. The Trump White House has proposed cutting $163 billion from the federal budget in the next fiscal year — making it the smallest in recent history. Advertisement 'Lives are going to be lost, property is going to be damaged,' said Rick Spinrad, who served as NOAA administrator under former President Joe Biden. On Monday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt described Democrats who had pointed to Trump's cuts at the National Weather Service in the aftermath of the floods as 'depraved and despicable' and said the offices in the affected area were fully staffed. In fact, both offices had vacancies in key positions, according to NOAA's own records. A spokesperson for the White House budget office rejected the idea that Trump's policy ideas could affect the outcome of disasters. 'It is sad that while recovery efforts are ongoing, people are opportunistically trying to score political points by faulting unrelated budget cuts like the Green New Scam,' said Rachel Cauley. It's true that weather forecasts and warnings were accurate ahead of the disaster despite widespread cuts at the National Weather Service, which is part of NOAA. But weather predictions and forecast accuracy stand to change as Trump cements his agenda, according to a former top NOAA official and climate scientists. Hundreds of NWS officials have already lost their jobs, leaving vacancies in top meteorological roles that warn communities of looming weather extremes. The agency's basic functionality is already suffering. Billions more in federal budget cuts to agencies involved in weather and climate prediction and planning is slated for elimination. That includes cutting entire divisions of atmospheric research at NOAA, half of NASA's science division, labs that study extreme weather, weather-monitoring spacecraft now in orbit and thousands of additional scientists. The proposed Trump administration cuts are so steep to weather prediction and science that the forecast in Texas could be far more accurate than future predictions, Spinrad said. 'If you have a problem with the quality of that forecast, then you want to have a real problem with eliminating the National Severe Storms Laboratory,' Spinrad said, referring to one of the NOAA labs — an extreme weather research facility that Trump has slated for elimination. 'Our ability to improve the forecast, the understanding and the guidance with respect to responding to events like this is only going to degrade, not improve, and this is after decades and decades of improvement in all of these forecasts.' That includes tools for flood prediction and recovery — setting the country up for potentially worse outcomes when extreme rainfall strikes. Compromised flood predictions Chief among the proposed cuts is the elimination of NOAA's Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, which coordinates scientific studies on everything from extreme weather to marine ecosystems. Its facilities 'provide indispensable scientific research and analysis for meteorologists across the country,' said Tom Fahy, legislative director at the union that represents NWS employees. OAR houses a network of NOAA laboratories and 16 science consortiums involving dozens of research institutes across 33 states. Many of them study extreme weather, from hurricane research in Miami to severe thunderstorm research in Norman, Oklahoma. They also help build weather models that scientists use to forecast events like the Texas floods. Trump's proposed cuts would also hamstring one of the main tools for observing weather in real time: Our eyes in space. The proposed NASA budget would severely cut funding for spacecraft that are used for weather prediction and modeling future conditions. A number of targeted satellites are already in orbit. NASA's $7 billion science division is slated to be cut in half, with the budget ax centering on climate research. That means predicting future floods — and the development of new tools for forecasting intense rainfall events — would be compromised. The next generation of Landsat satellites is a key example. For about 50 years, the satellites have been an essential tool for monitoring and mapping floods. Their data is important 'for assessing risk, mapping the extent of damage, and planning post-disaster recovery,' according to NASA. Trump is working to eliminate its funding. A few weeks ago, Trump administration officials archived the Landsat account on X and deleted information related to the planning for Landsat Next, the tenth version of the satellite, from its webpage. Weather forecasts gradually improve as scientists add more data. But they'll likely plateau — or even degrade — as NOAA's research and observation functions vanish, many scientists warn. OAR's research 'has been amazing at developing computer models to help in the forecasting of these types of events,' said John Sokich, NWS's former director of congressional affairs, referring to the Texas floods. But if the office isn't reinstated by Congress for 2026, he said, 'that's going to stop.' Some of the agency's most valuable models for flood prediction might be in jeopardy sooner rather than later. The government's accurate forecasts of the deadly floods were made possible by a suite of high-resolution NOAA weather models designed to predict thunderstorms, Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA, said in a live YouTube talk Monday. Having multiple models in the system helps scientists evaluate a range of possible outcomes when severe weather is on the horizon. NOAA tried to consolidate the collection of models into a single forecasting system a few years ago. But meteorologists expressed concern that it might not perform as well, and the change was delayed. Trump plans to revive the plan. 'There's benefit in having multiple models,' Swain said. 'How expensive is it really to maintain that, as opposed to the cost of them missing a catastrophic flood?' 'A disconnect' Meanwhile, staffing cuts at NWS offices across the country are likely to take a toll over time, experts say. NWS offices were adequately staffed during the Texas floods, in part because agency officials called 'all hands on deck' to deal with the disaster, according to Fahy. But the offices still have vacancies in key roles, including a permanent meteorologist-in-charge in San Angelo and a warning coordination meteorologist in San Antonio. Other offices across the country face similar shortages, and experts have raised alarms about the potential for burnout — which can lead to forecasting errors — among exhausted staff working overtime during disasters. At the same time, Trump has cut funding for activities that help meteorologists engage with local authorities. Warning coordination meteorologists — a top position at NWS offices — serve as liaisons with emergency managers and other officials, attending meetings, conferences and tabletop exercises aimed at planning for extreme weather events. Trump has suspended travel funding for these activities, according to Fahy, which could lead to long-term breakdowns in communication and collaboration between forecasters and their communities. 'They need to be able to do this,' Fahy said. 'That is the core function of their duties, which is the outreach of their message.' According to Fahy, vacancies at the NWS offices in Texas didn't cause problems during the deadly floods. But some experts are worried that they contributed to a gap between the severity of the weather forecasts and the way local authorities communicated the dangers to the public. 'Clearly there was a disconnect — the message didn't get to the people who need it when they needed it or they didn't understand it,' said Swain. He added that the science was spot on during the floods. In this case, forecasters were still able to do their jobs. But if Trump's proposed cuts become reality? 'That will 100 percent be responsible for costing lives,' Swain said. Reporter Daniel Cusick contributed.
