Latest news with #SteveVolz
The Independent
3 days ago
- Politics
- The Independent
NOAA officials who led ‘Sharpiegate' investigation placed on leave after clashing with Trump hires
Two top officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who led the investigation into the so-called 'Sharpiegate' scandal, were placed on leave amid clashes with the Trump administration, according to a report. Steve Volz, assistant administrator in the agency's Satellite and Information Service, and Jeff Dillen, deputy general counsel for the agency, were placed on leave this week, CNN first reported. They both worked on the investigation into the 'Sharpiegate' scandal. In 2019, President Donald Trump drew a map with a black marker depicting a path for Hurricane Dorian, suggesting it would hit Alabama. The agency then issued a statement that contradicted its own scientists and supported Trump's claims. The storm then hit near the Carolinas. An investigation later found that NOAA's leaders violated the agency's scientific integrity policy. One of those leaders was Neil Jacobs, the man the president has nominated to lead the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation's vote on his nomination is scheduled to take place July 30. A former NOAA official thought the timing of the moves was an 'interesting coincidence.' 'It's an interesting coincidence that less than a week before Neil Jacob's senate committee vote, the two dedicated career civil servants who investigated him for scientific integrity violations around Sharpiegate were dismissed from service,' one former NOAA official told CNN. A spokesperson for the agency offered explanations as to why both men were placed on leave. 'Mr. Dillen was placed on administrative leave by the department's senior career attorney pending a review of performance issues over the past several weeks,' a spokesperson told the Washington Post in a statement. 'Separately, Dr. Volz was placed on administrative leave on an unrelated matter.' Volz, who has decades of experience in aerospace and is the agency's longest-serving assistant administrator, similarly wondered whether the timing was coincidental. 'The question that I would ask is, why now?' Volz told the Washington Post. 'Maybe the desire here is to get anybody who might slow down their ability to execute their plan out of the way. I think I'm one of those people.' Discussions about privatizing some of NOAA's satellite operations have also swirled and led to clashes between the officials and new Trump hires, the Post reported. Volz has also advocated for mainly relying on the government's satellites while using private companies for data. Project 2025, a conservative blueprint for Trump's second presidency, calls for NOAA to be broken up and for the National Weather Service to 'fully commercialize its forecasting operations.' Trump has repeatedly disavowed Project 2025; many of its architects now work in the Trump administration.
Washington Post
4 days ago
- Politics
- Washington Post
Top NOAA officials placed on leave. One said he clashed with Trump appointees.
Two high-ranking officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration were placed on leave this week, including one official who said he had recently clashed with officials over the Trump administration's proposals for the agency. Former agency officials said both Steve Volz, assistant administrator in the agency's satellite division, and Jeff Dillen, deputy NOAA general counsel, held positions that allowed them to push back against Trump's NOAA appointees. While the pair had only occasionally worked together while at NOAA, they also led the investigation into the 'Sharpiegate' scandal during the first Trump administration. Volz was not given an explicit reason why he was placed on administrative leave but said tensions between him and Trump's appointees had been rising. For one, Volz said he had recently pushed back during discussions of commercializing satellite operations. 'The question that I would ask is, why now?' Volz said in an interview. 'Maybe the desire here is to get anybody who might slow down their ability to execute their plan out of the way. I think I'm one of those people.' During Trump's first term, Volz and Dillen served as the senior executive and senior council during an investigation that found NOAA's leadership violated its scientific integrity policy. The agency had released a statement backing Trump's hand-drawn version of a forecast for 2019's Hurricane Dorian, which showed the storm threatening Alabama. Neil Jacobs, Trump's pick to head NOAA who is on the path to confirmation, was the acting NOAA administrator at the time. For his part, Volz said he thought it was a coincidence that both he and Dillen had been placed on leave, and that he had not received any indication it was related. In a statement, a spokeswoman for NOAA said there is no connection between the two officials being put on leave. 'Mr. Dillen was placed on administrative leave by the department's senior career attorney pending a review of performance issues over the past several weeks,' NOAA spokeswoman Kim Doster said in an email. 'Separately, Dr. Volz was placed on administrative leave on an unrelated matter.' Volz is the longest serving assistant administrator of the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service, working in the role for 11 years across both Republican and Democratic administrations. He works alongside Trump's NOAA appointees in his capacity as Assistant Secretary for Environmental Observation and Protection. The Trump administration has not publicly endorsed privatizing satellite or weather operations. A conservative blueprint for this second term outlined proposals to privatize some of the National Weather Service work while breaking up NOAA. Monica Medina, who served as deputy administrator of NOAA during the Obama administration, said debates about privatization have occurred under many past presidents, but that rebuking those who oppose commercialization would be a concerning move. 'Career civil servants have a historical understanding of the agency, of the work, of how to run the operation,' Medina said. 'What you want is to have them feel like they can speak up and tell you when you when you might not see around a blind corner or have that crucial experience that they've had in other difficult situations.' Dillen, who has served as deputy general counsel for NOAA since 2016, could not be reached for comment. Former NOAA Chief Scientist Craig McLean who has worked with Dillen in the past said he would not be surprised if he was also active in critiquing the Trump administration from a legal perspective. 'I could easily imagine how Jeff would be the conscience of law to tell the Trump administration where and why they are wrong and unlawful in certain pursuits they might be engaging in,' McLean said. CNN first reported earlier Friday that Volz and Dillen had been placed on leave. A NOAA official familiar with the matter said that if confirmed, Jacobs intends to work closely with Irene Parker, currently the deputy assistant administrator for systems. '[Jacobs] and Irene [Parker] are both wholehearted proponents of commercializing the federal weather satellite operation, Steve [Volz] has been in their minds an obstacle to that,' the official wrote to the Post on the condition of anonymity. '[Volz's] view has been there should always be a federal backbone of satellites operating because the work we do is so sensitive and critical, the calibration needs to be so precise. But what Irene [Parker] wants is just a full commercialization of the entire process.' McLean said placing Volz on leave is legally dubious. 'Steve Volz is a career senior executive,' McLean said. 'There are rights that senior executives have, though the Trump administration has stepped on them. And to the people whose rights have been stepped on, that awaits formal adjudication and a determination.' The letter Volz received informing him of his leave, reviewed by The Post, said there would be an investigation into his 'recent conduct.' 'Conduct is very conspicuous,' McLean said. 'Conduct is one of the few reasons that somebody could be dealt with in a prejudicial manner.' The removal of the two officials comes at a time when NOAA has faced deep cuts that include hundreds of scientists and meteorologists that have left through firings, buyouts and retirements. In his confirmation hearing earlier this month, Jacobs expressed concern about cuts to Weather Service staffing. 'If confirmed, I will ensure that staffing the Weather Service offices is a top priority,' he said. 'It's really important for the people to be there, because they have relationships with the people in the local community.' And there have been even more recent resignations, including a swath of senior NOAA employees like Jeff Thomas who directs NOAA's Acquisition and Grants Office. The agency has a more than $6 billion budget, but Trump has proposed cutting it by more than one-fourth. 'We're losing experienced people,' Medina said, 'not only because they're good at what they do, in terms of taking the weather data and creating local forecasts on a timely basis every day without fail, but also because they also have the connections in communities where they are.' Volz said amid increasingly devastating natural disasters and a challenging environmental landscape, he is most concerned about experienced officials being pushed out of their positions. 'I have been through three administrations and transitions,' Volz said. 'I don't think that the execution of the mission will be directly impacted. I do think this sends a message, a very clear one, to people who take adverse opinions to what they're directed to do.'
CNN
4 days ago
- Politics
- CNN
Two senior NOAA officials were just placed on leave. Both led ‘Sharpiegate' inquiry
Two high-ranking officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration with a connection to the likely incoming NOAA administrator were placed on administrative leave Thursday, according to two former NOAA employees familiar with the situation and one current agency official. While the reasoning behind the move is not clear, the two officials affected — Steve Volz, who heads NOAA's satellites division, and Jeff Dillen, deputy NOAA general counsel — led the investigation into whether NOAA's scientific integrity policies were violated during the so-called Sharpiegate scandal of President Donald Trump's first term. 'It's an interesting coincidence that less than a week before Neil Jacob's senate committee vote, the two dedicated career civil servants who investigated him for scientific integrity violations around Sharpiegate were dismissed from service,' one former NOAA official told CNN. The inquiry found then-acting NOAA administrator Neil Jacobs and another NOAA official violated the agency's scientific integrity policy by backing Trump's hand-drawn version of the forecast for 2019's Hurricane Dorian. Trump's modification to the National Weather Service's forecast, drawn in a Sharpie, suggested the storm would hit Alabama. Hurricane Dorian did not strike Alabama, instead making landfall in Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, on its northward track along the East Coast. A copy of a letter informing Volz he was being placed on leave references an 'investigation' into his 'recent conduct,' though NOAA sources did not know what that may refer to. The letter came from acting NOAA administrator Laura Grimm. It is not clear if Dillen's letter also references an investigation. The Sharpiegate scandal appears to be the only significant event that links the two men, though the personnel moves could be coincidental. CNN has reached out to NOAA for comment. Jacobs has been nominated to become NOAA administrator in Trump's current term, with a Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee vote on his nomination scheduled to take place July 30. Volz, who is the second-highest ranking civilian at NOAA and its longest-serving assistant administrator, has also been involved in responding to Trump's 'Gold Standard Science' executive order that may cause NOAA to change its scientific integrity policies. He has also been steering the development of a multibillion-dollar next-generation series of NOAA weather satellites. NOAA's satellites division is at the center of debates over how much to rely on the private sector for space-based weather observations versus building often more expensive public satellite constellations. Volz has been a major proponent of continuing to rely mainly on NOAA owned and operated satellites, while entering into data purchase agreements with private companies as well. That work will now fall to his replacement. Volz and Dillen's personnel moves come at a precarious time for NOAA, when staff cuts and the proposal for steep budget reductions have lowered morale and led to questions about agency readiness for predicting and responding to extreme weather events. Some of these questions came to the forefront during the recent Texas flooding disaster due to reductions in National Weather Service personnel.
CNN
4 days ago
- Politics
- CNN
Two senior NOAA officials were just placed on leave. Both led ‘Sharpiegate' inquiry
Federal agencies Donald Trump Congressional news HurricanesFacebookTweetLink Follow Two high-ranking officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration with a connection to the likely incoming NOAA administrator were placed on administrative leave Thursday, according to two former NOAA employees familiar with the situation and one current agency official. While the reasoning behind the move is not clear, the two officials affected — Steve Volz, who heads NOAA's satellites division, and Jeff Dillen, deputy NOAA general counsel — led the investigation into whether NOAA's scientific integrity policies were violated during the so-called Sharpiegate scandal of President Donald Trump's first term. 'It's an interesting coincidence that less than a week before Neil Jacob's senate committee vote, the two dedicated career civil servants who investigated him for scientific integrity violations around Sharpiegate were dismissed from service,' one former NOAA official told CNN. The inquiry found then-acting NOAA administrator Neil Jacobs and another NOAA official violated the agency's scientific integrity policy by backing Trump's hand-drawn version of the forecast for 2019's Hurricane Dorian. Trump's modification to the National Weather Service's forecast, drawn in a Sharpie, suggested the storm would hit Alabama. Hurricane Dorian did not strike Alabama, instead making landfall in Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, on its northward track along the East Coast. A copy of a letter informing Volz he was being placed on leave references an 'investigation' into his 'recent conduct,' though NOAA sources did not know what that may refer to. The letter came from acting NOAA administrator Laura Grimm. It is not clear if Dillen's letter also references an investigation. The Sharpiegate scandal appears to be the only significant event that links the two men, though the personnel moves could be coincidental. CNN has reached out to NOAA for comment. Jacobs has been nominated to become NOAA administrator in Trump's current term, with a Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee vote on his nomination scheduled to take place July 30. Volz, who is the second-highest ranking civilian at NOAA and its longest-serving assistant administrator, has also been involved in responding to Trump's 'Gold Standard Science' executive order that may cause NOAA to change its scientific integrity policies. He has also been steering the development of a multibillion-dollar next-generation series of NOAA weather satellites. NOAA's satellites division is at the center of debates over how much to rely on the private sector for space-based weather observations versus building often more expensive public satellite constellations. Volz has been a major proponent of continuing to rely mainly on NOAA owned and operated satellites, while entering into data purchase agreements with private companies as well. That work will now fall to his replacement. Volz and Dillen's personnel moves come at a precarious time for NOAA, when staff cuts and the proposal for steep budget reductions have lowered morale and led to questions about agency readiness for predicting and responding to extreme weather events. Some of these questions came to the forefront during the recent Texas flooding disaster due to reductions in National Weather Service personnel.
