The Trump administration has told the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to expect to lose 1,000 jobs on top of the 1,300 employees already out. The combined hit to staffing would be about 20%, the New York Times reports. Experts say the cuts could impair the ability of meteorologists to produce forecasts that can help save lives, ABC News reports, as hurricane and disaster season approaches. Weather balloon launches have been halted. And NOAA's hurricane-spotting flights, which contribute to forecasts that give coastal residents notice of two or three days about when landfall will occur, could be grounded, per Axios.
Managers are to have layoff and reorganization proposals to trim the workforce by at least 1,000 people from the current 13,000 completed by Tuesday. Although they've received little guidance about which programs to cut, some probably would have to be dropped to achieve the goal, per the Times. NOAA, which is part of the Commerce Department, is not a favorite of President Trump's allies. The Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 calls the agency "one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry" and urges its dismantling.
NOAA includes the National Weather Service, which already had more than 600 job vacancies at the start of the year, per ABC. Regional forecast offices might not be able to continue to work around the clock, a employees representative said. The American Geophysical Union, which represents Earth and space researchers, is among the organizations that have appealed to Congress to stop the cuts. "Undermining NOAA's operations could risk the safety of millions of Americans and destabilize countless industries, from farming and fisheries to energy and finance, threatening job losses and economic downturn," the organization said. (More NOAA stories.)
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