Former NOAA Officials Call on Industry to Oppose Budget Cuts

 

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration faces a new round of budget cuts that would undermine the agency's ability to provide services that millions of Americans need, including hurricane research and weather forecasting, according to a group of former top officials. 

The White House's proposed FY2026 budget calls for cuts totaling $1.3 billion across all NOAA programs, with particularly steep reductions targeting the National Marine Fisheries Service and NOAA's research division. The proposed cuts follow the loss of hundreds of experienced scientists and forecasters during the DOGE-led rounds of federal workforce reductions earlier this year. Across all of NOAA, departing employees took with them a combined 27,000 years of institutional knowledge, according to Craig McLean, former director of the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research.

NOAA has been forced to hire more than 100 personnel to re-fill critical roles at the National Weather Service, which is so short-staffed that it has had to scale back weather-balloon launches and reduce hours at several stations. 

"The Weather Service mentality is to produce the forecast and warnings at all costs," said John Sokic, former director of National Weather Service Congressional Affairs, during a recent briefing with former NOAA officials. "But as the staff continues to work crazy hours over time, 12-hour shifts, they're going to burn out. There will be an impact. There will be missed warnings."

The budget constraints would force difficult choices across NOAA's operations. The agency's radar network, designed in the 1980s and installed in the 1990s, is expected to function only through 2035 without significant upgrades. Weather Service facilities, many more than 30 years old and operating around the clock, are deteriorating. The National Data Buoy program has operated under flat funding for 12 years, forcing officials to shift from preventive maintenance to reactive repairs.

The National Marine Fisheries Service faces particularly severe cuts. Steve Mirowski, former chief scientist at the National Marine Fisheries Service, warned that the reductions threaten a management system that has been highly successful. Under current programs, U.S. fisheries generate $321 billion in annual sales and support 2.3 million jobs. Since 2000, 50 depleted fisheries have been rebuilt, including some of the nation's most lucrative. 

"The bottom line is that the cuts to NMFS personnel and budget have already significantly degraded the capacity of the agency to fill its statutory obligations," said Mirowski. "Additional cuts as proposed in FY2026 will threaten a system that is not broken and is currently producing significant economic benefits for the country."

Research Programs Face Elimination

The proposed budget would effectively eliminate NOAA's research enterprise, including the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, which has been instrumental in improving hurricane forecasting. Over the past two decades, three-day hurricane track forecasts have improved from 200-mile to 60-mile accuracy - a development that has dramatically reduced evacuation areas and has likely saved lives.

McLean gave an example from the well-known Hurricane Hunter program, which dispatches P-3 Orion research aircraft into the upper layers of hurricanes to take real-time readings. 

"The Oceans and Atmospheric Research people [are] in the back of that airplane while the NOAA Corps pilots are flying in the front of the airplane. The work is conducted by researchers, and the improvement in the hurricane track and intensity forecasts - which is up about 15 to 20% - transition to the Weather Service, a perfect example of how we make Americans safer every day," McLean said. "When you close the cooperative institutes and you close the research labs, you lose the people who are in the back of the airplane doing the research and the analysis . . .  So once again, we're cutting off limbs and wondering later how we're going to run the race."

The proposed cuts could have far-reaching economic consequences beyond weather services, and well beyond shipping. Major financial institutions, including JPMorgan and Cantor Fitzgerald, rely on NOAA climate data for investment decisions, McLean said. The reinsurance industry, banking sector, and mortgage markets also depend on NOAA data for risk assessment.

Congressional Response Expected

The budget cuts will likely encounter opposition in Congress, where both Democratic and Republican lawmakers have historically supported NOAA programs. The former officials said that public pressure could be crucial in preventing the cuts from passing, and called for companies and individuals who rely on NOAA to contact their representatives.

"I believe that if members of Congress recognize the harm that will be done in their district or their state as a result of these cuts to NOAA, that will be a factor that they have to take into account," said Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), who joined the former officials to advocate for funding. "I think that these proposed cuts will be rejected in large part."