Top Democrat Sounds the Alarm on 3,000 Vacant Positions at Weather Forecasting Agency: We Lost ’24/7 Local Coverage’

Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) sounded the alarm on Wednesday during the confirmation hearing for Neil Jacobs, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) – a key weather forecasting agency in the U.S. government.

Cantwell began her opening remarks at the hearing by offering words of condolences for the victims of the recent flash flooding in Texas. She noted that now was not the moment to politicize the tragedy, which many critics have claimed was made worse by the Trump administration’s cuts to the federal workforce and the recent Pentagon decision to no longer allow key satellites to be used in forecasting.

“Our thoughts and prayers do go to the families to ask for strength for them to deal with this incredible loss. And as you said, there is a time and a place to figure out what transpired,” Cantwell said, addressing Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who was sitting next to her.

“You know, for us in the Northwest, where natural disasters, whether it’s fire, flooding, earthquakes, or the big one that is someday going to hit, this issue of first responders and communication is really important to us too. So I, too, want to thank the National Guard for their incredible work and response to this incident. I want to thank the Coast Guard men and women—pretty sure we train those surfmen out on the Olympic, you know, Long Beach area of our state. And we’re very proud of what they do to get those men and women ready to help do the search and rescue,” she continued, adding:

But clearly, first responders did everything that they were asked to do in response to this flood. But as you said, Mr. Chairman, there will be others. So I agree that we should figure out what we can do in the future to improve our communication system, to improve the science behind the information, and to figure out how we best prepare for the future.

Today, we’re considering Dr. Jacobs to be the NOAA Administrator, Mr. Taylor to be the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Environmental Observation and Protection, and Mr. Kumar to be Assistant Secretary. NOAA does play an incredibly important role in preserving life and property, and obviously good data behind your weather reporting for sustainable fisheries to get food on the table, to support our domestic product.

You play a critical role in safety and economic competitiveness. And so obviously I’m going to ask today about the cuts to NOAA and how, as a science agency, you preserve the core mission of an agency when we’re cutting so much of the science and the science budget.

The budget eliminates the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research R&D arm, which is critical to improving lead times and accuracy of information. NOAA’s R&D is at the cutting edge of science and projects like ‘Warn-On Forecast,’ which will give communities more notice from tornadoes and other severe weather events by using prediction models instead of waiting to detect weather service that is already occurring.

The budget proposal also eliminates NOAA’s integrated ocean observing system program, the buoy system. This is a very bipartisan program that helps us particularly in the Northwest, in detecting the potential of tsunamis, hurricane forecasts, fisheries, and marine transportation. And even though the administration put out an executive order calling for growing American fisheries, I believe that we are doing the opposite if we’re not investing in the kind of stock assessments that we need to deal with fisheries management.

Cantwell then addressed the current cuts and vacancies at NOAA, “So while the administration seeks to slash NOAA’s budget, it has also taken a sledgehammer to its workforce. Since the start of the year, NOAA’s workforce has been gutted by 2,000 employees. The agency currently has over 3,000 vacant positions, most of which cannot be filled due to the hiring freeze.”

“For example, Pendleton, Oregon, the forecast office serving central Washington, no longer has 24/7 local coverage because of their 44 percent vacancy rate. And in my opinion, that is unacceptable in the height of fire season,” she added.

Watch her full opening statement above.