Ranking Member Lofgren Blasts Trump Administration’s Reckless Budget Plan for NOAA
The plan eliminates NOAA’s research arm, which is crucial for life-saving, accurate forecasting.
(Washington, DC) – Today, various reporting has detailed the Trump Administration’s plan to slash funding and eliminate crucial functions of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The plan, which has been reviewed by Science Committee Democratic Staff, notably decimates NOAA’s research capabilities by eliminating the Agency’s Oceanic and Atmospheric Research line office.
“Trump’s budget plan for NOAA is both outrageous and dangerous,” said Ranking Member Zoe Lofgren (CA-18). “They’re wholly destroying critical offices, like NOAA’s Oceanic and Atmospheric Research line office, which is foundational to the agency’s mission to protect life and property. The White House seems to think that our science capabilities operate in vacuums from one another. That is not the case. It’s a holistic system, and each piece of the agency is critical to strengthening the accuracy of weather forecasting and data, and then providing that data to the people who need it. This Administration's hostility towards research and rejection of climate science will have the consequence of eviscerating the weather forecasting capabilities that this plan claims to preserve. What NOAA does is crucial to the life-saving weather research and services that it provides to the American people. This budget will leave NOAA hollowed out and unable to perform its life-saving work. As the top Democrat on the Science Committee, I will do everything I can to stand in the way of this idiotic plan.”
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