Democrats in U.S. Congress are warning that rumored cuts to NOAA would endanger the agency’s ability to adequately manage the nation’s commercial fisheries.
“Last week, the administration’s Department of Government Efficiency entered NOAA facilities and accessed data and files,” U.S. Representative Val Hoyle (D-Oregon) said during a 12 February U.S. House Natural Resources Committee markup meeting. “Furthermore, NOAA employees are reporting rumors of severe budget cuts that would gut essential programs and jobs that our fishermen and our communities rely on. Basic responsibilities such as providing grants to regional fishery management councils for their operations and routine fisheries stock assessments could be delayed or canceled.”
CBS News reported that current NOAA employees have been told to expect staff to be cut by 50 percent and the agency’s budget to be cut by 30 percent.
The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump is pushing hard to reduce the size of the federal workforce, offering buyouts to encourage employees to resign.
On 11 February, the president appeared to double down on his efforts to significantly reduce the number of federal employees, signing an executive order directing agencies to not hire more than one employee for every four who depart. Almost all new hires will need to be approved by a DOGE representative, according to the order.
“Elon Musk and his DOGE tech bros are ransacking federal agencies, accessing Americans’ private data, and purporting to fire people and shut down entire programs. It appears that NOAA is next on the chopping block,” U.S. Representative Jared Huffman (D-California) said. “Gutting NOAA the way DOGE is attempting to do with so many other agencies will literally put lives at risk.”
The Republican-controlled House Budget Committee plans to hold up a markup of the Republican budget plan on 13 February, with a goal of cutting a minimum of USD 1.5 trillion (EUR 1.4 trillion) in spending.
While spending on NOAA Fisheries was not revealed in the initial announcement of a budget plan, Republicans have targeted the agency in recent budget negotiations. House Republicans initially proposed a 22 percent cut in NOAA Fisheries funding for 2025, although any decisions on 2025 spending was pushed down the road by Congress last year through a series of continuing resolutions.
Huffman, Hoyle, and 13 other legislators sent a joint letter to NOAA Acting Administrator Vice Admiral Nancy Hann demanding answers on DOGE’s impact on NOAA.
“There have been credible reports of DOGE personnel disregarding security checkpoints, rifling through personal belongings, demanding access to computers, emails, and other sensitive information, and adding employees’ names to lists on their clipboards if they are perceived to have resisted,” the members said in their letter. “While this is happening at core NOAA facilities in the Washington, D.C. region, our constituents who work at NOAA labs and regional facilities across the nation fear for their jobs and their families’ futures.”
In a 12 February U.S. House Natural Resources Committee markup meeting, Democrats aired their concerns with DOGE and potential cuts to NOAA Fisheries.
Democrats called for the committee to use its resources to investigate DOGE’s activities at NOAA, the firing of the 18 inspectors general, and the rumored cuts to NOAA, although the Republican-controlled committee ultimately rejected those proposals.
“This plan is silent on the current administration’s objectives for NOAA and the chaos that the rumored changes will cause for commercial and recreational fishing across the country,” Hoyle said of the committee’s current direction under Republican leadership.
“The Trump administration’s directive to rescind 10 regulations for every new regulation gets messy with fishery management. Every management action, such as opening up a fishery season, is a regulation. Unfortunately, the administration has not clarified what DOGE is doing, what the long term plans for NOAA is, and how these administrative orders will affect the science and service communities across the nation that we depend on,” Hoyle said.
In response to the criticisms leveled by Democrats on the committee, Republican Committee Chair Bruce Westerman (R-Arkansas) said that Biden administration’s fiscal year 2025 budget proposal for NOAA “sought funding increases for the administration’s political priorities like national marine sanctuaries while reducing funding requests for research efforts.
"Republicans on this committee for years have urged NOAA to refocus on its core mission of stock assessments, data collection, and collaborating with the regional fishery management councils,” he said.
Westerman also pointed out that any cuts to NOAA have only been rumored and no official proposal to do that has been released yet – prompting a swift rebuttal from Huffman.
“This is not a theoretical threat to these vital programs that NOAA oversees; we know that things like stock assessments and the science that we count on to regulate and manage fisheries is stopped. It’s frozen in its tracks right now. We also know that Project 2025 calls for shutting all this down, for spinning off all of these vital NOAA functions, privatizing them,” Huffman said.
In his remarks, Westerman noted that Trump nominee for secretary of commerce, Wall Street billionaire Howard Lutnick, denied any intention to follow Project 2025’s recommendation to eliminate or privatize NOAA during a confirmation hearing.
Still, Democrats warned that funding freezes and confusion at NOAA could only hamper the agency’s ability to execute programs and services the nation’s commercial fisheries rely on.
“The chaos at NOAA and the threats to hold back funding puts fisheries disaster assistance at risk. In the past year, four fishery disaster declaration requests were approved by the Department of Commerce, and seven other requests are still pending,” Hoyle said. “The confusion and chaos about the future of NOAA threatens to further complicate this process.”
Democrats on the committee also criticized the Trump administration for removing 18 inspectors general, government watchdog positions that ostensibly provide internal oversight for fraud and waste. Former NOAA Acting Administrator Neil Jacobs, whom Trump has nominated to head NOAA again, was previously criticized by the Department of Commerce inspector general for succumbing to political pressure during the “Sharpiegate” scandal.
“This purge of inspectors general, which flies in the face of current law, sends a clear message; this administration is not committed to routing out waste, fraud, or abuse in government. Instead, it is focused on installing loyalists who will stop at nothing to protect the president and his cabinet,” U.S. Rep. Maxine Dexter (D-Oregon) said.
NOAA has also reportedly canceled international meetings – including upcoming Take Reduction Team meetings – following an internal direction to pause “all international agreements,” according to an email obtained by Wired. Conservation group Center for Biological Diversity issued a statement criticizing the administration’s actions.
“It’s incredibly concerning that NOAA canceled these cooperative meetings under Trump’s watch,” Center for Biological Diversity Oceans Director Miyoko Sakashita said in a statement. “We can’t solve any of the problems facing our oceans and marine wildlife without constructive conversation, and I’d hate to see the work that’s already gone into these efforts wasted. Americans across the political spectrum love whales and dolphins and want to figure out ways to protect them, and I don’t think anyone is going to get excited about stalled progress and extinction.”
