In an unofficial hearing hosted by U.S. Democrats on the House Natural Resources Committee, lawmakers and experts laid out how cuts the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump have made to NOAA and seafood-related funding are impacting the nation’s commercial fishers.
“This was all previewed for us. The authors of Project 2025 told us that they would attack science and dismantle NOAA if Trump was reelected. Of course, he denied that this was his plan, but we are all witnessing that the Trump administration is delivering exactly what Project 2025 promised and, in some cases, even worse,” U.S. Representative Jared Huffman (D-California) said during the hearing.
Trump and the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have initiated a government-wide effort to cut government programs that don’t align with Trump’s priorities, but environmental agencies have been hardest hit. DOGE staffers first gained access to NOAA in early February, and by the end of the month had fired more than 700 employees.
“Because of climate change, we desperately need faster, more nimble, and more collaborative data collection and decision-making, and there is a very slim chance we’re going to get that with this,” Rhode Island fisher and Shining Sea Fisheries Consulting Owner Sarah Schumann said. “What we need, actually, is not only what we had for the last four years but a much more robustly funded and staffed NOAA that has the capacity to collaborate with communities who have bright ideas across the U.S. and to put those ideas into action.”
The cruelty of the firings and the ensuant job insecurity of working at NOAA make working at the agency far less attractive to young people, added Elizabeth Lewis, a senior associate attorney with Eubanks & Associates.
“We are losing an entire generation of scientists and leaders,” Lewis said. “That to me is the devastating human cost. These are scientists, for the most part. They just want to do their work. The culture has gone from one of general support at a quality federal agency to one of real fear.”
DOGE has also moved to shut down NOAA offices and sell off some of the agency’s real estate.
“In my district alone, two [NOAA Fisheries] offices are slated for closure by the end of the year, leaving an already data-limited fishery management system much closer to the brink of collapse,” Huffman said.
The Trump administration’s efforts to ...
