The U.S. government has begun laying off staff at NOAA as part of President Donald Trump’s ongoing efforts to shrink the federal workforce and roll back the government’s climate-related spending.
The Trump administration began laying off NOAA employees on 27 February, with more cuts expected. According to the Associated Press, the layoffs targeted employees with probationary status – who have less protections than employees who have worked with the agency for more than two years. Hundreds of employees, possibly as many as 10 percent of the agency’s staff, have been let go, former NOAA chief scientist Craig McLean told the publication.
The move was quickly criticized by conservation groups, which claimed the cuts could hinder the agency’s vital missions.
“The indiscriminate firing of employees is going to sabotage NOAA’s ability to do essential work that every single American relies on,” Ocean Conservancy Vice President of External Affairs Jeff Waters said in a statement. “NOAA is the eyes and ears for our water and air – the agency tracks our weather and climate; monitors tides and surf forecasts; allows for the safe deployment and navigation of satellites, ships, and doppler radar. It acts as a first responder with its weather and hurricane emergency alerts; its tsunami warning centers; its oil spill response capabilities; its marine mammal stranding network; and its harmful algal blooms early warning systems. NOAA even keeps seafood on the table. Americans depend on NOAA each and every day, and so does the health of the ocean.”
It’s not immediately clear how many of the laid off employees worked within NOAA Fisheries, or how a reduction in the agency’s workforce will impact its fisheries work.
Conservation NGO Oceana called on Congress to step in and reverse the cuts.
“Our oceans have become political carnage, but the real victims are hardworking Americans – the people you care about – and our future generations,” Oceana Vice President for the United States Beth Lowell said in a statement. “These are American jobs that warn us about severe weather, protect our most vulnerable marine life like whales and turtles, ensure abundant fisheries, and maintain a healthy ocean for those whose livelihoods depend on it. We’re calling on Congress to save NOAA from these disastrous cuts, while also protecting American jobs, communities, and the oceans.”
The mass layoffs occurred immediately after The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) delivered a letter signed by 2,500 scientific experts calling on federal lawmakers and Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick to protect NOAA workers.
“Today’s mass layoffs of NOAA staff signals a grim new reality: one where career federal scientists will be recklessly discarded, and the lifesaving science they do will be significantly undermined,” Juan Declet-Barreto, senior social scientist for climate vulnerability in the Climate and Energy Program at UCS, said in a statement. “Gutting NOAA is a political move designed to suppress climate science research at the expense of providing critical information that helps ensure the safety of communities. Censoring science does not change the facts about climate change. These destructive actions against a leading science agency are an illegal overreach of presidential authority that must be challenged by Congress and in the courts.”
Democrats were also quick to denounce the mass layoffs, with some promising to fight the cuts in Congress.
“I can guarantee we will be fighting this action in Congress and in the Courts,” U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland), the leading Democrat on the Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS), said in a statement. “As I made clear to Commerce Secretary [Howard] Lutnick yesterday: this action is flatly illegal. Americans rely on NOAA to provide both day-to-day and emergency weather forecasting, and NOAA also supports our communities by conducting vital research into environmental threats, managing our nation’s fisheries, and more.”
“My Democratic colleagues and I will keep fighting back in state and federal courts, in the halls of Congress, and the court of public opinion. This is a betrayal of the American people, and it will not stand,” added U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman (D-California), chair of the House Natural Resources Committee.
Democrats have been warning that Trump, and Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) were targeting NOAA. At the beginning of February, DOGE gained access to NOAA data systems, and rumors have swirled that the Trump administration is planning massive budget cuts for the agency, which provides weather services and manages the nation’s fisheries.
“Hundreds of scientists and experts at NOAA just received the news every federal worker has been dreading,” Huffman said in a statement. “Musk and his fake officials, the DOGE tech bros, have been rummaging through our most sensitive data without authority in violation of the law for weeks now.”
Democrats challenged Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Commerce, Lutnick, over concerns that the Trump administration planned to dismantle NOAA as laid out in the Project 2025 policy document, which was linked to the Trump campaign throughout 2024. While Lutnick testified that he had no intention of dismantling NOAA, his tepid responses to some questions has drawn criticism, and UCS said the mass layoffs under his watch broke his promise to not dismantle the agency.
“When testifying under oath, Howard Lutnick assured congressional members that if confirmed as commerce secretary, NOAA wouldn’t be dismantled under his watch – a promise that was broken today,” Declet-Barreto said. “It seems either Lutnick willingly lied to Congress and the American people or that he has caved in record-breaking time to the destructive agenda of the Trump-Musk regime."
