Rep. Neguse Leads Coalition of Lawmakers Opposing Proposed Cuts to NOAA
In letters to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik and Subcommittee Chairman Hal Rogers, lawmakers urge the rejection of proposed funding cuts and facility closures at NOAA.
Washington, DC— Following the release of the White House’s Fiscal Year 2026 budget proposal, Congressman Joe Neguse (CO-02) led a coalition of 23 lawmakers urging both the Department of Commerce and their colleagues on the House Appropriations Committee to reject devastating proposed cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) by the Trump administration. The budget proposal would decimate funding for NOAA’s critical programs, including the Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR), and terminate several Weather Laboratories and Cooperative Institutes, including several in Colorado’s Second Congressional District.
In their letter, the lawmakers condemned the proposed budget cuts to NOAA and underscored the importance of the agency and its Cooperative Institutes. Colorado is home to several of NOAA’s Climate Laboratories, including the Physical Sciences Laboratory (PSL), the Chemical Sciences Laboratory (CSL), and the Global Monitoring Laboratory (GML), all located in Boulder, CO.
Colorado is also the only state in the nation home to two Cooperative Institutes, the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA) at Colorado State University and the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado Boulder, which are academic and non-profit research centers that have provided invaluable support to NOAA’s mission and work in drought, wildfire, and space weather since 1967. The lawmakers denounced the proposed cuts in their letter to Department of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Subcommittee Chairman Rogers and Ranking Member Meng, as well as any plans to terminate funding for these institutions, making clear the damage to our nation would be irreversible, and emphasizing the important work that is ongoing at both CIRES and CIRA.
“CIs are home to experienced researchers and long-standing data collection programs with major impacts on human societies. If these sweeping cuts are made, the damage will be irreversible. Even short-term interruptions in their research could threaten the safety and economies of the communities that CIs serve across the nation. These cuts would primarily leave tornado and weather research and ocean observation to be reprogrammed to other offices, effectively moving weather research and development under the National Weather Service, while getting rid of most of the people and infrastructure that do this critical work.”
They continued: “The value NOAA and its programs, like OAR, provide to our communities cannot be overstated. OAR operates research laboratories across the country providing the foundation for understanding and predicting changes in Earth’s atmosphere, oceans, and inland waters. This work improves weather and climate forecasts, provides early warnings for natural disasters, and enhances our understanding of Earth’s systems. The work our scientists and civil servants do at NOAA is essential to U.S. national security and economic prosperity, as well as the personal safety and daily lives of Americans. Any attempt to gut these essential programs would have devastating effects on Americans.”
Read their full letter HERE and below:
July 8, 2025
The Honorable Howard Lutnick
Secretary
U.S. Department of Commerce
1401 Constitution Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20230
The Honorable Laura Grimm
Acting Administrator
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
1401 Constitution Avenue NW Washington, DC 20230
Dear Secretary Lutnick and Acting Administrator Grimm,
We write to implore you to reject the proposed funding cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) as laid out in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Fiscal Year 2026 budget request. NOAA’s programs provide essential services to all Americans, and gutting its programs and research would be gravely irresponsible.
In NOAA’s FY26 Congressional Justification document, the agency lays out plans to effectively eliminate NOAA’s Operations, Research, and Facilities for FY26. This includes a decrease in 216 employees and complete termination of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) Climate Laboratories and Cooperative Institutes.
This document also proposes closing down several NOAA facilities across the United States that are in our respective districts. This includes the Atlantic Oceanographic & Meteorological Laboratory (AOML) in Miami, FL; the Air Resources Laboratory (ARL) in College Park, MD, Idaho Falls, ID, and Oak Ridge, TN, Physical Sciences Laboratory (PSL) in Boulder, CO; the Chemical Sciences Laboratory (CSL) in Boulder, CO; the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) in Princeton, NJ; , as well as a nation-wide network of soil moisture sensors; the Global Monitoring Laboratory (GML) in Boulder, CO, Utqiaġvik, AK; Mauna Loa, HI; Hilo, HI; Big Island, HI; American Samoa, and the South Pole; and the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL) in Seattle. Shutting down these facilities would be devastating for our communities.
These cuts would also affect Cooperative Institutes (CIs), which are academic and non-profit research institutions that support NOAA’s goals, containing 80 universities and institutions across 33 states. CIs are home to experienced researchers and long-standing data collection programs with major impacts on human societies. If these sweeping cuts are made, the damage will be irreversible. Even short-term interruptions in their research could threaten the safety and economies of the communities that CIs serve across the nation.
These cuts would primarily leave tornado and weather research and ocean observation to be reprogrammed to other offices, effectively moving weather research and development under the National Weather Service, while getting rid of most of the people and infrastructure that do this critical work. You cannot simply shuffle a handful of programs across NOAA offices while terminating an entire line office responsible for providing the research base for the agency and expect continued success; to maintain American excellence in this work requires continuity of OAR’s core functions as well as its skilled workforce, including at the labs and CIs.
The value NOAA and its programs, like OAR, provide to our communities cannot be overstated. OAR operates research laboratories across the country providing the foundation for understanding and predicting changes in Earth’s atmosphere, oceans, and inland waters. This work improves weather and climate forecasts, provides early warnings for natural disasters, and enhances our understanding of Earth’s systems. The work our scientists and civil servants do at NOAA is essential to U.S. national security and economic prosperity, as well as the personal safety and daily lives of Americans. Any attempt to gut these essential programs would have devastating effects on Americans. As such, we urge you to reject these proposed funding cuts and facility closures at NOAA.
Sincerely,
Read their full letter HERE and below:
July 8, 2025
The Honorable Hal Rogers
Chairman
Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies
Committee on Appropriations
H-310 The Capitol Washington, DC 20515
The Honorable Grace Meng
Ranking Member
Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science,
and Related Agencies
Committee on Appropriations
H-310 The Capitol, Washington, DC 20515
Dear Chairman Rogers and Ranking Member Meng,
As you continue crafting the Fiscal Year 2026 Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies appropriations bill, we write to implore you to reject the proposed funding cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) as laid out in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Fiscal Year 2026 budget request. NOAA’s programs provide essential services to all Americans, and gutting its programs and research would be gravely irresponsible.
In NOAA’s FY26 Congressional Justification document, the agency lays out plans to effectively eliminate NOAA’s Operations, Research, and Facilities for FY26. This includes a decrease in 216 employees and complete termination of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) Climate Laboratories and Cooperative Institutes.
This document also proposes closing down several NOAA facilities across the United States that are in our respective districts. This includes the Physical Sciences Laboratory (PSL) in Boulder, CO; the Chemical Sciences Laboratory (CSL) in Boulder, CO; the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) in Princeton, NJ; Atlantic Oceanographic & Meteorological Laboratory (AOML) in Miami, FL; the Air Resources Laboratory (ARL) in College Park, MD, Idaho Falls, ID, and Oak Ridge, TN, as well as a nation-wide network of soil moisture sensors; the Global Monitoring Laboratory (GML) in Boulder, CO, Utqiaġvik, AK; Mauna Loa, HI; Hilo, HI; Big Island, HI; American Samoa, and the South Pole; and the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL) in Seattle. Shutting down these facilities would be devastating for our communities.
These cuts would also affect Cooperative Institutes (CIs), which are academic and non-profit research institutions that support NOAA’s goals, containing 80 universities and institutions across 33 states. CIs are home to experienced researchers and long-standing data collection programs with major impacts on human societies. If these sweeping cuts are made, the damage will be irreversible. Even short-term interruptions in their research could threaten the safety and economies of the communities that CIs serve across the nation.
These cuts would primarily leave tornado and weather research and ocean observation to be reprogrammed to other offices, effectively moving weather research and development under the National Weather Service, while getting rid of most of the people and infrastructure that do this critical work. You cannot simply shuffle a handful of programs across NOAA offices while terminating an entire line office responsible for providing the research base for the agency and expect continued success; to maintain American excellence in this work requires continuity of OAR’s core functions as well as its skilled workforce, including at the labs and CIs.
The value NOAA and its programs, like OAR, provide to our communities cannot be overstated. OAR operates research laboratories across the country providing the foundation for understanding and predicting changes in Earth’s atmosphere, oceans, and inland waters. This work improves weather and climate forecasts, provides early warnings for natural disasters, and enhances our understanding of Earth’s systems. The work our scientists and civil servants do at NOAA is essential to U.S. national security and economic prosperity, as well as the personal safety and daily lives of Americans. Any attempt to gut these essential programs would have devastating effects on Americans. As such, we urge you to reject these proposed funding cuts and facility closures at NOAA, and to instead fully fund NOAA in the FY26 Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies appropriations bill.
Sincerely,
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