Senator warned Lutnick in Feb. that gutting NOAA & NWS would cripple weather forecasting, threaten public safety 

Jackson, Kentucky NWS office lost overnight staffing & meteorologist-in-charge as severe storms moved across the region May 16, leaving 18 dead

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, again demanded that the Trump Administration immediately exempt the National Weather Service (NWS) from its current Federal hiring freeze so that citizens and communities will not be left to fend for themselves without adequate warnings as both hurricane season and wildfire season rapidly approach.  

“On February 19, 2025, I wrote to Secretary Lutnick to urge protection of NOAA’s workforce and exempt the NWS and other safety related jobs from the hiring freeze due to the crucial role they play in protecting lives, property, and our national economy,” wrote Sen. Cantwell in a letter to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and OPM Acting Director Charles Ezell.  “Now that we have seen the fallout from these ill-advised cuts, I once again demand the Administration immediately provide NOAA with a public safety exemption to the federal hiring freeze so the agency can take immediate steps to fill critical positions and prevent a further breakdown in life-saving forecasts and warnings.”

Multiple recent reports have documented the impacts of the hiring freeze. The Washington Post reports that “Some…forecasting teams are so critically understaffed that the agency is offering to pay moving expenses for any staff willing to transfer to those offices, according to notices recently sent to employees…” And the New York Times found that “The National Weather Service is preparing for the probability that fewer forecast updates will be fine-tuned by specialists, among other cutbacks, because of ‘severe shortages’ of meteorologists and other employees, according to an internal agency document.” These reports make clear that action must be taken immediately to avoid a catastrophic gap in capacity in the face of a future storm or wildfire.

“For at least half a century, NWS has provided weather forecasting 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but with the Administration’s cuts, at least eight weather forecasting offices no longer have enough meteorologists to cover overnight shifts,” the Senator wrote. “The Pendleton, Oregon office that covers central Washington will stop staffing overnight shifts, and we’ll lose the consistent local knowledge about weather hazards that impacts the accuracy of forecasts and warnings needed to inform transportation agencies, farmers, schools, firefighters, emergency responders, and other public officials that rely on accurate and timely forecasts and warnings.”

Months before the current crisis, Sen. Cantwell called for an exemption and accurately predicted exactly the situation we are in now.

The full text of Sen. Cantwell’s letter is available HERE and below.

Dear Secretary Lutnick and Mr. Ezell,

The Administration's dismantling of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (“NOAA”) workforce has crippled the National Weather Service (“NWS”). The firing of probationary employees, early retirements, and other Administration efforts have led to more than 560 departures from NWS, a 33% reduction from historic levels, leaving many locations critically understaffed and the agency scrambling to fill the gaps.

NOAA initiated an agency-wide effort on May 13, 2025, to relocate existing personnel to temporarily fill 155 positions in “critically understaffed” locations across NWS. This proposed solution may serve as a stopgap, but it is not a viable long-term strategy.

On February 19, 2025, I wrote to Secretary Lutnick to urge protection of NOAA’s workforce and exempt the NWS and other safety related jobs from the hiring freeze due to the crucial role they play in protecting lives, property, and our national economy. Now that we have seen the fallout from these ill-advised cuts, I once again demand the Administration immediately provide NOAA with a public safety exemption to the federal hiring freeze so the agency can take immediate steps to fill critical positions and prevent a further breakdown in life-saving forecasts and warnings.

For at least half a century, NWS has provided weather forecasting 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but with the Administration’s cuts, at least eight weather forecasting offices no longer have enough meteorologists to cover overnight shifts. The Pendleton, Oregon office that covers central Washington will stop staffing overnight shifts, and we’ll lose the consistent local knowledge about weather hazards that impacts the accuracy of forecasts and warnings needed to inform transportation agencies, farmers, schools, firefighters, emergency responders, and other public officials that rely on accurate and timely forecasts and warnings. Additionally, 30 of the 122 weather forecast offices are currently lacking their highest-ranking official, known as the meteorologist-in-charge, including at offices that cover major metropolitan areas such as New York City, Cleveland, Houston, and Tampa. The office in Jackson, Kentucky lost both overnight staffing and their meteorologist-in-charge and was left scrambling to find adequate staffing on May 16, 2025, as severe storms moved across the region, ultimately killing 18 people in Kentucky.

The staffing shortages are also impacting NWS’s ability to collect and disseminate the weather data that underpins NOAA’s own forecasts and warnings as well as serves as the foundation for the entire U.S. weather enterprise. There are over 90 vacancies among the specialized staff who maintain and repair the NWS’s Doppler radar and Automated Surface Observing Systems greatly increasing the chances of equipment outages. These systems are the cornerstone of NWS’s severe weather warning operations and provide pilots and air traffic controllers with the data they need to safely manage air traffic and minimize delays. Additionally, at least 10 weather forecast offices have suspended or limited their weather balloon launches, which for decades have occurred twice daily to gather data on a steady cadence. Carrying instruments called radiosondes, the balloons rise to 115,000 feet and gather vital atmospheric data that cannot easily be replicated by satellites or other instruments. Without this information forecasts become less accurate and less reliable.

June 1 marks the start of hurricane season, and many parts of the country are already contending with wildfires and violent storms. Every living former Director of the NWS, from both Republican and Democratic administrations, wrote and released an open letter to the American people warning about the impact of staffing and program cuts. The Directors "stand united against the loss of staff and resources at NWS and are deeply concerned about NOAA as a whole...[Their] worst nightmare is that weather forecast offices will be so understaffed that there will be needless loss of life."?

Granting a public safety exemption to the hiring freeze is essential to prevent further degradation of our nation’s weather readiness. Please provide the Committee with a response by June 1, 2025, explaining how you will resume hiring at the NWS to ensure consistent weather forecasting coverage. 

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