Trump eyes huge climate research cuts at NOAA
The Trump administration is considering deep cuts to NOAA while seeking to end much of its climate change work, according to an internal document seen by Axios.
Why it matters: The proposal, if Congress enacts it, would squash some of the nation’s premier climate change research programs.
- It also reveals how the administration may try to maneuver to realign agencies without going through Congress.
Driving the news: The “passback” document — an early part of the process for drawing up the president’s annual budget — proposes to cut NOAA’s overall budget by nearly $1.7 billion to $4.5 billion.
- It suggests eliminating the NOAA’s Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research as a line office and cutting most of its budget to about $171 million.
- That would include cutting “all funding for climate, weather, and ocean Laboratories and Cooperative Institutes,” says the document, which was provided by multiple sources and reviewed by Democratic staff on the House Science, Space and Technology Committee.
Between the lines: Eliminating those programs would jeopardize universities studying climate and earth systems in partnership with NOAA, one of the world’s top climate change research agencies.
The Trump administration is eyeing similar science cuts at NASA, the Washington Post reported.
- Proposed cutbacks of NASA science by 47% “would halt the development of nearly every future science project at NASA, wasting billions of dollars of taxpayer funds already spent on these projects,” the Planetary Society said in a Friday statement.
Yes, but: The NOAA document is labeled “pre-decisional” and is subject to change.
- It essentially shows what the White House Office of Management and Budget wants to do with NOAA and the Commerce Department.
- NOAA, Commerce and the White House didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.