Florida’s congressional Democrats signed a letter to the Trump administration this week with a blunt warning: federal funding cuts for meteorologists and weather forecasting resources “pose an immediate threat to hurricane preparedness and extreme weather response efforts in Florida and across the nation.”
“Investments in weather forecasting and emergency preparedness are essential to our national security and economic stability, and we strongly oppose any actions that weaken our ability to protect lives and property from natural disasters,” the lawmakers wrote in their letter on Thursday to Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought.
Sources told WLRN last week that nearly two dozen scientists based at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency’s Virginia Key offices were laid off in the latest round of federal firings, a direct hit to hurricane research and fisheries management vital to protecting U.S. shores.
READ MORE: Fears over hurricane forecasting as scientists are laid off at NOAA's Virginia Key offices
The layoffs ordered by the Trump administration are part of a reduction in force aimed at an agency created by Richard Nixon in the 1970s that now has offices spread across the country.
About 22 probationary staffers at the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Lab and southeast fisheries office were fired, gutting a class of young scientists or newly promoted staffers who had already put in years of service working to improve hurricane forecasting and better manage valuable ocean resources, including coral reefs. About 16 fired scientists worked in fisheries and a half dozen on hurricanes, sources told WLRN.
Nationwide, more than 600 employees were laid off in emails sent Feb. 27, former NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad said in a press conference last Friday, with every NOAA office across the country hit.
The congressional letter sent Thursday to the OMB’s Vought was signed by each of Florida’s congressional Democrats: U.S. Reps. Kathy Castor, of Tampa, Frederica Wilson, of Miami Gardens, Lois Frankel, of Boca Raton, Darren Soto, of Orlando, Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, of Miramar, Maxwell Frost, of Orlando, and Jared Moskowitz, of Parkland.
“Florida is ground zero for climate change-driven extreme storms, and I’m appalled President Trump is weakening our nation’s weather forecasting resources and inviting needless added risk to property and lives,” said Wasserman Schultz in a statement.
She said she invited her Republican congressional colleagues in Florida to sign the letter, but they declined.
“I crafted this letter to protect NOAA and the NWS without partisan rhetoric, so my Republican colleagues could comfortably join forces with us,” she said. “Sadly, they refused to unite around our residents’ safety.”
“I hope they speak privately with the President to head off this reckless effort. If they don’t, I pray that none of them have reason to regret not speaking up,” she added.
Other South Florida lawmakers also expressed their dismay with the administration’s funding cuts.
Frankel said “slashing hundreds of NOAA jobs isn’t just reckless — it’s a catastrophe waiting to happen.”
“Abrupt workforce cuts at NOAA and NWS will only make it more difficult for our communities to get ahead before the next storm arrives,” said Cherfilus-McCormick, in a statement.
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