Hundreds of Workers at US Weather Agency NOAA Fired

The White House said that about 5 percent of NOAA staff had been let go.

The logo of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) at the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Fla., on Aug. 29, 2019. Eva Marie Uzcategui/Getty Images

The federal government fired hundreds of federal employees at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on Feb. 27.

NOAA, a science-based federal agency within the Commerce Department, is responsible for providing weather, water, and climate forecasts and warnings for the United States. It also develops and operates weather satellites and protects marine life.

“Only about 5 percent of the NOAA staff was let go, and an extensive process was conducted to ensure that mission-critical functions to fulfill the NOAA’s statutory responsibilities weren’t compromised,” a White House official told The Epoch Times.

It is not yet clear exactly how many workers have been impacted by the cuts. Before the job cuts, NOAA had about 12,000 staffers worldwide, including 6,773 scientists and engineers, according to the agency’s website.

President Donald Trump on Feb. 18 ordered the heads of agencies to “promptly undertake preparations to initiate large-scale reductions in force.” In recent weeks, thousands of federal workers across several agencies have been terminated.

They include employees from the departments of Agriculture, Energy, the Interior, and Veterans Affairs, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Institutes of Health.

About 400 U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) personnel have also been fired, a DHS spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email on Feb. 18.

Some lawmakers have denounced the job cuts at NOAA and other agencies.

Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.), ranking member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS), said in a statement on Thursday that NOAA employees were “given termination notices for no good reason.”

“This is unconscionable. These are dedicated, hardworking Americans whose efforts help save lives and property from the devastating impacts of natural disasters across the country,” Meng said.

The terminations “jeopardize our ability to forecast and respond to extreme weather events like hurricanes, wildfires, and floods—putting communities in harm’s way,” Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) said in a Feb. 27 post on the social media platform X. “This action is a direct hit to our economy, because NOAA’s specialized workforce provides products and services that support more than a third of the nation’s GDP.”

Trump has defended the downsizing of federal workers, telling reporters during the first Cabinet meeting on Feb. 26 that doing so was necessary,

“We’re bloated. We’re sloppy. We have a lot of people that aren’t doing their job,” Trump said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.