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Federal workers who were not let go said the afternoon layoffs
included meteorologists who do crucial local forecasts in
National Weather Service offices across the country.
Cuts at NOAA appeared to be happening in two rounds, one of 500
and one of 800, said Craig McLean, a former NOAA chief scientist
who said he got the information from someone with first-hand
knowledge. That’s about 10% of NOAA’s workforce.
The first round of cuts were probationary employees, McLean
said. There are about 375 probationary employees in the National
Weather Service — where day-to-day forecasting and hazard
warning is done.
The firings come amid efforts by billionaire Elon Musk and his
Department of Government Efficiency to shrink a federal
workforce that President Donald Trump has called bloated and
sloppy. Thousands of probationary employees across the
government have already been fired.
Rep. Grace Meng, D-N.Y., released a statement saying: “Today,
hundreds of employees at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA), including weather forecasters at the
National Weather Service (NWS), were given termination notices
for no good reason. This is unconscionable.”
Meng added: "These are dedicated, hardworking Americans whose
efforts help save lives and property from the devastating
impacts of natural disasters across the country. This action
will only endanger American lives going forward.”
Rep. Jared Huffman, a California Democrat who is the ranking
minority member in the House Natural Resources Committee, also
said “hundreds of scientists and experts at NOAA” were let go.
Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of
California, Los Angeles, said on social media that the job cuts
"are spectacularly short-sighted, and ultimately will deal a
major self-inflicted wound to the public safety of Americans and
the resiliency of the American economy to weather and
climate-related disasters.”
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