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The Trump administration is withholding some grant funding for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, prompting warnings from scientists and Democratic lawmakers that delays could disrupt key weather and climate research.
At issue is a funding pause affecting the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, a longtime NOAA partner based in Boulder, Colorado. Officials there said the halt in funding approvals has put staff supporting NOAA’s Global Monitoring Laboratory at risk of furlough or job loss.
Director Waleed Abdalati said the institute was informed that NOAA had paused grant actions pending approval of a federal spending plan.
“We were informed that NOAA has put a pause on all grant actions,” Abdalati said, The Hill reported. “We are all told to assume no funding is moving through the grants management division until a spend plan has been approved.”
He said employees have been warned they could be furloughed if funds are not released by mid-May. “We’ve had to notify our people that … should funds not become available by May 15, they will be on furlough,” he said.
Abdalati cautioned that interruptions could have lasting effects. “We lose observations and data that … help us understand the condition of our atmosphere,” he said, adding, “it’s much easier to break than it is to reconstitute.”
The dispute comes as the administration proposes cutting NOAA’s budget and eliminating its Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, which oversees much of the agency’s scientific work.
Chris Van Hollen, the top Democrat on the Senate panel overseeing NOAA funding, accused Russell Vought of blocking congressionally approved funds.
“But Russ Vought is ignoring these directives from Congress by preventing the obligation of funds, a clear violation of the law,” Van Hollen said.
In earlier correspondence, Van Hollen and Adam Schiff said NOAA’s spending plan fell short of levels approved by Congress and sought explanations from administration officials.
Former NOAA official Andrew Rosenberg said the funding pause departs from typical practice. “OMB normally wouldn’t hold up money like this,” he said. “They’re using the budget as a weapon to fundamentally change what people have access to and the work that the government does.”
NOAA supports a network of 16 cooperative institutes involving dozens of universities and research organizations, making the funding pause part of a broader system tied to weather forecasting, atmospheric monitoring and climate research.