NWS staffing will be priority, nominee tells Senate
As lawmakers from both parties raised concerns about staffing at the National Weather Service (NWS), President Trump’s pick to lead the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) promised Wednesday to make the matter a “top priority.”
Neil Jacobs, who led the agency in an acting capacity during the last Trump administration, said, “If confirmed, I will ensure that staffing the Weather Service offices is a top priority. It’s really important for the people to be there because they have relationships with the people in the local community.”
The matter was particularly top-of-mind in the wake of last week’s floods in Texas that killed more than 100 people.
Questions were particularly raised in light of across-the-board layoffs and buyouts conducted by the Trump administration in order to reduce the size of the government.
After those layoffs, the administration has sought to shuffle staffers or hire more people, as some Weather Service offices were deemed “critically understaffed.”
Jacobs heard concerns about Weather Service staffing from several lawmakers during his confirmation hearing.
Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) said that an office in his state was “short” meteorologists because there had been a hiring freeze. Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) lamented that at the Weather Service “a decision was made to close overnight service in Cheyenne and route evening coverage” through a town hundreds of miles away called Riverton.
Several Democrats raised similar worries about staffing levels.
“NOAA has lost at least 1,875 employees, totaling a combined 27,000 years of experience and institutional knowledge, and now has over 3,000 vacant staff positions,” said Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.).
Democrats also raised issues with proposed research cuts at the agency — arguing that those cuts could make the agency less able to understand the weather.
“I support the president’s budget,” Jacobs said when asked by Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) about proposed cuts to weather and climate research in the administration’s proposed budget.
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