By Helen Huiskes, NOTUS
President Donald Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency are reportedly considering steep cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Lawmakers from Louisiana, a state that relies on NOAA to prepare for hurricanes and other extreme weather, say that would be a mistake.
“NOAA performs very, very important work for our country, and the core purpose of NOAA is something that we’re going to protect,” Republican Rep. Clay Higgins told NOTUS, calling NOAA’s work “pure science.”
Democrats and Republicans alike told NOTUS they believe in NOAA’s mission.
“I’m deeply concerned that cuts to the NOAA could jeopardize our ability to track hurricanes and respond to extreme weather, threats that Louisianians know all too well,” Democratic Rep. Troy Carter told NOTUS in an email. “Slashing funding for NOAA is not just reckless; it’s dangerous.”
NOAA studies the climate, ocean, atmosphere and ecosystems, including forecasting weather. It plays a major role in hurricane preparedness, communicating upcoming weather patterns so officials can order evacuations or prepare resources.
E&E News reported last week that the administration is considering cutting NOAA’s staff in half. A spokesperson for NOAA declined to comment to NOTUS about any plans, citing a policy against discussing personnel matters. Meanwhile, Trump has suggested shutting down the Federal Emergency Management Authority, which is already preparing to lay off climate-change-related and probationary staff.
Louisiana Republicans said they’re open to DOGE taking a look at NOAA. But they said it needs to remain a federal agency.
“There’s no state equivalent to NOAA that can handle the business that we do around the world with NOAA,” Higgins said. “So we’re going to have to fix what’s wrong with NOAA and keep it.”
Republican state Rep. Joseph Orgeron told NOTUS he could understand if some diversity, equity and inclusion-related employees or programs get cut from NOAA. But the overall federal agency should continue to function to perform its hurricane tracking and oceanographic data gathering, he said.
“As far as a complete agency dissolution, I would probably be against that,” Orgeron said.
Jill Trepanier, a professor at Louisiana State University who specializes in hurricane climatology, told NOTUS that some researchers with NOAA grants have been asked to pause their research since Trump took office.
“Some people have had to put things on hold, especially as it relates to things that might be about diversity or inclusion,” she said.
Trepanier said that cuts and pauses to research could affect communication to residents about extreme weather events, one of NOAA’s main responsibilities. She recalled Hurricane Laura in 2020, which made landfall in southwestern Louisiana. That area doesn’t see hurricane landfall as often. But when the National Hurricane Center within NOAA predicted about a week in advance that the whole state would see extreme weather, then-Gov. John Bel Edwards ordered evacuations.
“This is why they exist,” Trepanier said of NOAA and the National Hurricane Center. “And why loss of life has been greatly reduced in the last century, as a product of that awareness, information, outreach and people being informed before the event occurs. If that goes away, it will set us back to earlier times of a lack of awareness, thus more casualties.”
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Helen Huiskes is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.
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