Overview

• Associated Press reports show recent budget and staff reductions at NOAA and the National Weather Service align with Project 2025’s blueprint to commercialize forecasting operations.
• Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick transferred control of Cantor Fitzgerald to his adult sons and that firm’s stakes in BGC Group and Satellogic stand to profit from a reduced public forecasting role.
• President Trump’s nominees to lead NOAA, Neil Jacobs and Taylor Jordan, have professional ties to private weather companies and are appearing before a Senate committee to defend their ethics plans.
• SpaceX and its Starlink unit could gain from February’s one-third staff cut at the NOAA Office of Space Commerce, with future weather satellites likely to launch on their rockets.
• The Commerce Department states that Lutnick is complying with divestiture and recusal agreements, but experts warn that assets held by adult children expose gaps in conflict-of-interest rules.