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4h ago

Trump’s Budget Cuts Cripple NOAA and NASA, Disrupting Critical Climate and Weather Programs

Congress now faces a decision on deep funding cuts critics warn have silenced vital climate observations, hampering storm forecasting.

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Flood waters left debris including vehicles and equipment scattered in Louise Hays Park on July 5, 2025 in Kerrville, Texas.
Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) at the U.S. Capitol, in Washington, D.C., on Monday, June 30, 2025.

Overview

  • Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency has proposed a combined 27% reduction in NOAA’s 2026 budget and sweeping cuts to NASA, which would eliminate NOAA’s research office and end long-running satellite missions such as NASA’s 25-year-old TIMED program.
  • In March, the U.S. State Department took the AirNow pollution dataset offline, cutting researchers off from over 15 years of global air quality records.
  • NOAA terminated around 880 employees in February under executive orders, triggering ongoing legal battles that have kept workforce numbers and expertise in limbo.
  • International partnerships like the UK-US ICECAPS project in Greenland are on indefinite pause as funding uncertainty has halted contracts and equipment deployments.
  • Critics link gaps in forecasting capacity from disrupted data streams to the recent Texas floods that claimed more than 100 lives, intensifying public safety concerns.