The Trump administration is withholding some grant funding for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, triggering warnings from scientists and Democrat lawmakers that delays could disrupt atmospheric monitoring, climate research, and weather-related work as the White House pursues deep proposed cuts to the agency.
At the center of the latest dispute is the University of Colorado's Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, or CIRES, a long-standing NOAA partner that said earlier this month that a federal pause on grant funding actions has placed scientists and administrative staff supporting NOAA's Global Monitoring Laboratory in Boulder "at risk of elimination" because the Office of Management and Budget has not released funds that had been approved.
CIRES Director Waleed Abdalati said Monday that the institute was warned shortly before funding was expected to run out.
"We were informed that NOAA has put a pause on all grant actions," he said, adding, "We are all told to assume no funding is moving through the grants management division until a spend plan has been approved."
Abdalati said that because of the delay, "We've had to notify our people that ... should funds not become available by May 15, they will be on furlough."
He also warned that the consequences would be immediate and lasting, saying, "We lose observations and data that ... help us understand the condition of our atmosphere," and "it's much easier to break than it is to reconstitute."
The funding holdup has intensified a broader fight over NOAA's future after the administration advanced a budget framework that would cut NOAA's funding to $4.5 billion from $6.1 billion and eliminate NOAA's Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, the division that oversees much of the agency’s weather, ocean, and climate research.
NOAA says it supports 16 Cooperative Institutes made up of 80 universities and research institutions across 33 states, the District of Columbia, U.S. territories, and Canada, making the Boulder funding pause part of a larger research network tied to the agency's core mission.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., who serves as the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations subcommittee with jurisdiction over NOAA funding, accused OMB Director Russell Vought of illegally blocking money approved by Congress, saying, "But Russ Vought is ignoring these directives from Congress by preventing the obligation of funds, a clear violation of the law."
In a letter released last fall, Van Hollen and Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said NOAA's fiscal 2025 spending plan was $246 million short of funds Congress appropriated under the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act of 2025 and demanded answers from Vought and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
Former NOAA official Andrew Rosenberg said the move breaks with normal practice, saying, "OMB normally wouldn't hold up money like this," and, "They're using the budget as a weapon to fundamentally change what people have access to and the work that the government does."
For Boulder scientists, the immediate question is whether the money will be released before the May 15 furlough deadline, but the larger concern is whether the temporary funding freeze is becoming an early test case for a broader campaign to dismantle NOAA's climate and atmospheric research capacity.
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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