Congressional committees push back on Trump's proposed NOAA budget cuts
While the House and Senate spending bills for fiscal year 2026 are still in the early stages of the legislative process, initial drafts indicate bipartisan pushback against the significant cuts outlined in the administration's budget proposal, released earlier this year.
For fiscal year 2026, which begins Oct. 1, the Trump administration proposed cutting NOAA's budget by roughly 25%, including the elimination of its research division, the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) and making major reductions to other key offices such as the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), the world's largest provider of weather and climate data.
MORE: After Texas flood, elected leaders say cuts to FEMA, NOAA could affect weather response
The budget proposal stated, "The FY 2026 budget eliminates all funding for climate, weather, and ocean Laboratories and Cooperative Institutes. It also does not fund Regional Climate Data and Information, Climate Competitive Research, the National Sea Grant College Program, Sea Grant Aquaculture Research, or the National Oceanographic Partnership Program."
The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies advanced a spending bill with bipartisan support last week that would fund NOAA at levels mostly in line with budgets of previous years.
The fiscal year 2026 Commerce, Justice, Science appropriations bill provides roughly $5.8 billion to NOAA in 2026, a 6% decrease from the previous year. However, it restores a majority of funding for NOAA's Operations, Research and Facilities (ORF) account, which includes OAR. While specific spending details have not yet been released, this would likely spare many critical research labs and climate institutes from potential cuts.
During the July 15 markup session, Subcommittee Chairman Hal Rogers, R-Ky., expressed his support for the National Weather Service, emphasizing the recent toll of devastating flooding hitting the country.
"Flooding has inflicted much pain on this nation over the last few months," he said. "From my district in Kentucky to Texas, now is the time to ensure the National Weather Service is equipped with the funding it needs to warn and protect our citizens."
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At the start of the markup session, Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., the subcommittee's ranking Democrat, voiced concerns over both the proposed NOAA budget and recent staffing and funding cuts at the National Weather Service.
"Weather forecasts are not waste, fraud and abuse," she said. "I ask my colleagues, did anyone come to your town halls and complain that the National Weather Service has too many meteorologists? Too many people issuing advisories, watches and warnings on severe storms?"
DeLauro also cited concerns from Bill Turner, Connecticut's state emergency management director, who said the situation is "a very fragile house of cards right now, and we need them to continue… It really could be catastrophic in a lot of ways for our state if they go down that path of stopping the National Weather Service and their functionality."
The bill now advances to the full committee for a markup on Thursday, July 24.
The Senate's version of the bill allocates approximately $6.14 billion to NOAA for fiscal year 2026, just below the $6.18 billion approved for 2025. While this represents a modest overall decrease, the Senate Committee on Appropriations voted to boost spending for the agency's Operations, Research and Facilities (ORF) account, adding $68.7 million. The increase means more available funding that could go to key offices such as OAR, NWS and NESDIS (National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service).
MORE: Hurricane season is here and meteorologists are losing a vital tool for forecasting them
The current Senate bill explicitly signals support for NOAA's mission, including weather and climate research.
"The Committee strongly supports Climate Laboratories and Cooperative Institutes for their critical role in delivering high-quality weather information and driving economic benefits across the United States," the bill states.
The bill also addresses staffing concerns at local NWS offices across the country and provides additional funding to ensure they become fully staffed.
The bill's authors write, "Insufficient staffing levels risk compromising public safety and the NWS's mission to protect lives and property. The Committee provides an additional $10,000,000 for Analyze, Forecast and Support and urges the NWS to prioritize recruitment, retention, and training initiatives to ensure all weather forecast offices (WFOs) are fully staffed."
While introducing the bill, Jerry Moran, R- Kan., chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Science and Justice, said, "NOAA, and particularly the National Weather Service, is a hugely important component of what this bill funds, and this bill recognizes that importance." He added that the bill "fully funds the National Weather Service" and "eliminates any reduction in the workforce."
However, Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, raised concerns that the bill still gave too much discretion to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to determine the staffing levels needed to fulfill the agency's mission and statutory obligation -- "the Office of Management and Budget which clearly made the judgment that the National Weather Service has too many human beings working," Schatz said.
He introduced an amendment that would have required the administration to maintain full-time staffing at levels in place as of Sept. 30, 2024, but it was rejected along party lines.
The Senate Committee on Appropriations approved the Fiscal Year 2026 Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act on July 17 by a vote of 19-10.
MORE: How job cuts at NOAA could impact weather forecasting
What does the Trump Administration want to cut?
The administration's budget proposal calls for eliminating the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) as a NOAA Line Office, with several of its functions transferred to the National Weather Service and the National Ocean Service. OAR leads NOAA's weather and climate research and develops many of the forecasting tools meteorologists rely on to produce timely and accurate forecasts.
The proposed budget would include shutting down NOAA's nationwide network of research labs and cooperative institutes. Among them is the Global Systems Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado, where the High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) model, a critical tool in modern weather forecasting, was first developed more than a decade ago. The HRRR model helps meteorologists track everything from severe thunderstorms to extreme rainfall to wildfire smoke.
The Global Monitoring Laboratory, also based in Boulder, oversees operations at Mauna Loa Observatory on Hawaii's Big Island. This observatory has maintained the world's longest continuous observation of atmospheric carbon dioxide and has been crucial to our understanding of how human-caused greenhouse gas emissions fuel global warming.
NOAA's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML) in Miami, Florida, plays a vital role in operational hurricane forecasting. The lab develops cutting-edge tropical weather models that have significantly improved forecast accuracy in recent decades. National Hurricane Center (NHC) forecasters set a record for forecast track accuracy in 2024, according to a NOAA report. NHC issued 347 official forecasts during the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season, and its track predictions set accuracy records at every forecast time period.
MORE: DOGE now has access to NOAA's IT systems; reviewing DEI program, sources say
Who will lead NOAA next?
Earlier this month, during a confirmation hearing, Dr. Neil Jacobs, President Donald Trump's nominee to head NOAA, said he supports the administration's proposal to significantly cut the agency's budget arguing the reductions could be achieved by shifting work from research to operations without impacting "mission essential functions."
Jacobs also said if confirmed, he would "ensure that staffing the weather service offices is a top priority," adding that, "It's really important for the people to be there because they have relationships with the people in the local community. They're a trusted source."
NOAA's 2025 budget costs Americans less than $20 per person this year.
ABC News reached out to NOAA for comment, but did not immediately hear back.
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P-LLY Endnotes and References: The efficacy estimand represents efficacy had all randomized participants remained on study intervention (with possible dose interruptions and modifications) for 72 weeks without initiating prohibited weight management treatments. The treatment-regimen estimand represents the estimated average treatment effect regardless of adherence to study intervention or initiation of prohibited weight management treatments. Ma X, Liu R, Pratt EJ, Benson CT, Bhattachar SN, Sloop KW. Effect of Food Consumption on the Pharmacokinetics, Safety, and Tolerability of Once-Daily Orally Administered Orforglipron (LY3502970), a Non-peptide GLP-1 Receptor Agonist. Diabetes Ther. 2024 Apr;15(4):819-832. doi: 10.1007/s13300-024-01554-1. Epub 2024 Feb 24. PMID: 38402332; PMCID: PMC10951152. T. Kawai, B. Sun, H. Yoshino, D. Feng, Y. Suzuki, M. Fukazawa, S. Nagao, D.B. Wainscott, A.D. Showalter, B.A. Droz, T.S. Kobilka, M.P. Coghlan, F.S. Willard, Y. Kawabe, B.K. Kobilka, & K.W. Sloop, Structural basis for GLP-1 receptor activation by LY3502970, an orally active nonpeptide agonist, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 117 (47) 29959-29967, (2020). Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements (as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995) about orforglipron as a potential treatment for adults with obesity or overweight, Lilly's ability to supply orforglipron, if approved, and the timeline for future readouts, presentations, and other milestones relating to orforglipron and its clinical trials and reflects Lilly's current beliefs and expectations. However, as with any pharmaceutical product, there are substantial risks and uncertainties in the process of drug research, development, and commercialization. Among other things, there is no guarantee that planned or ongoing studies will be completed as planned, that future study results will be consistent with study results to date, that orforglipron will prove to be a safe and effective treatment for obesity or overweight, that orforglipron will receive regulatory approval, or that Lilly will execute its strategy as expected. For further discussion of these and other risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from Lilly's expectations, see Lilly's Form 10-K and Form 10-Q filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as required by law, Lilly undertakes no duty to update forward-looking statements to reflect events after the date of this release. Trademarks and Trade NamesAll trademarks or trade names referred to in this press release are the property of the company, or, to the extent trademarks or trade names belonging to other companies are references in this press release, the property of their respective owners. Solely for convenience, the trademarks and trade names in this press release are referred to without the ® and ™ symbols, but such references should not be construed as any indicator that the company or, to the extent applicable, their respective owners will not assert, to the fullest extent under applicable law, the company's or their rights thereto. We do not intend the use or display of other companies' trademarks and trade names to imply a relationship with, or endorsement or sponsorship of us by, any other companies. Refer to: Brooke Frost; 317-432-9145 (Media)Michael Czapar; czapar_michael_c@ 317-617-0983 (Investors) View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Eli Lilly and Company Sign in to access your portfolio
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