‘People will needlessly die': House Democrats warn about cuts to weather forecasters after Texas floods
In his budget request from May, Trump proposed cutting $2.2 billion in projects and grants from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, including more than a dozen weather and climate labs. He has also called for reorganizing parts of the agency and shuttering FEMA in favor of moving disaster funding to the states.
'If Trump continues to push expert NOAA, [National Weather Service] and FEMA staff out the door through payoffs and forced retirements, people will needlessly die,' predicted Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.)
The House Democratic members — most from hurricane-vulnerable Florida — held a Zoom call with former NOAA and National Hurricane Center officials to pressure Republican appropriators to ignore Trump's budget request. They stressed the importance of the agencies' ability to forecast how intense impending storms could be and to notify people to protect their homes and businesses or evacuate.
Trump has proposed cutting NOAA research labs, including one in Miami, but Wasserman Schultz also said she was worried the president would 'unilaterally reduce staff, fire people, close partial operations' as had been done through Department of Government Efficiency efforts.
Among the proposed Trump fiscal 2026 cuts were more than a dozen weather and climate facilities nationwide, including Miami's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory and its Hurricane Research Division. Congress typically doesn't abide by a president's budget, however; it's seen more as a document for a president to message priorities rather than a blueprint for legislators, regardless of partisan balance.
Democrats on the call didn't directly blame the more than 100 deaths in Texas on job cuts, saying it appeared the National Weather Service did its job and that they would learn more as information continued to come in. But they said the tragedy underscored how much the federal government needs top experts and forecasting tools.
Wasserman Schultz warned Florida, now facing the middle of hurricane season, was already experiencing staff cuts to the National Weather Service of between 20 percent and 40 percent. DOGE cuts caused roughly 600 employees nationwide to leave the National Weather Service in recent months, whether through firings, buyouts or early retirement.
The Broward County representative also brought attention to $200 million in cuts from Trump's 'One Big Beautiful Bill,' signed into law last week, that were intended to go toward weather forecasts and climate resiliency projects.
Democratic Rep. Lois Frankel of Florida called the cuts 'reckless and dangerous' and said Congress should be 'strengthening NOAA, not gutting it.'
During the call, Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fla.) brought up flooding in Fort Lauderdale in recent years that has devastated homes and businesses.
'We're seeing more rains that are record breaking,' she said. 'At this point it is no longer record breaking — this is our new normal, and we must fund [NOAA] to the level that would allow us to protect the American people.'
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