05-03-2025
DOGE moves to end leases on key weather buildings
The Trump administration is making major cuts to NOAA, including ending leases for major facilities, but Houston's forecasting center is so far unscathed.
Why it matters: One of the buildings is the nerve center for generating critical national weather forecasts.
Driving the news: The NOAA Center for Weather and Climate Prediction is on the lease cancellation list, according to a NOAA employee who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.
Two ex-National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officials also confirmed the list.
The National Weather Service didn't respond to a request for comment about the leases.
The NOAA employee told Axios the cancellations — along with recent layoffs, early retirements and travel and hiring limitations — point to an effort to dismantle the agency.
Zoom in: Lance Wood, a science and operations officer with NWS Houston, tells Axios the local field office hasn't seen any layoffs as a result of President Trump's recent workforce cuts across NOAA.
Wood said the recent cancellation of a summer internship program for meteorological students at the Houston field office was due to several back-to-back retirements.
Eight of the office's 25 positions remain vacant.
"We're not bad off with staffing," Wood said. "(The internship program) is an extra, and we weren't sure we were going to be able to do it justice this summer … Hopefully we can do it next summer."
The other side: A senior White House official told Axios on Tuesday that for NOAA, the administration is "simply reevaluating the lease terms, not closing any building, which any good steward of money would do."
The official stressed that no formal lease-cancellation letter has been sent to NOAA. The official acknowledged that DOGE is canceling leases at other government agencies, but said NOAA is an exception.
What's next: NOAA, like other government agencies, has been told to plan for deeper cuts.
Between the lines
