California Democrats call for reinstatement of National Weather Service staff [View all]
Source: NBC News
May 30, 2025, 1:15 PM EDT / Updated May 30, 2025, 2:08 PM EDT
California House Democrats on Friday demanded that the National Weather Service restore some terminated workers and begin hiring new forecasters after it halted around-the-clock operations at its Sacramento and Hanford weather forecasting offices, among others.
In a letter to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Laura Grimm, the acting administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 23 congressional Democrats decried recent cuts to the weather service, saying they represented the “beginning of a public safety crisis with potentially catastrophic consequences.” The weather service is a division of NOAA, which is overseen by the Commerce Department.
“We demand that you immediately reinstate all terminated workers at these offices, lift the federal hiring freeze for NWS, and ensure that the Sacramento and Hanford weather forecast offices are adequately staffed to maintain 24/7 operations,” the congressional members wrote. More than 500 weather service staffers have left the agency since January, after the Trump administration fired probationary workers en masse and offered early retirements to an aging workforce of forecasters.
The cuts left about 43% of the nation’s 122 weather forecasting offices with staffing vacancies above 20%. Independent meteorologists have said cuts could lead to less effective forecasting and slower severe weather warnings. The public safety concerns have become a political pressure point for the administration. The California members of Congress wrote that the weather forecasting offices in Hanford and Sacramento were particularly hit hard, leaving them no longer able to provide 24/7 staffing.
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/california-democrats-call-reinstatement-national-weather-service-staff-rcna209838
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