The Trump Administration plans to cancel most of the Cups at the National Weather Service set up earlier this year by the Ministry of Government efficiency.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has received authorization to provide 450 positions at the National Weather Service, roles that will include meteorologists, hydrologists and radar technicians, according to representatives Eric Sorensen, D-ill., And Mike Flood, R-N-NEB.
The removal of the rehiring for these positions, which were reported for the first time by CNN, comes after a fatal summer and extreme time which put cuts to NWS under a particular examination, with many politicians in the two parties pushing to cancel the cuts.
A government official told NBC News that NWS personnel thought that Texas’ floods who had killed more than 130 people and triggered questions about NWS forecasts have strengthened the case for the agency to re -embrace hundreds of staff members “of front line and criticism”. This civil servant spoke under the cover of anonymity because they were not allowed to discuss personnel issues.
Sorensen and Flood celebrated the “late news” in a joint declaration. The two have co -pacarraine the Improvement of Meteorological Layouts aimed at protecting employees from national meteorological services from layoffs and early pensions by reclassifying them as essentially for public security. The bill was presented to the House but has not yet received a vote.
“For months, the member of the congress is flooding and I have been fighting so that the NOAA and NWS employees they need in the face of staff and financing cuts,” Sorensen said in a press release. “Hundreds of non -filled positions have brought NWS offices across the country to cancel the launches of meteorological balloons, give up night staff and force the remaining meteorologists to be overworked. Although I welcome these late news to hire more meteorologists, we must spend our bipartite bill to ensure that these new increases are permanent and protected from any future reduction. ”
Representative Mark Alford, R-Mo., Also praised this decision.
A spokesperson for the National Weather Service refused to comment.
A NOAA official who was not authorized to speak publicly told NBC News that it would probably take months to fill the hundreds of vacant positions. Currently, USAJOBS.GOV lists nine positions open in the NOAA, the National Weather Service parental agency.
The NOA and the NWS were not immune to the aggressive cuts of the Doges of the first months of the second Trump administration, which included the dismissal, the rehiring and the reimbursement of certain workers. The Commerce Department and the NOAA have dismissed more than 600 probation employees from the agency only on February 27, including hurricane hunters, meteorologists and storm model makers.
Five former directors of the National Weather Service warned that staff shortages could lead to “unnecessary loss of life”.
