Trump Moves Around Congress to Cut Climate, Ocean Science Funds

The government’s climate and weather agency would take a budget hit under a spending plan the White House approved this month.

The Office of Management and Budget approved a fiscal 2025 spending plan for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that would claw back remaining funds at most of the agency’s line offices. The result is roughly $239 million less overall than the current enacted budget for NOAA’s six line offices, according to data obtained by Bloomberg Government.

Spokespeople for the Office of Management and Budget and NOAA didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the spending plan.

NOAA’s National Ocean Service and its Oceanic and Atmospheric Research office, which does climate research, would see the biggest decreases under the fiscal 2025 plan. The Trump administration has proposed eliminating the research office, while the National Marine Fisheries Service and NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service also would take budget hits under the OMB plan.

OMB’s spending plan for the remainder of fiscal 2025, which ends on Sept. 30, attempts to align NOAA’s current budget with the hefty funding cuts President Donald Trump sought for the agency in fiscal 2026.

Much of the government is operating on a continuing resolution for funding. The fiscal 2024 enacted discretionary appropriations for NOAA based on the spending plan is $6.3 billion. The administration’s fiscal 2025 spending plan would eat into the remaining unobligated money for the agency. It also would set the stage for a fiscal 2026 decrease, with Congress expected to pass another continuing resolution for all, or part, of fiscal 2026 to avoid a government shutdown on Oct. 1.

The National Weather Service, which Republicans and Democrats have sought to protect, particularly in the wake of this summer’s deadly flooding in Texas, would see an increase of about a $15 million in the fiscal 2025 spending plan OMB approved. The Office of Marine and Aviation Operations also would receive a boost under the plan.

“Overall, this seems to reflect a scooping up of funding at the end of the year likely not obligated yet due to all the staffing reductions and freezes and slow rolling of NOAA acquisition and grant approvals,” John Potts, a former chief financial officer at the National Weather Service and NOAA budget director, said in an interview.

Potts, who retired in February after spending more than 30 years at NOAA, said the clawbacks will “further hamper NOAA’s mission and program execution” in fiscal 2026 and beyond, especially at non-National Weather Service components “focused on weather and climate research, climate resilience, fisheries management and geomagnetic storm detection.”

He added the proposed clawbacks from OMB related to fiscal 2025 funds are likely not unique to NOAA.

Trump proposed $4.5 billion overall for NOAA in fiscal 2026, a decrease of about 27% from the current budget.

The fiscal 2026 House and Senate appropriations bills would give the agency more money than Trump’s recommendation, but that funding is unlikely to materialize with Congress poised to enact another continuing resolution when it returns in September.