March 17, 2026, 5:03 a.m. ET
This time last year, the administration of President Donald Trump tried to decimate one of the nation’s premier scientific institutions, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. With a Department of Government Efficiency-led wrecking ball, it caused personnel losses equaling more than 27,000 years of experience.
Looking back, anyone who cares about this agency still mourns the unnecessary departure of deep experience and too many experts. We feel for those who were lost and those who remain – they are hurting. There’s a very shallow number of people available to get things done, and they are making Herculean efforts across the board to fill the void recklessly created by DOGE.
Despite these losses, NOAA continues to provide daily weather forecasts and warnings plus climate and fisheries outlooks, among other valuable and free public services. Its first-rate scientists and technological instruments still collect and analyze the data each of us relies on, whether we live in a city, on a farm, run an insurance or finance company, or catch fish for a living. NOAA also supports coastal economies and keeps our seafood safe. NOAA is in your life every day.
It is heartening that, through tireless advocacy on Capitol Hill, multiple rallies and litigation, those who understand how critical this organization is to our daily lives have succeeded in pushing back on the attack and persuading Congress to fund NOAA at a steady level. That is an outcome we can all feel tremendously proud of, and it raises my confidence in the future.
NOAA led the creation of climate science. Now we must evolve with it.
But this is no time to be complacent. It’s not realistic to expect agency personnel to carry the extra burden indefinitely, especially as climate impacts increasingly threaten our health, safety and economies.
NOAA needs people – forecasters, engineers, modelers and administrative staff. With a full budget and 20% fewer staffers, there’s an opportunity now to quickly hire back employees who were needlessly eliminated – allowing them to deliver their experience to colleagues who would benefit from their mentorship. The money is there. Use it.
As we look to the future, we also have a chance to think about how the agency should evolve, and consider critically what works and what does not.
NOAA was established in 1970, initially built to address needs of the 1960s. Our needs have changed. It has been tremendously successful in developing climate models and advancing science. It built the tools, ships and satellites and hired the people needed to increase our understanding of the atmosphere and the ocean. That understanding is what we refer to today as climate science. It is real, and it has revealed that we face new, daunting challenges – ones the NOAA of the future must be built to address.
NOAA must evolve with the science. Given that climate and weather disasters cost the country more than $100 billion a year, we should be forward-looking and ensure this agency and the services it provides are protected from uninformed political attacks in the future.
Privatizing weather forecasting would be reckless
We are living climate change now, and paying for what was forecast by NOAA, universities and oil company scientists decades ago. Instead of dismantling the National Center for Atmospheric Research and threatening NOAA missions, we should be doubling down on investing in climate assessments, forecasts and solutions.
As we look to change and grow, it’s also important to recognize what works. NOAA has long had its research capacity integrated across its entire mission, and it should remain that way. Experts have concluded that transferring research over to the National Weather Service could compromise that vital work.
Similarly, privatizing weather forecasting would be reckless. Disasters like the catastrophic flooding at a summer camp in Texas in 2025 make abundantly clear why. The weather service’s mission is locally engaged public safety, not remotely earned profit – and we need enough forecasters to soundly carry out that mission, connecting with communities and earning the public’s trust.
Forecasters need to know their own specific communities to convey sound, lifesaving predictions.
When it comes to thinking about the changes we need now or in the decades to come, recent events have forced us to consider so much. At every turn, we must defer to the findings and conclusions of real scientists over fictional pronouncements about science by politicians. Our health, safety and economies depend on it.
Craig N. McLean is the former assistant administrator of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Research, and was the agency’s chief scientist. He served as captain of NOAA Research ships, and is a champion of ocean exploration and scientific integrity.