Climate Matters: NOAA funding cuts meet bipartisan resistance in Congress

Major cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, are facing resistance from both sides of the aisle.

A spending bill from the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies would fund NOAA at levels mostly consistent with previous years.

Senator Eric Schmitt, who is on the subcommittee that budgets for NOAA, says that core funding for weather alerts will remain intact. "As far as like alerts and making sure people are aware, there's been no reductions related to that," Schmitt says.

The United States has a long history of investing in climate and weather research. Scientists warn that pulling back funding could leave communities more vulnerable and slow our ability to respond to the long-term effects of climate change.

Zachary Leasor, the Missouri state climatologist, says that an extended history of weather monitoring in the United States is very beneficial for climatology. "We have a lot of locations with really long climate records, and that's because the weather data collection and climatology have been supported by the government for a very long time," Leasor says. Long-term climate sites have been collecting data since the late 1800s across much of the country.

Continuing to fund climate science can also support industries like aviation, military operations, and farming. "In Missouri, I think the future is monitoring things like soil moisture and crop transpiration and evaporation, and things that could help farmers as well," Leasor says.

Spending bills for the upcoming fiscal year 2026 are still in their draft stages right now, so impacts at the National Weather Service and NOAA are still undetermined. Reporting for the ABC 17 storm track Climate Matters, I'm meteorologist Nate Slater.