NOAA contracts are being reviewed one by one. It's throwing the agency into chaos
Source: NPR
April 9, 2025 7:00 AM ET
The secretary of commerce is personally reviewing all contracts with commitments above $100,000 at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, causing backups and uncertainty in the agency that is responsible for the country's weather forecasts, marine fisheries management and coastal management. NOAA is housed within the Department of Commerce.
Howard Lutnick is reviewing all NOAA contracts above $100,000, according to three agency employees who spoke anonymously out of fear of retribution at work. There are hundreds of such contracts across the agency that need to be reviewed each year and several that have been paused or otherwise impacted by the secretary's review, according to an agency employee familiar with the contracting process.
They include maintenance and service contracts for facilities like NOAA's headquarters in Maryland, where the bathrooms are running out of toilet paper; a contract for translating emergency alerts into other languages, which lapsed last week; and web-hosting contracts for key agency websites that almost went dark last week.
It's "just kind of a train wreck," says a NOAA staffer who spoke with NPR anonymously out of fear of retribution at their job.
Read more: https://www.npr.org/2025/04/09/nx-s1-5356166/noaa-contracts-reviewed-one-by-one

ultralite001
(1,534 posts)Folks laid off...
Websites going dark...
Data unavailable -- or simply gone...
No notice...
Not encouraging, especially considering the Eastern Pacific hurricane season runs from May 15th through November 30th +
the Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1st through November 30th.
Hoping partnerships w/ folks to our N + overseas will be able to help us fill in some of the blanks...
BumRushDaShow
(150,794 posts)notably Canada's, the UK, and EU's Copernicus (all that produce weather models that they use alongside the American models).
ultralite001
(1,534 posts)The APIs that have reliably powered data streams for forecasting + research... some are now kaput...
I have been able to pull data from our fine Canadian neighbors... But for how long???
BumRushDaShow
(150,794 posts)and they have a good selection of them outside of the GFS, NAM, HRRR (including the Canadian, EC, Ukie, ICON, etc). Since "everyone" (in quotes) loves the Euro so, then I guess that won't be impacted...
ultralite001
(1,534 posts)Thanks for sharing...