Hundreds of staffers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, were laid off Thursday as the Trump administration and its newly-created Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, continue slashing the federal workforce.
A congressional source told CBS News the layoffs affected 880 NOAA employees. An administration official told CBS News about 5% of the agency’s staff was let go, and nobody who was deemed critical to NOAA’s responsibilities, such as National Weather Service meteorologists, was affected. A source at the National Weather Service disputed this, however, telling CBS News some meteorologists were included in the cuts.
Laid off staffers who were considered probationary employees received an email Thursday, which read in part, “OPM has advised that ‘[p]robationary periods are an essential tool for agencies to assess employee performance and manage staffing levels.’ (4) In light of that guidance, the Agency finds that you are not fit for continued employment because your ability, knowledge and/or skills do not fit the Agency’s current needs.”
Some 400 employees at the National Weather Service were in a probationary period, a NWS source told CBS News, but it’s not clear how many of them were included in the layoffs.
Tom DiLiberto, who until Thursday had worked as a Climate and weather scientist and public affairs specialist, told CBS News he started as a contractor for NOAA back in 2010, but became a federal employee less than two years ago. His probationary period was set to end on March 13, 2025, two weeks from the day he was terminated.
“You’re seeing the whittling away of scientists, and the people who got fired today are some of the best people you can imagine,” DiLiberto said. “These people have dedicated their lives to help others. There’s no politics in this. When we forecast, or think of the oceans and keep them clean, we’re not thinking about the politics. This is an insult on science and all that’s good.”
DiLiberto had been a forecaster for El Niño and La Niña and, as a public affairs specialist in the office of communications, said he wrote for the El Niño Southern Oscillation blog for a decade. He published his final blog for the service the same day he was let go. He said he has been given no information on any next steps or if he would be receiving severance.
Congressional Democrats had been worried DOGE and billionaire Elon Musk, who is classified as a “special government employee,” had their eyes set on NOAA for deep cuts. Former NOAA officials told CBS News earlier this month that current employees had been told to expect budget cuts of 30% and a 50% reduction in staff.
Prior to Thursday’s cuts, NOAA had about 12,000 staffers across the world, including 6,773 who are scientists and engineers, according to the agency’s website.
Sen. Maria Cantwell, a Washington State Democrat who chairs the Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries and Coast Guard, which oversees NOAA, said the job cuts “jeopardize our ability to forecast and respond to extreme weather events like hurricanes, wildfires, and floods—putting communities in harm’s way. They also threaten our maritime commerce and endanger 1.7 million jobs that depend on commercial, recreational and tribal fisheries, including thousands in the State of Washington. This action is a direct hit to our economy, because NOAA’s specialized workforce provides products and services that support more than a third of the nation’s GDP.”
House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Jared Huffman, a Democrat who represents California’s 2nd Congressional District, called Thursday’s cuts a “betrayal of the American people.”
“Musk and his fake officials, the DOGE tech bros, have been rummaging through our most sensitive data without authority in violation of the law for weeks now,” Huffman said in a statement. “And this has come with sweeping, indiscriminate layoffs of nonpartisan public servants. Park rangers, firefighters, scientists – all of these people, whose purpose is to serve everyday Americans, have had the rug pulled out from under them. And we will all be worse off for it.”
“Musk’s sham mission is bringing vital programs to a screeching halt,” Huffman continued. “People nationwide depend on NOAA for free, accurate forecasts, severe weather alerts, and emergency information. Purging the government of scientists, experts, and career civil servants and slashing fundamental programs will cost lives.”
Congressional aides previously told CBS News that lawmakers had received multiple complaints about DOGE staff coming into NOAA offices earlier this month.
Former NOAA officials, who spoke directly with current staffers, also previously confirmed to CBS News they saw members of the DOGE team at NOAA headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, and the Hoover Building, in Washington, D.C., where NOAA’s parent agency, the U.S. Commerce Department is located.
The NOAA runs the National Weather Service, which issues vital weather warnings — such as hurricane and tornado warnings — and the National Marine Fisheries Service. It is also responsible for monitoring the health of the oceans and the warming of the climate.
House Science Committee ranking member Zoe Lofgren, a Democrat who represents California’s 18th congressional district, said in a statement, “This will cost American lives.”
“Protect lives and property; that is NOAA’s mission,” Lofgren said. “Firing the employees that allow the agency to carry out that mission will bring about dire consequences. People will die and face great hardship thanks to the recklessness of Co-Presidents Trump and Musk.”
Dr. Juan Declet-Barreto, senior social scientist for climate vulnerability in the Climate and Energy Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, also criticized the cuts, saying Thursday in a statement, “NOAA’s data and science are used routinely by weather forecasters, mariners, farmers, emergency responders, businesses and everyday people across the country. Everyone in the United States relies on NOAA in their daily lives whether they realize it or not, something that will come into focus for many in the weeks and months ahead.”
President Trump has nominated Neil Jacobs to lead the agency. Jacobs, who was acting director of the NOAA for a time during Mr. Trump’s first term, was reprimanded for ethics violations after Mr. Trump held up a hurricane forecast map with black marker appearing to extend the storm’s potential path into Alabama — an incident that became known as “Sharpie-gate.”
The Senate has yet to vote on his confirmation.
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