“They’re Just Letting It Burn”: Inside the Political Arson of NOAA

What happens when you fire the firefighters, torch the science lab, and hand the keys to the arsonist? You get the Trump administration’s plan for NOAA.

Last week, a confidential source told us that NOAA’s entire Habitat Conservation program is being zeroed out effective May 10. Every region. Every employee. Gone. And they weren’t even supposed to know until just days before the severance window closed. Coordinated resignations have followed, including our source’s spouse and counterparts. But the axe didn’t stop there.

We’ve now confirmed that the International Fisheries Program is among the NOAA initiatives facing significant budget reductions. While specific details about this program's cuts are limited, broader reports indicate that several of NOAA's fisheries and ocean-related branches are subject to substantial funding decreases.

Additionally, NOAA employees are being identified for potential reclassification under the reinstated Schedule F, now referred to as "Schedule Policy/Career." This reclassification aims to convert certain federal positions into at-will roles, thereby removing traditional civil service protections. The Office of Personnel Management estimates that approximately 50,000 federal employees could be affected by this change.

The Social Security Administration (SSA) is also undergoing similar evaluations, with plans to reclassify entire offices under the new Schedule F designation. Notably, this initiative targets policy-related positions, including those held by employees earning as little as $40,000 annually.

And now, thanks to The Guardian, we have the panoramic view of the devastation. NOAA employees describe a “non-science trajectory” imposed from the top down, with climate centers going dark, data services decommissioned, and scientists purged en masse. Fourteen NOAA information platforms tracking earthquakes, marine science, and estuary health are slated for shutdown. Offices are closing and contracts over $100,000 must now be approved by Trump’s handpicked enforcer at the Department of Commerce, Howard Lutnick.

In one of the cruelest details: more than 800 probationary NOAA employees were fired, briefly reinstated, then re-fired, some with their health insurance backdated out of existence even as premiums were deducted from their final paychecks. Meanwhile, DOGE staffers like Bryton Shang and Erik Noble, Trump’s “eyes and ears”, have taken over internal reviews and contract decisions. These are the same operatives who think marine policy starts with a Sharpie and ends with a press release.

For those on the inside, morale is collapsing. One molecular geneticist resigned rather than be forcibly relocated in violation of a union contract. Another longtime NOAA scientist said, “The problems are still there… but we fired all the people trying to solve them.”

This is erasure. A deliberate gutting of our environmental defense systems at the very moment they are most needed. And it’s all happening under the same political blueprint, Project 2025, that labeled NOAA a threat and promised to “break it up.”

NOAA’s work doesn’t just protect fish. It protects food systems, disaster preparation, and public health, clean air and potable water. When NOAA dies, parts of civil society die with it.

And they are just letting it burn.