Firing of 800 NOAA Employees

[Randy Zipser]

Here is a CNN article from June 6, 2025, about U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick's testimony before the House Appropriations Committee on June 5th, concerning the state of staffing at the National Hurricane Center. Apparently some disagreement?

https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/06/weather/lutnick-hurricane-center-nws-cuts-climate

 

[Boris Konon]

Go to the link provide in the article showing NHC staff.

National Hurricane Center Staff

73 staff total w/ 4 vacant positions listed and add one for a person still listed that took an early retirement
offer. So that means a 7% vacancy. That percent is basically normal for many offices at any given time, as
there are always *some* vacancies (ppl leave, transfer, retire, etc) and the larger the staff, the more
absolute number of vacancies occur any any time, but you can't focus on absolute numbers for larger
offices. What matters is percent here. CNN is ignoring this -- "OMG, vacancies at NHC, the hurricane
forecasts will be degraded (by default)!" National centers, like NHC, SPC, and WPC have not been hit
as hard as WFOs and other parts of the NWS. CNN also ignores this, treating the NWS as all the same
in terms of impact and sitting on a high-horse stating in the article title for staffing "it's not." Typical
self-righteous arrogance in way too many articles and social media today.

To put this all in perspective, many WFOs are down at least 10%, some 20%, and a few 30% for staffing.
So NHC is actually in *good* shape overall. The fact they have vacancies is nothing unusual, esp. for a
large center like them. So the Commerce Secretary is correct. Yes, you can nitpick what "fully staffed"
means (and that what a lot of media does to spin a story), but again, a center that typically has 73
for staff, it would be *unusual* not to have a least a few vacancies due to the normal business cycle
and movement!