Lawmakers representing five Great Lakes states are asking NOAA’s top leader to detail how recent layoffs and other actions will affect a dozen NOAA-sponsored research projects and program offices across the nation’s largest freshwater resource.
In a March 10 letter to Vice Adm. Nancy Hann, the agency’s acting administrator, eight Democratic senators from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, New York and and Michigan expressed “deep concern” over the recent firings of roughly 650 probationary employees from the climate, oceans and weather agency whose freshwater programs extend from northwestern New York to northeast Minnesota.
“The Great Lakes are among the United States’ greatest natural treasures, strengthening our economy and attracting millions of visitors each year,” the letter states. “The lakes provide drinking water to over 30 million people, generate clean hydropower, and generate $3.1 trillion in gross domestic product. National and regional NOAA programs help protect these lakes and support our constituents who call the Great Lakes home.”
NOAA employs roughly 800 people under its Great Lakes Regional Collaborative and funded more than 350 individual projects, according to the program’s website. Much of that work is overseen by the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with a budget of $250 million. NOAA also supports four National Sea Grant programs in Michigan, Minnesota, New York and Wisconsin.
