.jpg;w=960)
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) 2026 budget proposal includes a 17-percent cut to its workforce and a $1.8 billion cut from the current year’s budget. The cuts include the termination of laboratories and cooperative institutes of the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR), including three labs that operate out of the David Skaggs Research Center in Boulder.
The proposed OAR cuts would involve 216 total cuts, if approved, which is equivalent to 204 full-time employees across the seven laboratories and 16 locations. The Boulder labs that will be terminated if this proposal is approved are the Chemical Sciences Laboratory (CSL), the Global Monitoring Laboratory (GML), and the Physical Sciences Laboratory (PSL). Terminating these labs and positions will cut $102.3 million from the budget.
The budget proposal states that NOAA “will continue to support high priority ocean and weather programs” in the National Ocean Service (NOS) and the National Weather Service (NWS).
800 employees were laid off in February and 500 took a deferred resignation and will continue receiving benefits until September. The February cuts prompted a protest outside of David Skaggs Research Center in Boulder.
A class action lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court in Maryland on Monday, alleging that the NOAA employee terminations in February were unlawful. Employees received termination emails stating “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.” The final HR documents state that the terminations were performance-related.
The lawsuit refers to Plaintiff Arianna Goodman, who received the termination email despite having recently received a performance-based pay increase according to the court documents. One supervisor said Goodman was “an outstanding performer” and a “tremendous employee.”
An NBC report from February regarding the termination of federal employees in the transportation department refers to federal regulations. The regulation states that information must be provided to the employee including the agency’s conclusions as to the inadequacies” of the terminated probationary employee’s performance or conduct. When navigating to the link on the Code of Federal Regulations, it says that “the content you requested is no longer in the eCFR. It was removed on 2025-06-24.”
On June 30, BoulderCAST, an independent group of meteorologists, posted on X that the proposed budget cuts will deeply impact operations in Boulder. “Scientists based here contribute vital research in atmospheric and ocean sciences, advancing our ability to understand and predict weather patterns,” BoulderCAST wrote. “The ripple effect would extend to CU Boulder faculty and students involved with NOAA through the CIRES partnership, potentially disrupting collaborative research and educational opportunities.”
