Pallone Slams Trump Admin for Withholding Accurate Forecasts as Pine Barrens Burn
Washington, DC – Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. (NJ-06), the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, today revealed deeply troubling dysfunction inside the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that threatens the agency’s ability to alert public safety agencies to extreme weather – even as wildfires rage in New Jersey’s Pine Barrens.
NOAA research labs like Princeton’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) are being forced to slash vital forecasting operations due to staffing cuts and an outrageous new Trump Administration policy requiring NOAA expenditures – from individual scientists’ employment contracts down to electricity and internet bills – be personally approved by Trump’s Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
“This absurd micromanagement is designed to kill off the federal agency tasked with trying to understand and respond to our changing environment and preserve our natural resources,” Pallone said. “And while the Pine Barrens burn, the people who protect us are being starved of the data they need to act.”
As a result of funding delays and job losses across NOAA’s research arms, national labs like GFDL have been forced to scale back their contributions to the North American Multi-Model Ensemble (NMME) database. The seasonal forecasts—used to predict drought, temperature, and rainfall—will only have accurate data once per quarter, instead of each month. Emergency planners, including the New Jersey Forest Fire Service, received their last complete data set in April. New data was expected tomorrow, May 1, but due to the Trump Administration’s restrictions, it won’t arrive. The next update isn’t expected until July.
“These reports help public safety agencies and first responders prepare for drought conditions that can spark fires like the one engulfing Lacey Township right now,” Pallone continued. “Without them, communities are flying blind.”
Pallone placed the blame squarely on the Trump Administration’s deliberate sabotage of climate science and emergency preparedness. NOAA contracts and grants—many essential to keeping research labs operating—are stuck in Secretary Lutnick’s inbox awaiting his personal approval. Postdoctoral researchers at NOAA labs are now receiving 60-day termination notices as their contracts approach expiration in June.
“Lutnick can’t even keep up with Trump’s tariff disaster, and now he’s supposed to personally approve NOAA’s utility bills?” Pallone said. “This guy is juggling trade talks with imaginary countries while American scientists are getting pink slips. It’s a circus and Jersey is paying the price.”
Pallone reiterated his call for the immediate release of frozen funds and restoration of normal NOAA operations. On April 16, he led New Jersey’s Democratic Congressional Delegation in a letter to Secretary Lutnick demanding stable Fiscal Year 2026 funding and an immediate reversal of staffing cuts, funding freezes, and program terminations.