By Steve Gorman
(Reuters) -The Trump administration is allowing the U.S. National Weather Service to restore most of the hundreds of jobs eliminated by the cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency once led by Elon Musk, several members of Congress said on Tuesday.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, parent agency of the NWS, plans to hire 450 weather service meteorologists, hydrologists and radar technicians, U.S. Representatives Mike Flood, a Nebraska Republican, and Eric Sorensen, an Illinois Democrat, said in a joint statement on Thursday.
The two lawmakers have sponsored legislation to exempt weather service employees from DOGE-imposed layoffs and early retirement by reclassifying those positions as critical to public safety. Musk was originally named by President Donald Trump to spearhead the DOGE program, but the billionaire entrepreneur resigned from the administration months later.
Flood and Sorensen said they welcomed the hiring turnaround but would keep pressing for passage of their bill to ensure the newly hired staff will remain permanent, protecting them from any future reductions.
“Hundreds of unfilled positions have caused NWS offices across the country to cancel weather balloon launches, forego overnight staffing and force remaining meteorologists to overwork themselves,” Sorensen said.
A third lawmaker, Republican Mark Alford of Missouri, also hailed the administration’s “move to hire 450 front-line mission critical staff” at the NWS.
CNN, which broke the news before statements emerged from lawmakers on Capitol Hill, reported that the new hiring figure included 126 positions previously approved by NOAA, a U.S. Commerce Department agency.
Representatives of the NWS and NOAA could not immediately be reached for comment.
Layoffs and early retirement “buyouts” had reduced the NWS workforce by more than 550 positions from levels before Trump’s second term, leaving fewer than 4,000 employees remaining, according to CNN.
Thursday’s announcement of a reversal comes during a summer of weather extremes, including flash floods that ravaged Texas Hill Country last month, claiming at least 137 lives. The devastation raised questions about whether job vacancies at local NWS offices were a factor in the scale of the disaster.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer urged the Commerce Department’s acting inspector general last month to investigate whether staffing vacancies at the NWS’s San Antonio office contributed to “delays, gaps, or diminished accuracy” in forecasts of the flooding.
In May, the National Weather Service chief Ken Graham said large staffing and budget cuts at NOAA, including his agency, would not hinder the government’s ability to forecast devastating storms and warn the public.
At the same time, NWS forecasters were predicting an above-normal 2025 hurricane season.
(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Kate Mayberry)
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