Trump Administration Fires Hundreds of Weather Forecasters and Other NOAA Employees

Hundreds of federal workers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration were fired on Thursday, in the latest of a series of moves by the Trump administration to cull the numbers of federal workers in the sciences. The purge of the federal payroll is being led by the Department of Government Efficiency, which despite its name is not a department of the federal government. The NOAA layoffs close out a particularly bloody February that saw workers in the Food and Drug Administration and the National Park Service laid off, among other agencies. NASA struck a last-minute deal to avoid expected staff reductions, though it may only be a temporary reprieve. Craig McLean, a former NOAA chief scientist, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that the layoffs happened in two rounds, of 500 and 800, respectively. Together, the layoffs constitute about 10% of the agency’s workforce. The first round of cuts targeted probationary employees—people whose positions were currently unde ... Read full article.