House Democrats will introduce legislation to 'save NOAA'

House Democrats plan to introduce legislation overnight that would prevent further Trump administration cuts to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration funding or staffing after severe storms across the country drew attention to staffing cuts in National Weather Service field offices.

The measure, which will be offered as an amendment to the Republican budget reconciliation bill, would also block NOAA from being dissolved, from having its work transferred to other federal agencies and from having its website or datasets degraded, according to a copy of the amendment reviewed by NBC News.

Democratic Reps. Jared Moskowitz of Florida, Eric Sorensen of Illinois, Joe Neguse of Colorado and Wesley Bell of Missouri plan to introduce the amendment as soon as early Wednesday.

The bill highlights congressional concern about National Weather Service staffing levels after the Trump administration fired probationary workers and offered early retirement to veteran employees. Short-staffed weather forecast offices dealt with a severe thunderstorm and tornado outbreak over the weekend, during which at least 28 people died in the Midwest and the South.

“Hurricane season is just days away, and extreme weather is only intensifying. It’s not the time to put NOAA at risk,” Moskowitz, the former director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, said in an emailed statement.

Sorensen, the only meteorologist in Congress, added:

“As a meteorologist who has covered severe thunderstorms and tornadoes, I know how important it is that National Weather Service offices are fully staffed around the clock. This amendment Congressman Moskowitz and I introduced with our colleagues will help protect NOAA from any more reckless cuts by this Administration and keep our communities safe.”

The amendment does not have a likely path to success with Republicans in control of the House. The Trump administration’s initial budget request would slash more than $1.5 billion from NOAA, a move that all living former directors of the National Weather Service warned could lead to unnecessary deaths.

The National Weather Service has been scrambling to fill staffing holes this spring. Last week, NOAA opened a “period of reassignment,” asking for 76 meteorologists to transfer into critical roles left empty after cuts.

At least eight of the country’s 122 weather forecasting offices — including those in Sacramento, California; Goodland, Kansas; and Jackson, Kentucky — are no longer able to operate overnight, or they plan to cut overnight operations within the next month and a half, said Tom Fahy, legislative director for the National Weather Service Employees Organization. Fahy said that many forecast offices are dealing with significant staffing shortages and that 52 out of the country’s 122 weather forecast offices have staffing vacancy rates above 20%.

The National Weather Service declined to provide more information about staffing levels across its weather forecasting offices.

“The National Weather Service continues to meet its core mission of providing life-saving forecasts, warnings, and decision support services to the public, our partners and stakeholders,” Kim Doster, NOAA’s communications director, said in an emailed statement. “In the near term, NWS has updated the service level standards for its weather forecast offices to manage impacts due to shifting personnel resources. These revised standards reflect the transformation and prioritization of mission-essential operations, while supporting the balance of the operational workload for its workforce. NWS continues to ensure a continuity of service for mission-critical functions.”

The short-staffed Jackson, Kentucky, forecasting office was tested last weekend as dangerous storms roared across the state. Fahy said in an interview Monday that staffers worked overtime to respond to the “all hands on deck” situation, which was predicted days in advance.

“We had a long lead time with a supercell that we were able to monitor,” Fahy said, adding that severe events could surprise in the future. “A strong thunderstorm can produce a tornado or multiple tornadoes, and those are the events you haven’t had an opportunity to anticipate.”

Outside meteorologists said forecasters in Jackson and at other offices performed well during a violent weekend, but they worried that the strain could catch up to a patchwork staff.

“The tornado warnings have been really good in this outbreak,” said Chris Vagasky, a meteorologist and research program manager for Wisconet, a network of weather stations across Wisconsin, but he added that it remains to be seen whether strain on the staff will manifest with time.

“How do forecasters recover from that physically, mentally and emotionally, and is that going to impact warning performance?” he said.

Vagasky said warning times for the tornadoes forecast by the Jackson office were issued more than 15 minutes in advance, which is better than average.

Victor Gensini, a professor of meteorology at Northern Illinois University, said that it is difficult to assess the effects of short staffing but that it is possible that researchers will identify a reduction in forecast quality over time because the weather service is releasing fewer weather balloons and has fewer meteorologists.

“It’s really hard to judge a performance based on one significant event,” Gensini said. “We should expect a degradation in performance with fewer and fewer people, but quantifying it will be hard.”

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com