1 day Ago By Kyle McClenagan
Three Houston-area members of Congress are asking why the National Weather Service's office in the region has nearly a dozen vacancies ahead of hurricane season. On Monday, three House Democrats — Reps. Lizzie Fletcher, Sylvia Garcia and Al Green — sent a letter to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) asking why the National Weather Service’s Houston/Galveston office will soon lose its top three leadership staffers.
In the letter, the representatives called the vacancies a "staffing crisis" and said the station meteorologist in charge, the warning coordination meteorologist and the science and operations officer are expected to leave due to "significant staffing reductions directed by President (Donald) Trump and Elon Musk." Fletcher, who represents Texas' 7th Congressional District, which includes part of Houston, was the lead author of the letter and said the Houston-area office is vital to the community, especially during hurricane season, which spans from June through November. "Year-round, they are responsible for providing critical information to our community and to people who rely on the data that they collect, of all kinds, to make decisions," Fletcher said.
"For a little over 100 days now, we have seen the Trump administration slash budgets and staff at agencies that people in our community and across the country rely on and one of the many places happening is at NOAA." RELATED: Houston weather expert says cuts to NOAA could be ‘catastrophic’ Fletcher said she and her fellow representatives sent the letter to NOAA because their constituents deserve answers. "It's hugely important that, as members of Congress, we exercise oversight and that if we don't get sufficient responses, that we continue to press the administration to answer these questions," she said.
"Because they're not just our questions, these questions are on the minds of people across our community and across the country." A NOAA representative told Houston Public Media that the department would not comment directly on the letter but would "answer the representative through official correspondence channels." RELATED: National Weather Service in Houston cancels student intern program amid federal workforce cuts The letter asks NOAA Chief of Staff Laura Grimm to answer 10 questions by May 30.
Among the questions are: As of Wednesday, according to the website for the National Weather Service’s Houston/Galveston office , 11 of its 25 listed positions were vacant. Ten of those vacancies were added within the past several months. The office listed one vacancy in September 2024, according to The Internet Archive — a nonprofit that archives previous versions of webpages.
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