The Trump administration’s proposed 2026 federal budget would slash Department of Commerce funding by more than 25%, eliminating the Oceanic and Atmospheric Research program and targeting other climate, ocean and fisheries programs within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The Oceanic and Atmospheric program funding would be reduced by $485 million to $171 million, according to news media reports on the Office of Management and Budget document that began circulating among NOAA staffers and leaked to news organizations April 11 in Washington.
“At this funding level, OAR is eliminated as a line office,” the OMB document states. A reorienting of Commerce priorities toward energy and trade would overall “eliminate all funding for climate, weather, and ocean laboratories and cooperative institutes.”
Other proposals in the budget document circulating in Washington would cut funding for NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service, and seek to spin NMFS off to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, within the Department of Interior. Habitat protection and species recovery efforts like those to rebuild Northwest salmon could be cut.
That could upend U.S. marine fisheries management that’s been built around the Magnuson-Stevens Conservation and Management Act, dating to 1976 that created a system of eight regional fishery management councils working with NMFS to balance economic and conservation goals.
The administration proposals track recommendations of Project 2025, a sweeping policy paper by the conservative Heritage Foundation that was promoted as a blueprint for a second Trump administration. The paper called for eliminating “the source of much of NOAA’s climate alarmism.”
Pushback on climate science from conservative activists and has long been a feature of Washington politics. During the Bush administration climate scientists complained of Commerce officials downplaying predictions of climate change effects from warming temperatures.
The Trump administration would go far beyond – if Congress allows it in budget negotiations. Programs in line for downgrades or outright elimination include the National Ocean Service and its Integrated Ocean Observing System, research and Coastal Zone Management grants, the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, and the Sea Grant research and education programs, according to reports.
