Lawmakers Push Back Against Plans to Dismantle Key U.S. Ocean Observatory Network
A bipartisan group of senators and House Democrats are urging the National Science Foundation to halt plans to dismantle a $386 million ocean monitoring network, warning it could cripple climate research and extreme weather forecasting.
A bipartisan push in Congress is challenging a National Science Foundation plan to dismantle most of the Ocean Observatories Initiative, a $386 million network of more than 900 ocean sensors that for a decade has tracked ocean circulation, marine ecosystems, climate change and extreme weather. In letters sent Monday, a group of Democratic senators joined by Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, along with Democrats on two House committees, urged the independent federal agency to reverse course. House lawmakers went further, accusing the NSF of acting illegally by failing to notify Congress before decommissioning assets valued at more than $2.5 million, as required by appropriations law. It just seems like this is supreme stupidity and a violation of the fundamental distribution of powers in our Constitution, Sen. Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat, said. This program is authorized, it’s funded, and for the administration to shut it down without direction from Congress violates that vision. Merkley and Murkowski co-led the Senate letter, signed by eight other Democrats, which urges the NSF to halt the dismantling, conduct a thorough review with the marine science community, and refrain from further action. The House letter — led by Reps. Zoe Lofgren and Jared Huffman and signed by 23 Democrats — demands the agency cease this expensive, destructive, and — crucially — illegal action at once. The NSF has described the move as a “descoping” aligned with “evolving scientific priorities and emerging technologies,” and pointed to a 2025 National Academies report. The agency has not confirmed whether it gave Congress the required 30-day notice. Merkley said he learned of the plan through news reports. “None of us knew about this,” he said. He and Murkowski planned legislation Monday to block the use of federal funds to decommission the instruments until a review is complete. The observatory’s instruments, scattered off the coasts of Oregon, Washington, Alaska, North Carolina and Greenland, feed data to more than 500 scientific publications. Scientists warn that losing the network would leave coastal communities, fishermen and emergency responders without crucial information, especially with an approaching El Niño that is expected to supercharge marine heat waves. The senators wrote that the cuts “threaten our ability to prepare for and monitor future El Niño events.”The dismantling is scheduled to begin with the removal of a buoy off the Oregon coast on Tuesday. The House letter calls it “pathetic” that taxpayers are now paying for research vessels to “span the ocean dredging up hundreds of pieces of instrumentation.” The pushback comes as the Trump administration’s proposed 2026 budget included a 55% cut to the NSF, part of a broader retreat from climate and environmental science programs.
