- Video shows the National Weather Service office in Valley preparing and launching a weather balloon.
- Congressman Mike Flood is joining a bipartisan group of lawmakers who are introducing a new bill that would classify NWS employees as critical to public safety, protecting them from future budget cuts.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
In midst of its rush to slash government spending the Department of Government Efficiency took aim at just about every federal agency.
They wanted to get rid of wasteful spending but critical services like the National Weather Service found themselves in the cross fire.
“The men and women of the National Weather Service. The hydrologists, the forecasters, the meteorologists, the electronic technicians. All of those folks, the scientists, weren’t classified as public safety,” said 1st congressional District Representative Mike Flood.
Those cuts led to reductions in staffing and consequently, limited the agency’s ability to respond to severe weather and when the National Weather Service’s are delayed are limited, its our neighborhoods that struggle.
Flood and other members of Congress have been vocal about how DOGE cuts are affecting the National Weather Service.
They pushed for more balloon launches and now a new bill is looking to protect NWS workers from future budget decisions his bill would classify NWS workers as essential to public safety making them mostly immune from DOGE cuts.
“I knew we needed to do something the keep the morale up so these people who are really passionate about their jobs know we are going to bat for them and we appreciate what they do,” said Flood.
Despite much of the recent staffing drama being caused by DOGE, Flood isn’t rethinking his support for the agency.
“We are 37 trillion dollars in debt, I should say we are on our way to 37 trillion dollars in debt. We have uncovered a lot of government spending that doesn’t need to be in place. I think in the long run it’s going to be a good thing,” said Flood.
