Science, Natural Resources Committee Democrats Demand Trump Administration Cease Illegal and Expensive Scheme to Dismantle NSF Ocean Observation System

WASHINGTON, DC - Today, Ranking Member Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) of the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology and Ranking Member Jared Huffman (D-CA) of the Committee on Natural Resources led a letter(link is external) with their Democratic Committee colleagues demanding that National Science Foundation (NSF) Acting Director Brian Stone immediately stop the administration's illegal plan to dismantle NSF's Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI).

"We write to you regarding the report that the National Science Foundation (NSF) is illegally dismantling the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI)," wrote the Members. "On May 21, 2026, NSF quietly posted to its website its intent to remove four of the five currently operating arrays within the project. There was no process, no press, and no notification to Congress until the New York Times picked it up more than a week later. While NSF has referred to this action as 'descoping,' eliminating 80 percent of a project - represented by many hundreds of instruments spread across the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans - amounts to nothing less than dismantling. This is a startling use of resources in a resource-strapped time for the agency, and it is not difficult to draw a line from this move to the broader Administration's anti-science, climate-denialist modus operandi. We demand that you cease this expensive, destructive, and - crucially - illegal action at once."

The Members emphasize the multifaceted importance of this system:

"OOI observations provide crucial information to coastal communities, improving weather forecasts and ocean models. The real-time OOI observations on ocean currents and upwelling inform fishery management, supporting $319 billion in annual sales and 2.1 million jobs in the United States. In addition, Tribes use OOI data to monitor and protect Tribal resources. Unfortunately for these researchers, coastal managers, Tribes, and all Americans who paid for this system with their tax dollars and benefit from the insights it provides into our oceans, the OOI's data is inconvenient for an Administration whose agenda to close our eyes to climate change comes above all else."

The letter can be found here.(link is external)

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