Cantwell Defends America's Extreme Weather & Natural Disaster Preparedness Programs From Sweeping Cuts

Cantwell Defends America's Extreme Weather & Natural Disaster Preparedness Programs From Sweeping Cuts

Budget passed 82-15 by the Senate today largely preserves funding for National Weather Service & climate research, blocking Trump's proposed $1.7B NOAA gut; Congress' budget also preserves resources to fight and prevent wildfires, saving programs on the president's chopping block & extending firefighter pay raises

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, the U.S. Senate passed a bipartisan FY2026 budget that maintains funding for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Department of the Interior, and the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), an enormous win for the State of Washington and the nation in the face of increasingly frequent and intense extreme weather events like wildfires and atmospheric rivers.

Senators roundly rejected President Donald Trump's proposed FY2026 budget cuts which would have:

• Gutted NOAA's budget by $1.7 billion - eliminating NOAA's entire R&D arm, the Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) office. It would have eliminated OAR's work to build the next generation of extreme weather forecasting tools;
• Slashed USGS Natural Hazards Programs, which help communities prepare for and respond to earthquakes, landslides, volcanoes, and coastal and marine hazards, by over 30%; and
• Eliminated funding that supports volunteer wildland firefighters, training, and equipment and funding that private, local, and state landowners use to reduce wildland fire risk.

U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) serves as ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, the committee with direct oversight of NOAA, as well as a senior member of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, which has oversight of the Forest Service. In both roles, she's served as a stalwart defender of the nation's emergency readiness in the face of reckless attempted cuts from the Trump administration.

"We protected America's weather readiness by fending off attempts to gut the next-generation science and technology that will underpin better forecasting. This research will save lives and prevent billions of dollars in damage. As storms grow more frequent and more severe, pulling back on science is not an option. To keep pace with increased flooding, fires, hurricanes, and atmospheric rivers, we must continue to invest in NOAA so Americans can better prepare and get out of the way of extreme weather events," Sen. Cantwell said.

"We pushed back against the Administration's attempts to eliminate funding for state firefighting resources and for landowners to bolster wildfire protections. This means wildland firefighters will have good training and equipment, and our communities will be better protected against wildfires," Sen. Cantwell said.

In June, Sen. Cantwell convened a group of experienced meteorologists from around the country to sound the alarm on how Trump's dramatic cuts to NOAA endanger Americans as the United States headed into peak hurricane and wildfire season and to call on the administration to restore the agency to full capacity.

In July, she sent the president a letter laying out five key investments to bolster the United States' weather readiness.

READ MORE:

CNN -- Key senator makes bipartisan plea to Trump to invest in weather and early warning networks

The Seattle Times: Cantwell's bipartisan weather plan shows the leadership America needs

Also in July, Sen. Cantwell grilled U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz about why the Trump Administration was withholding an estimated $20 million from the Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) for the 2025 firefighting season and future fire seasons. Those funds came from the FY25 State, Private, and Tribal Forestry (SPTF) program - yet another program that President Trump's budget would have eliminated, and which this bipartisan Senate budget preserves.

READ MORE:
The Bellingham Herald: Washington wildfire fighting efforts 'finally' get $20 million after delays

Highlights of the Senate budget passed today include:

NOAA:

This bill allocates $6.17 billion to NOAA. President Trump's proposed budget would have cut $1.7 billion from the agency this year.

In addition to preserving stable funding, following the mass layoffs last year, the Senate's budget will require NOAA to submit a staffing plan to the Appropriations Committee within 90 days outlining the steps that will be taken to ensure the continuity of NOAA's core missions. NOAA will additionally be required to provide quarterly briefings to Congress on satellite programs, National Weather Service (NWS) operations, and Office of Marine and Aviation Operations activities and procurements.

This Senate budget provides $634 million for OAR, which is NOAA's R&D arm that performs and coordinates weather, climate, and other core research. That research directly impacts NOAA's ability to predict and respond to extreme weather events, enabling the agency to develop better forecasting technology and issue earlier warnings for natural disasters.

While this bill slightly decreases the OAR budget, President Trump's proposed budget would have eliminated the office altogether. A full list of OAR programs originally on the president's chopping block can be found HERE.

This bill would provide $1.455 billion for the National Weather Service (NWS) and would move three programs into NWS from OAR. Excluding these transfers, the NWS budget increased $31.6 million (2.3%) from FY24 enacted levels. Program funding includes $25.765 million for the Tsunami Warning Program, which maintains FY24 enacted levels and prevents elimination of the Tsunami Hazard Mitigation grants.

This bill would additionally provide $47.5 million for the Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS), an increase of $5 million (11.8%) from FY25 enacted levels. The President's budget proposed eliminating this program. Sen. Cantwell introduced a bipartisan bill in June to extend the IOOS program for an additional 5 years. IOOS is a network of federal and non-federal partners including universities, tribes, and states and other partners to deploy and manage buoys, gliders, and other tools to collect ocean data such as temperature, wave height, and other critical measurements needed to improve weather forecasts, safe navigation, fisheries forecasts, and other important information.

WILDFIRES AND USFS:

The President's FY26 budget proposed eliminating the State and Private Forestry and Forest and Rangeland Research accounts. This funding goes directly to supporting on the ground wildfire fighting efforts, such as voluntary fire fighting services, equipment, and training and supports local, state, and private landowners' efforts to manage their lands to protect against catastrophic wildfires.

The bill rejects the proposed elimination of those programs, providing:

• State and Private, and Tribal Forestry (SPTF): $310 million, and increase of $27 million (9.5%) over FY25. The STPF account provides technical and financial assistance to landowners and resource managers to help sustain the nation's forests and grasslands, protect communities from wildland fire, and restore fire-adapted ecosystems. This includes funding for training and equipping state and local wildland firefighters. In July, Sen. Cantwell pressured the administration to disburse over $280 million in overdue STPF funding, including approximately $20 million owed to the Washington State Department of Natural Resources.

• Forest and Rangeland Research: $308.7 million, an increase of $8.2 million (2.7%) over FY25. The Forest and Rangeland Research account provides fire, fuels, and land management information for government officials, land and wildland fire management professionals, businesses, communities, and interested organizations and individuals.

The Senate's budget also includes $6.4 billion for wildland fire management activities, with $2.9 billion made available through the wildfire suppression operations reserve fund. The bill provides funding for the permanent pay fix and job series for federal wildland firefighters to prevent a devastating pay cut for the firefighting workforce, whose 2021 pay raises were established under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

EARTHQUAKES, LANDSLIDES, AND VOLCANOES

The Senate budget passed today allocates $1.42 billion to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)-- a decrease of $30 million (2%) from FY25, but $529 million higher than the President's proposed FY2026 budget.

Earlier this month, the Senate passed legislation that would reauthorize Sen. Cantwell's National Landslide Preparedness Act. Her bill, originally signed into law in 2021, established early warning systems for post-wildfire landslides, required procedures to be developed for federal monitoring of stormwater drainage in areas with a high risk of landslides, created a new USGS program focused specifically on identifying risks and hazards from landslides, directed USGS to develop new maps through its 3D Elevation Program, and authorized new landslide-related grant programs.

Landslides kill 25 to 50 people and cause billions of dollars in damages in the U.S. annually, according to USGS. The National Research Council previously estimated that landslides cause between $1.6 billion and $3.2 billion in damage per year. The national strategy prepared by USGS as directed by the National Landslide Preparedness Act of 2021 identified the need to develop better economic loss estimates for landslide damage.

In addition, these statistics are expected to worsen because of climate change. Moreover, according to USGS, the largest landslide in Earth's recorded history took place in Washington state, when Mt. St. Helens erupted in 1980.

During last month's series of atmospheric rivers, the Washington Geological Survey reported 73 landslides associated with the weather events.

The Senate budget includes funding for the following programs:

• Ecosystems: $294.7 million, a $4.6 million increase (1.5%) from FY25. The President's budget would have eliminated all USGS Ecosystems program funding, including USGS's Climate Adaptation Science Centers, a program that teams scientists with natural resource managers and communities to help fish, wildlife, water, land, and people adapt to a changing climate.
• 3D Elevation Program: $43.9 million, a $1 million increase (2.3%).
• Earthquake Hazards: $94.9 million, a $2.5 million increase (2.7%) from FY25.
• • Includes $34.8 million for ShakeAlert implementation.
• Volcano Hazards: $37.5 million, level funding from FY25.
• Landslide Hazards: $14.5 million, a $100,000 increase (0.7%) from FY25.