Rep. Frank Lucas wasn’t familiar with proposed cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s budget. But the very idea of it, given Oklahoma’s heavy reliance on its data because of its location in the heart of Tornado Alley, was already physically hurting him.
“The very discussion about reducing our investment in our scientific research and our weather forecasting causes me to have stomach cramps,” Lucas, a Republican, told NOTUS.
Multiple outlets reported that the Office of Management and Budget is considering cuts to NOAA that would effectively eliminate its research arm and slash its budget by $1.3 billion. OMB and NOAA did not respond to NOTUS’ request for comment about the cuts, including questions about how they could affect Oklahoma facilities.
But Lucas said he hopes future funding of NOAA will be “rational and practical” and “not a step back from progress we’ve made” in weather forecasting.
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“We’ll cross that bridge when we get there, but thank goodness I have the chairman of the Appropriations Committee,” Lucas added, referring to Republican Rep. Tom Cole, also a member of the Oklahoma delegation.
Cole has previously stepped in to oppose the termination of several federal facilities in his district, including the National Weather Center in Norman, Oklahoma. Cole said in March that he successfully negotiated with the Trump administration to keep the center — an atmospheric research and weather forecast center that trains meteorologists on the University of Oklahoma’s campus — safe from cutting efforts by the Department of Government Efficiency.
As for the proposed budget cuts to NOAA, Cole said he had not talked with OMB about them and that he had only seen what was included in the administration’s budget wishlist.
“We just can’t be more definitive right now,” Cole said when asked if Oklahoma could handle cuts to NOAA. His office did not respond to follow-up questions about whether he was planning to negotiate with OMB and advocate for Oklahoma’s NOAA facilities amid proposed budget cuts.
The second Trump administration has already rattled NOAA as part of its efforts to trim the size of government through DOGE — hundreds of probationary employees were laid off at NOAA in February, including some in Oklahoma, according to KGOU.
And after the Trump administration let contracts at the Regional Climate Centers, which analyze and share weather and air quality data, expire in April, weather data centers under NOAA were forced to stop operating. They were booted back up again a few days later.
While changes at NOAA would have an outsized effect on Oklahoma, which saw a record-breaking 152 tornadoes in 2024, members of its delegation are not the only Republicans signaling they’d be opposed to certain cuts.
Lawmakers from Louisiana, in the nation’s most hurricane-prone region, told NOTUS earlier this year that cuts to NOAA and its budget would be a mistake. Republican Rep. Clay Higgins said he was prepared to protect NOAA’s “core purpose.”
Five former leaders of the National Weather Service, a forecasting agency under NOAA that provides weather alerts, are also warning that the proposed cuts could have dire consequences.
“Our worst nightmare is that weather forecast offices will be so understaffed that there will be needless loss of life,” they said in a joint letter on May 2. “We know that’s a nightmare shared by those on the forecasting front lines — and by the people who depend on their efforts.”
Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford also said he had not seen the proposed NOAA cuts.
“There are going to be very few government agencies, if any, that don’t have areas that they could be leaner,” Lankford told NOTUS. “To just say that there’s cuts, that’s not a problem.”
Depending on the program or grant, Lankford added, cuts could be “actually beneficial,” though he said he’d have to see what these cuts were before determining that.
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Em Luetkemeyer is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.
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