House appropriators will hold their first public hearing Thursday on the National Weather Service's decision to reallocate millions of dollars without congressional approval.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration -- which houses NWS -- released the results of an internal investigation last month that found officials had improperly taken funds from some programs to cover the costs of forecasting activities and employee salaries. The revelation led Weather Service Director Jack Hayes to retire, and the agency's chief financial officer was replaced (Greenwire, May 29).

Now NOAA officials are asking Congress to reprogram about $35 million to fill gaps in the agency's budget. About $26 million of that would go to labor costs -- and without the infusion of cash soon, the agency says it will have to furlough every NWS employee for 13 days to make up the difference. According to an internal fact sheet, that would happen during the height of hurricane season.

Appropriators have yet to give their blessing. It seems likely that they will, but lawmakers are first demanding more information on what went wrong.

Sens. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) -- the top Democrat and Republican of the Senate appropriations subpanel that oversees NOAA -- have asked the Commerce Department's inspector general to review NOAA's $35 million reprogramming request. They have also asked the Government Accountability Office and Attorney General Eric Holder to take a look.

"We have no doubt from the findings that the forecasting offices need additional funds, and we will not allow the furlough of weather forecasters to occur," they wrote in a letter to the IG. "However, we do not have confidence in NOAA's estimates."

The senators also bring up the long-standing structural deficit at the Weather Service and the possibility that NOAA has been chronically underfunding the agency. Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.) -- who has followed the issue closely -- has similarly suggested that insufficient budgets led NWS officials to move around funds to cover salaries (E&ENews PM, June 1).

All are issues that may come up Thursday, when NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco and Deputy Administrator Kathryn Sullivan will testify in front of the House Commerce, Justice and Science Appropriations Subcommittee. A spokesman for Chairman Frank Wolf did not return calls requesting details on what the Virginia Republican hopes to learn from the hearing.

Possible furloughs

Lawmakers may discuss NOAA's internal fact sheet that outlines what the agency plans to do if Congress doesn't approve its reprogramming request. In it, officials write that labor costs at the Weather Service run about $2 million per day, leaving the agency $26 million short before the fiscal year ends in September.

Ostensibly, in the past, NWS officials moved around funds to meet such shortfalls. But such reallocations -- which may have violated the Antideficiency Act -- stopped once NOAA and Commerce began an internal investigation into the budget movement.

To move the funds, NWS now needs Congress' approval. Otherwise, to save money, employees could be furloughed for 13 days between now and Sept. 30, according to the fact sheet. While on furlough, an employee could not be called back for overtime -- a potential problem during a time of "significant hurricanes, flash floods, extreme heat, and forest fires." Weather Forecast Offices and River Forecast Centers may close.

And the longer Congress waits to approve the reprogramming, the worse the situation gets, according to the document. The Weather Service is required to give employees 30 days' notice, meaning a notice sent last Friday would be implemented July 15 and result in two or three furlough days per pay period for each employee. The later the agency starts furloughs, the more days employees would be off during each pay period.

But a NOAA spokesman downplayed the likelihood of such scenarios, emphasizing that the fact sheet "is not a formal trigger of the furlough process" and was shared with the agency's union to ensure transparency.

"The Administration submitted this reprogramming specifically to avoid any risk to weather services and we are working to protect this critical service," spokesman Scott Smullen said in a statement. "NOAA is committed to doing everything within its authority to avoid furloughs, and our focus will remain on maintaining the critical operations and services we need to successfully perform our mission."

Schedule: The hearing is Thursday, June 21, at 9:30 a.m. in H-309 in the Capitol.

Witnesses: NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco and Deputy Administrator Kathryn Sullivan.