NOAA managers are facing a new countdown clock to identify an additional 1,029 employees to be culled from the agency as part of a “reduction in force” plan that would cut deeper into the agency’s science, regulatory and education programs, according to people familiar with what NOAA workers have been told about the plan.
In a directive announced Friday to the heads of NOAA’s line and staff offices, managers have until Tuesday afternoon to provide new lists of employees whose jobs are deemed nonessential to NOAA’s core mission, said Richard Spinrad, NOAA’s former administrator under the Biden administration.
Spinrad said he was told of the new order by several employees who had direct knowledge of it. A current worker at NOAA, who was granted anonymity because they fear retaliation, confirmed they also had been told about the staff reduction planning.
Those names will be sent to the Commerce Department for final review, with firing notices expected as soon as Wednesday.
