Congress Moves to Preserve NOAA Funding for Fisheries and Climate Research
civileats.com
The 2026 funding bill rejects the Trump administration’s request to cut about $1.5 billion from the agency’s budget.

January 13, 2026 – On Monday, Senators moved a funding package forward that would preserve 2026 funding for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), despite the Trump administration’s proposed deep cuts to the agency last year.

The appropriations bill, which funds multiple agencies, already passed in the House; the Senate is expected to send it to President Donald Trump’s desk this week.

Last year, Trump requested a $1.5 billion cut to the agency’s roughly $6 billion budget. A memo from his Office of Management and Budget also proposed eliminating NOAA’s office dedicated to research on climate and weather patterns, zeroing out funding for weather and ocean labs, and moving regulation of fisheries to the Fish & Wildlife Service.

Experts warned the budget cuts could have dire consequences for farmers, who rely on weather data, and the country’s fisheries, which rely on NOAA to enforce catch limits, invest in habitat conservation, and preserve coastlines.

However, members of Congress, which holds the power of the purse, are rejecting those changes. The appropriations bill funds NOAA at around $6.1 billion, which is similar to the funding it received in 2025. According to a summary released by Senator Patty Murray (D-Washington), the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, the bill rejects more than $300 million in proposed cuts to the National Marine Fisheries Service and provides $224 million for climate research, rather than zeroing it out.

On the Senate floor, Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) said the bill reflected months of work involving significant bipartisan compromise. It will also support the lobster and fishing industries of particular concern in Maine, she said. “The Commerce bill also supports our oceans and fisheries and weather programs that are enormously important to our working waterfronts.”

Earlier in 2025, as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to cut staff across the federal government, NOAA let go more than 600 hundred employees and proposed deeper staff cuts. But the agency recently offered many of those employees their jobs back. (Link to this post.)

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