A bipartisan group of senators and two Democratic House committees have launched a fierce challenge against the National Science Foundation (NSF), demanding it reverse plans to dismantle a crucial ocean monitoring network.
House lawmakers have gone further, accusing the agency of acting illegally in its decision to decommission the system.
The Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) is an extensive network of over 900 ocean sensors, built at a cost of $386 million.
For the past decade, it has been instrumental in tracking ocean circulation, marine ecosystems, climate change, and extreme weather patterns.
The project has generated data freely available to the public and contributed to more than 500 scientific publications, with an original lifespan projected for another 15 to 20 years.
However, the NSF has directed the removal of most of the system’s instruments from waters off Oregon, Washington, Alaska, North Carolina, and Greenland by 2027.
Scientists claim this decision came without warning or scientific review. The independent federal agency, established by Congress, has characterized the move not as a cancellation but as a “descoping” to align with a strategy prioritizing “evolving scientific priorities and emerging technologies.”
This decision follows a proposed 55% cut to the agency in the Trump administration’s 2026 budget.
Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon condemned the move, telling The Associated Press, “It just seems like this is supreme stupidity and a violation of the fundamental distribution of powers in our Constitution.”
He added, “This program is authorized, it’s funded, and for the administration to shut it down without direction from Congress violates that vision in which the people’s representatives decide what’s done and funded, and the executive branch executes that vision.”
Sen. Merkley, alongside Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, co-led a letter signed by nine other Democratic senators.
The letter urged the NSF to halt the dismantling of the OOI and conduct a thorough review, including consultation with the marine science community, before any further action.
The senators warned, “Eliminating most of this complex ocean monitoring system threatens the safety of our coastal communities while undermining our nation’s ability to monitor coastal environments, marine currents, and extreme weather events.”
In a more forceful rebuke, Democrats from the House Science, Space and Technology Committee and the House Natural Resources Committee sent a joint letter demanding the agency “cease this expensive, destructive, and — crucially — illegal action at once.”
The letter, led by Reps. Zoe Lofgren and Jared Huffman of California, was signed by 23 Democratic members from each panel.
In a June 3 statement, the NSF maintained its decision was partly informed by a 2025 National Academies report on the future of ocean science.
The agency stated, “NSF remains committed to ocean science and will continue working with the scientific community on high-priority research objectives.”
The proposed cuts to the ocean observatory are viewed by some as part of a broader retreat from environmental and climate-related science under President Donald Trump’s Republican administration, which sought to scale back research programs, reduce staffing at agencies like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency, and ease emissions regulations.
A key point of contention is federal appropriations law, which mandates the NSF notify the House and Senate Appropriations Committees at least 30 days in advance of any planned decommissioning of agency-owned facilities or assets valued over $2.5 million.
The House letter explicitly stated no such notification had been transmitted. Sen. Merkley revealed he learned of the dismantling through news reports, stating, “It was like the alarm bells just went off.”
He added, “None of us knew about this, and there didn’t appear to have been any consultation or any scientific commission or stakeholders that were leading to this.”
While his office is still confirming receipt of the notification, Merkley noted, “If there was no notification, this would appear to be illegal.”
In response, Sen. Merkley and Sen. Murkowski plan to introduce legislation that would prohibit the NSF from spending federal funds on instrument decommissioning until a thorough review is complete.
The urgency of the situation is underscored by the fact that scientists are scheduled to begin pulling the first buoy off the Oregon coast on Tuesday.
Senators highlighted the approaching El Niño, a periodic warming event in the tropical Pacific that disrupts weather patterns and intensifies marine heat waves, as evidence that the cuts are particularly ill-timed.
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