US lawmakers fight Trump administration cuts to $386m ocean monitoring program: ‘supreme stupidity’

Lisa Murkowski, a Republican senator, joins Democrats in bid to stop dismantling of Ocean Observatories Initiative

A group of Democratic senators and one Republican, as well as two Democratic House committees, sent letters on Monday to the National Science Foundation asking it to reverse course on its plan to dismantle a sprawling ocean monitoring network, with House lawmakers going further and accusing the agency of acting illegally.

The Ocean Observatories Initiative is a network of more than 900 ocean sensors built at a cost of $386m. Over the last decade it has tracked ocean circulation, marine ecosystems, climate change and extreme weather, producing data freely available to the public and informing more than 500 scientific publications. The project was slated to run another 15 to 20 years.

The National Science Foundation had directed the removal of most of the system’s instruments from waters off Oregon, Washington, Alaska, North Carolina and Greenland by 2027 – a decision scientists said came with no warning and no scientific review. The independent federal agency, which was established by Congress, described the move not as a cancellation but as a “descoping” aligned with a strategy to prioritize “evolving scientific priorities and emerging technologies”. The Trump administration ’s proposed 2026 budget had included a 55% cut to the agency.

“It just seems like this is supreme stupidity and a violation of the fundamental distribution of powers in our constitution,” Jeff Merkley, a Democratic senator of Oregon , told the Associated Press. “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.”

Merkley and the Republican senator, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, co-led the letter , which was also signed by Democratic Senators Edward Markey and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell of Washington, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and Ron Wyden of Oregon. It urged the National Science Foundation, or NSF, to halt the dismantling of the Ocean Observatories Initiative and conduct a thorough review, including consultation with the marine science community, before any further action is taken.

“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,” the senators wrote.

In a sharper 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 was led by Zoe Lofgren and Jared Huffman, representatives of California, the top Democrats on their respective committees and was signed by 23 Democratic members from each panel.