Plot Twist: DOGE Made Another Mistake

Turns Out Firing Weather Service Employees Was a Bad Idea After All

Earlier this year, thanks to DOGE, a wave of cuts (including forced retirements and layoffs of probationary employees) hit the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and its National Weather Service, cutting hundreds of jobs and weakening critical operations. We actually made an episode of Okay, But Why about that very thing.

Since the cuts, current employees have taken on additional hours and responsibilities to maintain the 24/7 coverage required by extreme weather conditions in the U.S.

Experts, lawmakers, and former officials raised alarms that staffing reductions could compromise forecasting accuracy and public safety, especially during hurricane and flood seasons. The weather, after all, doesn’t care about politics.

Thanks to their efforts, NOAA has secured an exemption from a federal hiring freeze and will be allowed to fill up to 450 vital roles, including meteorologists, hydrologists, and radar technicians. But why were all these jobs cut in the first place? And in what world does all of this count as “efficiency”?

How much time and money is it going to cost to train a bunch of new people when we had already-trained people in place? (Unnamed NOAA official)

While this might be a win for NOAA, we can’t forget how we got here — the Trump administration and DOGE created this mess, and now we’re forced to clean it up.