A bipartisan coalition of senators and two Democratic House committees sent letters Monday to the National Science Foundation, urging it to reverse its plan to dismantle a vast ocean monitoring network. House lawmakers went further, accusing the agency of acting illegally.
Ocean Observatories Initiative at Risk
The Ocean Observatories Initiative comprises over 900 ocean sensors built at a cost of $386 million. Over the past decade, it has tracked ocean circulation, marine ecosystems, climate change, and extreme weather, providing freely available data that has informed more than 500 scientific publications. The project was expected to operate for another 15 to 20 years.
The National Science Foundation had directed the removal of most instruments from waters off Oregon, Washington, Alaska, North Carolina, and Greenland by 2027—a decision scientists said came without warning or scientific review. The agency 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 included a 55% cut to the agency.
‘Supreme Stupidity’
“It just seems like this is supreme stupidity and a violation of the fundamental distribution of powers in our Constitution,” Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley 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 Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska co-led the Senate letter, also signed by Democratic Sens. Edward Markey, Elizabeth Warren, Tammy Baldwin, Patty Murray, Maria Cantwell, Sheldon Whitehouse, Chris Van Hollen, and Ron Wyden. The letter urged the NSF to halt the dismantling and conduct a thorough review, including consultation with the marine science community.
“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 Reps. Zoe Lofgren and Jared Huffman of California and signed by 23 Democratic members from each panel.
In a June 3 statement, the NSF said its decision drew in part on a 2025 National Academies report on the future of ocean science. “NSF remains committed to ocean science and will continue working with the scientific community on high-priority research objectives,” it wrote.
Cuts Seen as Sign of Broader Retreat
The ocean observatory cuts are part of a broader retreat from environmental and climate-related science under the Trump administration, which has moved to scale back research programs, reduce staffing at agencies like NOAA and the EPA, and ease emissions regulations.
Federal appropriations law requires the NSF to notify Congress at least 30 days before decommissioning any agency-owned facilities or assets valued over $2.5 million. The House letter said no such notification had been transmitted.
Merkley said he learned of the dismantling through news reports. “It was like the alarm bells just went off,” he said. “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.” He added, “If there was no notification, this would appear to be illegal.”
Merkley and Murkowski planned to file legislation Monday that would prohibit the NSF from spending federal funds to decommission instruments until a thorough review is completed.
Pulling Buoy Off Oregon Coast
Scientists are scheduled to begin pulling the first buoy off the Oregon coast on Tuesday. In their letter, the senators cited the approaching El Niño—a periodic Pacific warming that disrupts weather patterns and supercharges marine heat waves—as evidence the cuts are particularly ill timed.
“The loss of this deep-water observation system would threaten our ability to prepare for and monitor future El Niño events,” they wrote, warning coastal communities, fishermen, and emergency responders would be left without crucial information.
“Instead of paying for the valuable insights that can be gleaned from the 10-years-and-counting continuous monitoring, taxpayers are now paying for research vessels to span the ocean dredging up hundreds of pieces of instrumentation. This is pathetic,” the House letter states. “In a time of strained resources, the NSF is wasting time and money to destroy its own scientific infrastructure.”
