NOAA administrators file plans to cut 17 percent of workforce in fiscal 2026, shift some programs

By JORY HECKMAN/Federal News Network

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is planning to cut approximately 17 percent of its workforce in fiscal 2026, after recently firing hundreds of probationary employees.

NOAA, in the newly released congressional justification for its fiscal 2026 budget request, expects to shrink its current workforce of more than 12,000 full-time employees down to about 10,000 full-time staff. The agency fired hundreds of probationary employees in February. Several of those recently fired employees are now suing the agency on the grounds that NOAA used inaccurate performance data to fire them.

In addition, than 1,000 NOAA employees also left the agency after they accepted the deferred resignation program, early retirement offers and voluntary separation incentive payments.

NOAA is also looking to cut more than $1.8 billion from its current budget. The agency’s fiscal year 2026 proposal would eliminate Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, and transfer some of its functions to the National Ocean Service and National Weather Service.

The budget plan would also transfer NOAA’s responsibilities under the Endangered Species Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act to the Interior Department’s Fish and Wildlife Service. NOAA would get a $4.5 billion total budget next year under this plan.

NOAA told lawmakers that its budget request “refocuses the NOAA budget on core activities,” including collecting ocean and weather data to support navigation and forecasting.

“A leaner NOAA that focuses on core operational needs, eliminates unnecessary layers of bureaucracy, terminates nonessential grant programs, and ends activities that do not warrant a federal role, will provide better value to the American public while maintaining activities that are essential to protecting lives and property,” the agency wrote.

NOAA fired approximately 800 probationary employees in February. The agency briefly reinstated them, then re-fired them as a lawsuit made its way through the federal district and appeals courts.

But a lawsuit filed last week in a federal court in Maryland claims the agency carried out those firings “based on groundless claims about their job performance.”

“Defendants’ decision to fire probationary employees for performance reasons — without a shred of support — was intentional and appeared to be motivated in part by the Trump Administration’s deep-seated animus toward federal workers,” the complaint states.

Employees behind the lawsuit say they received performance-based pay raises and favorable performance reviews. Federal employees under the Privacy Act can challenge adverse personnel actions based on inaccurate or incomplete records.

Fired NOAA employees behind the lawsuit include a mix of new hires and long-term that were reclassified as probationary after receiving promotions.

One of the plaintiffs, Christine Buckel, worked at NOAA for nearly 23 years and “received uniformly positive performance evaluations.” Buckel, a marine biologist who helped coastal communities prepare for rising sea levels, was placed in a probationary period after being recently promoted

Clayton Bailey, partner and co-founder of the Civil Service Law Center, said the firings amounted to “blatantly unlawful conduct,” and “the government has a duty to make decisions based on accurate and complete records, regardless of the tenure of the employee.”

The Civil Service Law Center is representing fired probationary employees at the Department of Health and Human Services, on the grounds that HHS used “error-ridden” data to fire 10,000 employees in April.

NOAA employees were briefly reinstated and put on paid administrative leave when a federal judge temporarily blocked the firings. But the agency re-fired staff after an appeals court stayed the lower court’s decisions.

Recently terminated NOAA employees have started to receive SF-50 forms, which officially document an employee’s separation from the federal government.

NOAA has recently started issuing final HR documents that classify the probationary terminations as performance-related.

The complaint states NOAA’s claim that these employees were fired for poor performance “can have lasting effects on an individual’s ability to secure other jobs in the future.”

The complaint states that when some terminated employees filed for unemployment benefits, NOAA contested their applications because the employee had been “discharged for failing to meet the employers [sic] performance expectations during the probationary period.”

• Jory Heckman is a reporter at Federal News Network covering the Postal Service, Department of Veterans Affairs, IRS, big data and technology issues. Follow @jheckmanWFED