GOP Senator: Hiring Freeze Has Hurt Forecasting

“We are not immune from significant weather events ourselves. One of those weather events about a month ago was an EF3 tornado. When that tornado occurred, the weather forecast offices in Kansas and across the country lacked 24/7 coverage given the hiring freezes. Goodland, Kansas, which is on the Colorado line, the western part of our state, was short meteorologists because of that hiring freeze and were attempting to bring in other meteorologists from national weather service stations.” – GOP Sen. Jerry Moran, during today’s confirmation hearing for Neil Jacobs, Trump’s nominee to lead NOAA.

Republican senator says hiring freeze resulted in key meteorologist vacancies https://t.co/LCIM7Da0pm

— POLITICO (@politico) July 9, 2025