BBC News, London
Getty imagesHundreds of staff members of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have been dismissed in the latest development of the efforts of the administration of Donald Trump to reduce the federal workforce.
About 880 workers – including meteorological forecasters – had their work terminated on Thursday, reported the American partner of the BBC CBS.
The cuts come while Elon Musk, while the head of the so-called Ministry of Government Effectiveness (DOGE), continues to considerably reduce the federal workforce.
A NOAA spokesperson said the agency would not comment on internal personnel issues.
Before Thursday cuts, the NOAA had around 12,000 employees around the world, including 6,773 scientists and engineers, according to the agency’s website.
“We continue to provide weather information, forecasts and warnings in accordance with our public security mission,” added the Noaa spokesman.
But, Jared Huffman, a member of the Californian Democrat, said that people through the United States “depend on the NAAA for free and precise forecasts, severe weather alerts and emergency information.”
“Hundreds of scientists and experts from the NOAA just received the news that each dreaded federal worker,” added Huffman.
“Musk’s simulated mission is bringing essential programs to a screaming stop. To purge the government of scientists, experts and career officials and fundamental reduction programs will cost lives.”
Miyoko Sakashita, director of the Oceans of the Center for Biological Diversity, said that the evisceration of the NOAA “is full of essential rescue programs”.
The latest developments come a few days after the US government employees faced a generalized confusion following contradictory advice on compliance with an order supported by muscles to list their work last week in an email or a dismissal.
The message sent to millions of federal employees last Saturday evening came after Musk published on his X social media platform that government staff “would receive an email asking to understand what they did last week”.
Musk said on Sunday, “we believe that non -existent people or the identity of the dead are used to collect payroll checks”.
In a copy of the email obtained by the BBC, the employees were invited to respond by explaining their achievements last week in five chips – without disclosing classified information.
However, key agencies, including Defense Departments (DOD), Health and Social Services (HHS), the judge, the Pentagon and the FBI – now led by employees scored by the people appointed by Trump to ignore the directive.
Agencies such as the Ministry of Transport, the Secrets and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency also encouraged their staff to comply, according to reports.
On Wednesday, Musk reiterated the suggestion that a certain number of federal employees who did not respond to an email asking for a summary of their achievements of the previous week could be “dead” or “no real people”, but did not offer any fact to save him.
Be expressed at The first meeting of Trump’s officeMusk told journalists: “I think email may have been better interpreted as a performance review, but in fact, it was a pulse check review.
“Do you have an impulse? Do you have an impulse? And two neurons. So, if you have a pulse and two neurons, you can respond to an email.”
Elsewhere on Thursday, a federal judge from San Francisco noted that mass layoffs of probationary employees were probably illegal.
District judge William Alsup ordered the staff management office to inform certain federal agencies that he did not have the power to order the layoffs of probationary employees, including in the Department of Defense.
