Republicans Take Ax to NOAA Research

摘要

A group of Republican lawmakers surprised the Clinton Administration last week with a proposal to dismember the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) as part of eliminating the Commerce Department. The plan was much more radical thanNOAA officials were expecting, and they warned that it would disrupt weather forecasting and curtail research on topics ranging from volcano plumes to the ocean depths. Advocates of the plan, led by freshman Representative Dick Chrysler (R-MI), believe that NOAA does applied research that should not be funded- by the federal government. They want to halt NOAA's coastal and water pollution studies, dispose of the agency's fleet of research vessels, and terminate the office responsible for a range of oceanic and atmospheric research. The National Weather Service and NOAA's constellation of weather satellites would be transferred to the Interior Department; portions of that service would be turned over to the private sector. The plan would also sell off NOAA's 11 environmental research labs.