The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has spent the last six months in the troubles, the Trump administration considerably reducing the agency’s national workforce. To worsen things, the federal government is now asking for money from certain former employees.
Three former NOAA employees who were dismissed, rehired, then fired this spring, received opinions from the federal government declaring that they owed debt for health care coverage. The letters, shared exclusively with NBC News, were entitled “notice of payment request” and dated June 16. They said the employees owed debts to reach hundreds of dollars, and if they did not pay in time, the federal government would charge interest and report them to a credit office.
In addition, employees told NBC that opinions are intended for the coverage they had never even had. The letters explain that the accusation concerns health care premiums for the eighth and ninth periods of remuneration of the year – after their health care plans had already expired, former staff members said.
“They try to charge me for health insurance after being dismissed. I had no coverage,” a former special assistant at the Special Office of the NBC told NBC. “It’s just more salt in the injury on how it was incompetent.”
We do not know how many people have received the letters. Two former NOAA employees told NBC that they had not been warned. Gizmodo contacted the NOAA and the Ministry of Commerce – which oversees the agency – for clarifications but did not receive a response at the time of publication. Kim Doster, a NOAA spokesperson, told NBC that the agency could not comment on the personnel issues in progress. The Federal Staff Management Office told NBC that it did not have access to the staff or the PAY files at the NOAA.
Since January, the Trump administration has submitted the NOAA to a whirlwind of layoffs, rejects and proposed budget cuts. In February, the new government’s efficiency ministry (DOGE) dismissed 880 employees, or around 5% of the agency’s workforce. In March, a federal judge ruled on illegal layoffs and the NOAA told certain employees that they could return to administrative leave paid with back salary.
Then, in April, the NOAA again dismissed reinstated workers after a court of appeal canceled the decision of March, paving the way to the Trump administration to dismiss thousands of employees. In the midst of this turmoil, the administration also presented to staff members and early retirement packages that more than 1,000 employees have accepted. In May, the Syndicate of Scientists concerned (UCS) estimated that the NOAA had lost more than 2,000 employees, 20% of its national workforce.
As if all of this was not enough, Trump’s budget proposal in 2026 aims to reduce $ 1.6 billion in the NOAA budget and abolish its primary scientific office, erasing its meteorological, oceanic and climatic research capacities. If adopted, the budget would considerably move the agency’s long -standing mission.
Meteorological experts and in the event of a natural disaster, as well as experts from the dependent industries of weather and climatic data, learned the alarm. Many have urged the Trump administration to reverse the course, especially after the Noaa forecasters predicted an “active” hurricanes season this year. In May, the UCS sent an open letter to the congress signed by more than 3,000 scientists asking the legislators to arrest “the current attack” on the NOAA and to restore the endowment and the financing of the agency.
“Too many members of the Congress remain in compliance on the sidelines even though the Trump administration takes a demolition bullet to the first scientific agency in our country,” said Rachel Cleetus, director of climate and energy program policies at the UCS and signing of letters.
Former NOAA employees are also fed up. Debt notices are one more slap after the months of chaos. “I receive letters requiring the payment of more than $ 14,000 for my surgery,” Seid-Green told NBC, who underwent an operation on administrative leave in April. “Not only did they not give us a blanket for which we paid, but now they send us debt opinions for the cover that we did not have.”
NOAA employees are not the only ones to suffer from recent actions from the Trump administration. While the American public is faced with another season of active hurricanes, the evisceration of the first forecast agency of the country could prove to be fatal. Despite the reshuffles, the NOAA representatives said they were prepared for the hurricane season. After losing hundreds of meteorologists, radar specialists and hurricane trackers, it is not clear how the agency will manage.
