ClimateWire | With an increasing backlog of hundreds of unsigned NOAA contracts, agents’ businesses are now crawling. That’s why even Senator Ted Cruz, a stubborn ally of the Trump administration, has raised concerns about the burglars.
The bottleneck is primarily caused by one man. Commerce Secretary Howard Luttonick. Its portfolio includes the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. After taking office in February, Lutnick claimed he would personally consider a contract that exceeds $100,000.
The policy, intended as an attempt to identify waste and redundancy, instead owns disruption to the country’s outstanding climate and weather agencies, says former and current NOAA officials.
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More than 200 NOAA contracts, including those aimed at helping local communities prepare for extreme weather events, have now been waiting for Rutnick to make a decision. That impasse forced NOAA to drive employees away, creating a work environment where NOAA staff spends a lot of time trying to justify their work.
“It’s all based on stopping,” said NOAA officials who were given anonymity for fear of retaliation. “We prepare a briefing and fill out a new form. Until the very last minute (or after), nothing is handled until the very stress and urgency is very high.”
NOAA contracts made via wickets often take place in the 11th hour, including those designed to secure two polar climate satellites. Receive required flight software updates. Others had been days or weeks beyond the expiration date before the action was taken.
Although Cruz and the second NOAA representative were given anonymity for fear of retaliation, Lutnick typically reviews around 20 contracts a week. This is a small portion of the total.
And Cruise warned that the backlog could get worse, causing problems in his home town in Texas.
“Only NOAA is set to expire this year’s 5,700 contracts,” the Republican lawmaker said during a Senate hearing earlier this month.
“These agreements include everything from post-hurricane flood assessments to cleaning services,” Cruz said. He added that the Texas A&M University data center was closed for several days. “We will take away important drought predictions that will help Texas emergency and water managers manage reservoirs and track storm surge data and hurricane predictions in real time.”
Cruz’s office did not respond to requests for further comment.
Commerce Department officials did not make Lutnick available for interviews, nor did they respond to a list of questions from Politico’s E&E News. However, commercial transactions spokesman Kristen Eichmer defended the agency’s approach in a statement.
“NOAA focuses on modernizing its departments by implementing cutting-edge, latest technology,” Eichamer said. “We are immersed in NOAA’s mission-critical services and this administration will continue to continue for the American people.”
Former NOAA administrator Rick Spinrad said it would be perfectly reasonable for administrative staff to consider external contracts and ensure that taxpayer money can be used effectively, especially if it costs millions of dollars.
However, he questioned whether it would make sense for Lutnick to review all NOAA contracts above $100,000, especially if he could not handle paperwork. NOAA’s business relies on a considerable number of contractors, he noted.
“If the contract is stuck, the agency will stop and stop operating, so that’s what you’re starting to see,” Spinlad said.
He also said Lutnick’s policy could be sending the wrong message to NOAA employees.
“There’s also a unique distrust of this. If you don’t trust the staff to make the right decisions, then you start doing that,” says Spinrad.
Certainly, Lutnick doesn’t do it all himself.
To land on Lutnick’s desk, the NOAA contract must first pass an approval process led by Keegan McLaughlin, a former Temple University student who worked as a food hall monitor last year. His LinkedIn resume.
According to internal documents obtained by E&E News, NOAA officials who want to renew an external contract usually have to make a pitch for McLaughlin and Brittonshan. Part of the so-called government efficiency department (Doge) A tactic defended by Elon Musk, Tech Billionaire and Trump Ally.
NOAA officials – many people with many government experience are asked to market their requests in the form of slideshows or write some bullet points, the document shows.
“Keegan and Britton ask questions at the end of the meeting and make a ‘next step’ decision.
McLaughlin and Shang refuse some contracts, but according to current NOAA officials, they approve of going to Lutnick’s desk for a final sign-off.
And that’s where they sit.
The contract currently executes the scope. One concerns coastline mapping. Another deals with flood flooding modeling and networking for tsunami warning buoys. Others cover internet maintenance that allows key weather data to be distributed during critical events.
Ratnic promised to keep it NOAA is unharmed During the Senate confirmation hearing in January, he has not been much involved with the agency during his brief tenure.
Part of this is due to design. NOAA will only create a portion of the Secretary of Commerce’s portfolio. Other divisions of commercial transactions include the Census Bureau, the Patent and Trademark Office and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
And Lutnick is also responsible for other things. In recent weeks he has been the mouthpiece for the Trump administration to push for new tariffs on foreign goods. And he recently joined President Donald Trump on a part of his Middle East tour.
Once Lutnick has the opportunity to confirm the NOAA contract, agency officials say his default settings are to reject them or request partial reductions on those he has approved.
Also worth noting: Paralysis created by contract delays is separate from the Trump White House budget proposal Effectively disassemble and dismantle NOAA.
To sum it up, it’s a problematic mix, not only can it reduce potentially important programs, but it also often lacks institutional knowledge to understand the outcomes by officials making those decisions.
“If people don’t know history and don’t understand the rules and regulations regarding how to get things in contrast, they’ll make a mistake,” he said. “And I think when people who do this kind of thing are inexperienced, the chances of mistakes increase.”
Reprinted from E&E News With permission from Politico, LLC. Copyright 2025. E&E News provides essential news to energy and environmental experts.
