The ranking Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee is asking for an investigation into the activities of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency at the headquarters of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration earlier this week, The Hill reported Friday.
Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Ca., sent a letter to committee Chairman Bruce Westerman, R-Ark., asking him to investigate reports that DOGE members had locked out career staff at NOAA and accessed systems at its offices in Silver Spring, Maryland, according to the report. Huffman earlier this week said DOGE was “wreaking havoc” on the agency.
“NOAA provides cutting-edge research and services to keep American families safe and bolsters a sustainable blue economy, services that Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle – including within the Natural Resources Committee – support through annual appropriations requests and diligent reauthorizations of NOAA programs,” Huffman wrote, according to The Hill. “We all have constituents in our districts who will suffer if NOAA’s work is halted.”
Further, Huffman asked Westerman to investigate what data, if any, DOGE officials removed from NOAA’s systems, according to the report.
It was reported earlier this week that DOGE officials were combing through IT databases at NOAA to find employees associated with DEI initiatives. Employees were emailed late Tuesday and told to give a DOGE official "edit access" to intranet sites. Such internal sites would include employee resource groups, such as Pride at NOAA and Women at NOAA; information would include their membership, internal newsletters, training documents, and personnel management information.
Huffman released a statement Tuesday assailing DOGE’s “invasion” of NOAA.
“Elon Musk and his DOGE hackers are ransacking their way through the federal government, unlawfully gaining unfettered access to Americans’ private information and gutting programs people depend on. Now they have reached NOAA where they’re wreaking havoc on the scientific and regulatory systems that protect American families’ safety and jobs,” Huffman and Science, Space, and Technology Committee Ranking Member Zoe Lofgren, D-Ca., said in the statement.
“This is also a blatant attempt to further the climate denialism that animates industry, and by extension, the Trump administration. … And their game plan is deviously simple: dismantle the agencies at the forefront of climate action and get rid of anyone who stands in their way,” the statement went on.
However, Tuesday's report said the content turned over wouldn't encompass the agency's climate and extreme weather data or operational weather and climate forecasts.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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