On March 13, U.S federal Judge James Bredar issued an order requiring the Trump administration reinstate thousands of probationary federal employees recently fired as part of government downsizing.
The reinstatement order applies across 18 agencies including the Department of Commerce, which administers the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
NOAA, which had already fired roughly 800 workers, was also directed to terminate an additional 1,029 employees.
It’s “an oddly specific number,” Richard Spinrad, the previous NOAA administrator, told Mongabay in a call.
The original firings claimed without evidence that many workers were let go due to poor performance. Federal Judge William Alsup described those terminations in other agencies as “a sham in order to try to avoid statutory requirements.”
The Trump Administration then announced a second round of terminations, called a reduction in force (RIF), which would be carried out by agency managers. As part of his order, Judge Bredar has also temporarily restrained the government from enforcing any RIFs across 18 agencies.
Typically, before a RIF, managers are given guidance about a shift in policy that necessitates a change in staff. However, with this RIF, “there was really no guidance. They were given a number and told, ‘Bring back a list that has 1,029 positions on it,’” Spinrad said.
NOAA typically employs roughly 12,000 people who collect and analyze data from the depths of the oceans to outer space and everywhere in between. They provide extreme weather data for people in the path of a hurricane and monitor fisheries to ensure healthy fish stocks.
Spinrad speculated that if the RIFs proceed, “whole programs or capabilities are apt to be removed.”
The Trump administration also recently released, and quickly removed, a list of federal properties they said should be sold or their leases terminated. Neither federal judge mentioned the properties in their rulings.
NOAA runs roughly 620 facilities, which are spread across the country and provide jobs to many communities, which may help some survive the chopping block.
Spinrad, who saw the list before it was removed, said, “I do know that in the case of at least one facility, the Radar Operations Center in Norman, Oklahoma, that it was Congressman [Tom] Cole [of Oklahoma] who weighed in and said, no, you can’t touch that. And so, it was taken off the list.”
Still at risk is a huge facility in College Park, Maryland, that houses NOAA’s ocean prediction center, climate prediction center and weather prediction center, which all process critical, life-saving data provided to the public, free of charge.
Without federal support for services that NOAA provides the public for free, “we could be going down the road where weather forecasts will be treated the same way as streaming videos: only those who can afford it will get weather forecasts in the future. And that’s not a good thing,” Spinrad said.
Banner image: Crowds gather to protest NOAA firings. Image courtesy of Elvert Barnes via Flickr (CC BY 2.0).
This story first appeared on Mongabay
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