WASHINGTON — Democrats and environmental advocates are blasting a proposal by a conservative think-tank to "break up and downsize" the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 

What You Need To Know

  • Project 2025 calls for NOAA to be dismantled

  • Florida Democrats are criticizing the proposal

  •  The director of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 down last month

The plan developed by the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 claims that NOAA “has become one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry,” and says, “(NOAA) should be dismantled and many of its functions eliminated, sent to other agencies, privatized, or placed under the control of states and territories.”

NOAA houses the National Weather Service, performs oceanic and atmospheric research, and sets policy for commercial fisheries. Mark Spalding, the president of The Ocean Foundation, which seeks to conserve ocean ecosystems, says if NOAA were dismantled it would have impacts on protecting federal waters, and on farmers and Americans on the coasts who rely on NWS predictions.   

“It’s simply crazy, full stop, to do this,” Spalding said. “We’ve seen through tax cuts and repeated tax cuts, the starvation of the United States federal government’s research budget. And so, the ability of an agency like NOAA to do its job has been consistently undermined for years. And so, this feels like the attempt to give it a final blow and knock it away.”

When asked if the agency has any comment on the Project 2025 proposal, a NOAA spokesperson said: “NOAA doesn’t respond to speculative inquiries.”

But, the proposal has become a campaign issue for Democrats. As Hurricane Debby hit the Sunshine State last week, Florida Democratic Party Chairwoman Nikki Fried posted on X: “Reminder to Floridians, Trump’s Project 2025 would eliminate @NOAA.”0

Despite many of Trump’s former staffers contributing to the Project 2025 "playbook," his campaign aides have denounced it, saying: “Project 2025 had nothing to do with the campaign, did not speak for the campaign, and should not be associated with the campaign or the President in any way.”

Late last month, Project 2025 Director Paul Dans stepped down. The organization's "playbook," which is about 900 pages long, is still posted online.