The top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee called on Chairman Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) Friday to probe the activity of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Staffers from DOGE reportedly entered NOAA offices in Silver Spring, Md., this week, with Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) citing accounts that they had locked out career staff. Despite its name, DOGE is a team within the executive office of the president rather than a congressionally authorized government department.
In the letter, Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) called on Westerman to exercise the committee’s oversight authority to investigate reports that the staffers have accessed NOAA systems.
“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. “We all have constituents in our districts who will suffer if NOAA’s work is halted.”
In the letter, Huffman also calls on Westerman to investigate what data, if any, Musk staffers are removing from NOAA system and what precautions they are taking to comply with data privacy laws, as well as what executive branch authority enables the Trump administration to unilaterally alter NOAA’s structure.
Project 2025, the sweeping conservative policy blueprint published by the Heritage Foundation, calls for NOAA to be dismantled, privatizing some of its functions and reassigning others to other parts of the government. President Trump disavowed Project 2025 on the campaign trail but has taken several actions aligned with the document since taking office and the Senate confirmed one of its primary authors, Russell Vought, as White House budget director Thursday night.
The Hill has reached out to Westerman’s office for comment.
