Republicans Have Joined the Effort to Stave Off Trump’s Dismantling of a Key Weather Center

Democrats challenging the Trump administration’s dismantling of the nation’s leading weather research facility have found Republican allies in Congress.

Republican Reps. Jeff Hurd, Jay Obernolte, Brian Fitzpatrick and Jack Bergman joined Democrats, including Rep. Joe Neguse and Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, in a letter to Congressional appropriators Monday asking them to ensure sustained funding for the Colorado-based National Center for Atmospheric Research. Eighty lawmakers from both the Senate and the House signed the letter.

“Dismantling this institution doesn’t make sense, and I’m glad to work with my colleagues in both chambers to make sure NCAR has the funding it needs to keep operating,” Hurd, who represents western Colorado, said in a statement. “The scientists at NCAR are doing work that matters - work that helps families prepare for storms, helps farmers plan their seasons, and keeps us ahead on the world stage. Supporting NCAR is a smart investment we should continue to make, not walk away from.”

The letter, shared exclusively with NOTUS, comes a few days after Hickenlooper and Bennet placed a hold on the movement of next year’s funding bills in the Senate over the administration’s attacks on NCAR. The hold sent the Senate home for the holidays without advancing the funding bills.

“We will explore every avenue to ensure we don’t lose this vital institution,” Bennet said in his statement.

That push has found bipartisan support in the house.

“I’m grateful to Senators Bennet and Hickenlooper for taking critical action last week to stand up for NCAR’s continued funding, and I’m proud to work with my Republican colleague from the Western Slope, Jeff Hurd, to carry the baton in the House,” Neguse said in a statement. “Any attempt to dismantle this institution is dangerous, reckless, and would, ultimately, put the United States at a very deep competitive disadvantage.”

The Trump administration announced that it was planning to dismantle NCAR — home to critical national security projects and the nation’s most advanced weather research — in a post on X from Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought last Wednesday.

While Vought initially cited “climate alarmism” as the reason for taking apart NCAR, a senior White House official linked the decision to Trump’s frustration with Colorado Gov. Jared Polis in a statement to NOTUS.

Polis is refusing to release Tina Peters, a former Colorado county clerk jailed for election security crimes, from prison after Trump issued her a ceremonial pardon.

In the time since Trump issued a pardon for Peters — who was indicted on state-level crimes — the administration has also canceled funding for energy and transportation projects in Colorado.

On Saturday, the administration denied Polis’ requests for federal disaster declarations for recent wildfires and flooding in the state, disasters that led to financial damages above the usual threshold for a federal declaration, according to a statement from the governor’s office.

The bipartisan letter to appropriators notes that the Trump administration’s own budget request for next year calls NCAR a “world-class research center” with “cutting-edge airborne and ground-based observational facilities” and “petascale high-performance computing.”

However, Trump’s budget request makes clear that the administration had already been planning to shrink the Boulder facility, despite its own acknowledgement of the center’s important work. That request asked for a 40% decrease in funding and states that “NCAR will curtail.”

“We agree with the President’s FY 2026 National Science Foundation Budget Request regarding the importance of NCAR as a national research and infrastructure asset,” the letter signers wrote.

“Funding for NCAR is essential to maintaining America’s leadership in global weather forecasting and to protecting our economy, our communities, and the everyday livelihoods of families across the nation.”