A bipartisan coalition of U.S. senators, joined by two Democratic House committees, sent letters Monday to the National Science Foundation demanding it reverse plans to dismantle a wide-reaching ocean monitoring system — with House members going further by alleging the agency is acting outside the law.
The Ocean Observatories Initiative is made up of more than 900 underwater and ocean-surface sensors that cost $386 million to build. Over the past decade, the network has gathered data on ocean circulation, marine ecosystems, climate change, and extreme weather. That information has been made freely available to the public and has contributed to more than 500 scientific publications. The project was originally expected to continue operating for another 15 to 20 years.
The National Science Foundation directed that most of the system’s instruments be removed from waters off Oregon, Washington, Alaska, North Carolina, and Greenland by 2027. Scientists say that decision came without warning and without any scientific review. The independent federal agency — created by Congress — characterized the move not as a cancellation, but as a “descoping” in line with what it called “evolving scientific priorities and emerging technologies.” The Trump administration’s proposed 2026 budget called for a 55% reduction in the agency’s funding.
Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon was blunt in his criticism, telling the Associated Press: “It just seems like this is supreme stupidity and a violation of the fundamental distribution of powers in our Constitution. This program is authorized, it’s funded, and for the administration to shut it down without direction from Congress violates that vision in which the people’s representatives decide what’s done and funded, and the executive branch executes that vision.”
Sen. Merkley and Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska co-led the Senate letter, which was also signed by Democratic Sens. Edward Markey and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell of Washington, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, and Ron Wyden of Oregon. The letter called on the NSF to pause the dismantling and conduct a full review — including input from the marine science community — before moving forward.
“Eliminating most of this complex ocean monitoring system threatens the safety of our coastal communities while undermining our nation’s ability to monitor coastal environments, marine currents, and extreme weather events,” the senators wrote.
House Democrats took an even harder line. Members of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee and the House Natural Resources Committee sent a joint letter calling on the agency to “cease this expensive, destructive, and — crucially — illegal action at once.” That letter was led by Reps. Zoe Lofgren and Jared Huffman of California, the top Democrats on their respective committees, and was signed by 23 Democratic members from each panel.
In a statement dated June 3, the NSF said its decision was informed in part by a 2025 National Academies report on the future of ocean science. The agency added: “NSF remains committed to ocean science and will continue working with the scientific community on high-priority research objectives.”
The cuts to the ocean observatory are part of a larger pullback from environmental and climate-related science under President Donald Trump’s administration, which has also moved to reduce staffing at agencies including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency, and has loosened emissions regulations.
Federal appropriations law requires the NSF to notify the House and Senate Appropriations Committees at least 30 days before decommissioning any agency-owned facility or asset worth more than $2.5 million. According to the House letter, no such notification was provided.
Sen. Merkley said he first heard about the dismantling through news reports. “It was like the alarm bells just went off,” he said. “None of us knew about this, and there didn’t appear to have been any consultation or any scientific commission or stakeholders that were leading to this.”
While his office was still working to confirm whether formal notification had been given, Merkley added: “If there was no notification, this would appear to be illegal.”
Merkley and Murkowski also planned to introduce legislation Monday that would block the NSF from using federal funds to decommission instruments until a thorough review is completed. Scientists were scheduled to begin pulling the first buoy off the Oregon coast on Tuesday.
The senators also pointed to the approaching El Niño — a periodic Pacific Ocean warming pattern that disrupts weather and intensifies marine heat waves — as evidence that the timing of the cuts is especially problematic. “The loss of this deep-water observation system would threaten our ability to prepare for and monitor future El Niño events,” they wrote, warning that coastal communities, fishermen, and emergency responders would lose access to critical data.
The House letter was equally pointed: “Instead of paying for the valuable insights that can be gleaned from the 10-years-and-counting continuous monitoring, taxpayers are now paying for research vessels to span the ocean dredging up hundreds of pieces of instrumentation. This is pathetic. In a time of strained resources, the NSF is wasting time and money to destroy its own scientific infrastructure.”
