{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.reed.senate.gov/news/releases/reed-warns-against-dismantling-critical-hurricane-agency", "Reed Warns Against Dismantling Critical Hurricane Agency", "2024-10-03", "2024", "2024-10", "Democrat", "Senate", "RI", "Jack Reed", "R000122", "www.reed.senate.gov", "jackreed", "https://www.reed.senate.gov/news/releases", "scraper", "VIDEO: Sen. Reed Calls Out Climate Change Deniers and Says Project 2025\u2019s Plans to Gut National Weather Service and Emergency Management Would be a Major Disaster\n\nPROVIDENCE, RI -- As flood-stricken states grapple with the fallout from Hurricane Helene, U.S. Senator Jack Reed says the federal government must continue to help states prepare for emergencies like hurricanes, accurately predict storms, and effectively assist those impacted with coordinated recovery, rescue, and rebuilding efforts.\n\nAs the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season continues, Senator Reed visited the Fox Point Hurricane Barrier today to sound the alarm over Project 2025\u2019s calls to \u201cbreak up and downsize\u201d the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), privatize the National Weather Service (NWS), and end aid to states for preparedness grants, which would cost Rhode Island tens of millions of dollars annually.\n\nProject 2025\u2019s manifesto states: \u201cThe National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) should be dismantled and many of its functions eliminated\u201d (page 664). The group\u2019s backers falsely assert the data NOAA provides is \u201cone of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry,\u201d and \u201charmful to future U.S. prosperity\u201d (page 675). The report also says that the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research should be \u201cdownsized\u201d while much of its climate change research should be \u201cdisbanded.\u201d\n\nSenator Reed says that if Project 2025 backers follow through with their stated goals, it would hurt the Ocean State and Americans living in coastal communities especially hard. He warned that creating a new paywall for accurate weather forecasts could jeopardize public safety before and during major storms.\n\n\u201cTrump\u2019s Project 2025 supporters are seeking to inject politics and profit motives into what should be free, scientific, and data-driven weather forecasts,\u201d said Senator Reed, a member of the Appropriations Committee who helped advance through the Senate Appropriations Committee a bipartisan Appropriations bill that includes $1.9 billion for NOAA weather satellites, $102 million above fiscal year 2024. These weather satellites are critical to accurate weather prediction that people, businesses, and communities rely on each and every day.\n\nReed noted that in the deadly aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Donald Trump suggested climate change is \u201cone of the great scams of all time.\u201d\n\nReed stated: \u201cLet\u2019s be clear: climate change is real and we need collective action to address it. We need honest, principled leadership. During his presidency, Donald Trump failed in both the preparation for and disaster response to hurricanes, storms, and flooding. He often made things worse. For example, he delayed disaster aid for hurricane-devastated Puerto Rico. In another instance, he got out his sharpie and tried to alter the storm\u2019s trajectory to suggest Alabama would be hit. When the National Weather Service corrected his claim, he threw a fit. The NWS experts were right. Donald Trump was wrong. That storm never hit Alabama and Trump never should have injected his blatantly false partisan ideology into something like a routine weather forecast.\u201d\n\nLater, the U.S. Department of Commerce\u2019s internal watchdog concluded \u201cSharpiegate,\u201d as it was known, needlessly risked public safety, eroded public trust in weather warnings, and damaged NOAA\u2019s reputation for issuing apolitical guidance.\n\n\u201cThat is exactly what Trump and the Project 2025 manifesto are threatening to do now through these terrible policy proposals. Project 2025 itself should serve as a dire warning about what a second Trump would be: a disaster for the American people,\u201d concluded Reed.\n\nThanks to Senator Reed\u2019s leadership and years of strategic federal investments, NOAA is increasing its presence in Rhode Island and bringing some premiere ocean research jobs, vessels, and operations to the Ocean State. When it is completed, the new $150 million NOAA hub will help support dozens of Rhode Island-based jobs on land and at sea. Approximately 60 NOAA staffers worked at the NOAA MOC-A office in Norfolk, Virginia before it was moved to Newport, Rhode Island and many more also worked aboard vessels and were based in the area when not at sea.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-07T21:57:20Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.reed.senate.gov/news/releases/reed-warns-against-dismantling-critical-hurricane-agency"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8849878795444965, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}