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HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – Neil Jacobs, head of the federal science agency threatened with dismissal after the contradiction of one of its offices with President Trump Hurricane Dorian, defended the administration Tuesday even though he had issued a Carefully drafted defense of the agency's scientists.
These remarks are the latest example of a Trump administration official facing enormous political pressure in an atmosphere that favors loyalty above all else.
"This administration is committed to the important weather forecasting mission," said Dr. Jacobs, Acting Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, at a conference meteorological held here. "There is no pressure to change the way you communicate or predict risks in the future."
Dr. Jacobs' speech attracted inordinate attention because of President Trump's insistence that Alabama was on Dorian's path. The New York Times later reported that Commerce Secretary Wilbur L. Ross Jr. had threatened to dismiss NOAA's political staff unless the agency was on the side of the president.
"It's between a very big rock and a very hard place," said Rear-Admiral David W. Titley, a former Navy oceanographer who was NOAA's chief of operations under President Barack Obama. "I would say that he has to go home and look himself in the mirror and decide: can he serve a boss who has no respect for the federal work force and the national meteorological service. "
September 1st, Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter that Dorian reaches Alabama "stronger than expected". A few minutes later, the National Weather Service Office in Birmingham, Alaska, which is part of the NOAA, posted on Twitter that "Alabama will see no impact from Dorian. We repeat that Hurricane Dorian will not be affected in Alabama. "
Mr. Trump rejected, repeatedly insisting that his warning about Alabama was correct. (Alabama was not hit by the hurricane.)
Then last Friday, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross Jr., head of the NOAA Department, telephoned Dr. Jacobs to inform him that NOAA political staff would be fired if the situation did not arise. fixed, according to three people familiar with the conversation. Later in the day, NOAA issued an unusual, unsigned statement reprimanding the Birmingham office, calling the statement "inconsistent with the probabilities of the best forecast products available at that time".
This NOAA statement caused an uproar among scientists, who accused the administration of politicizing the weather service. The Office of the Inspector General of the Commerce Department is currently reviewing the circumstances surrounding this statement, according to documents reviewed by The New York Times.
Dr. Jacobs's Tuesday speech, which had been scheduled before the hurricane, was his first comment on the statement and controversy. It almost did not happen.
According to three people familiar with the discussion, Mr. Jacobs met several officials of the Commerce Department on Monday afternoon, many of whom urged him to cancel his speech. Dr. Jacobs, however, was adamant about his appearance, said the three people.
He began by praising Mr. Trump, calling him "genuinely interested in improving weather forecasts". Jacobs also echoed the president's stance that Dorian had initially threatened Alabama. "At one point, Alabama was in the mix, as was the rest of the Southeast."
Without retracting the statement released Friday by his office, Mr. Jacobs also stated that he still had confidence in the Birmingham office.
"The purpose of NOAA's statement was to clarify the technicalities of the potential impacts of Dorian," said Dr. Jacobs. "What was not said, however, is that we fully understand and support the good intentions of the Birmingham Weather Forecasting Bureau to calm public safety concerns."
"I am proud of the outstanding work done by all weather forecasters, including Birmingham, during the storm," continued Dr. Jacobs. "No one is threatened in his job – neither mine, nor yours. The meteorological services team has my full support and that of the department. "
In the ballroom where the meteorologists gathered for their conference, the NOAA's unsigned statement was all that seemed to be talking about. After the remarks of Mr. Jacobs, many forecasters who have mingled in the outer corridors have chosen a common descriptor: diplomatic.
"He did his best in this situation," said Christina Crowe, a forecaster with the National Meteorological Service.
Ms. Crowe noted that the speech was quieter than that of Louis W. Uccellini, director of the National Meteorological Service, who had received a standing ovation for his defense of the Birmingham office the day before. "The tone was different from yesterday, but many of us understand why," she said.
Huntsville researcher Elise Schultz, who attended the conference, said the presence of Mr. Jacobs at the annual meeting was courageous.
"He is in a difficult position," she said. "He cares and wants to go from the front. I would not want to be in his place. "
Many forecasters have refused to speak out publicly, fearing that they will lose their jobs or escalate the political fury surrounding what many have always considered non-political work in the government.
The episode has shone the spotlight on a quiet department better known for its weather forecasts and its monitoring of the oceans. Sub-agency of the Commerce Department with a budget of about $ 5 billion, NOAA does not do much in regulation or policy and has for the most part avoided controversy under the law. Trump administration.
Richard Hirn, General Counsel of the National Meteorological Service's Employee Organization, said that the Dorian episode had hurt employee morale. He added that in recent years, the National Meteorological Service had suffered so much from the lack of personnel that employees had reached the legislated ceiling for overtime pay to fill their positions and felt even less safe in their jobs. job.
"I'm afraid these people just hang up their hat and leave," Hirn said. "And if large numbers eventually retire, the National Meteorological Service will not be able to keep the 122 forecasters open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and there will be no monitor the radar or warn of severe weather. "
NOAA also has no Senate-confirmed trustee since the Trump administration began, the longest absence with no trustees since the agency's inception in 1970.
Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs was reported in Huntsville, Ala., And Christopher Flavelle and Lisa Friedman, Washington.
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