Furlough notices for about half the staff at Boulder’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Global Monitoring Lab, which were issued early this month in response to the White House not distributing federal funding appropriated by Congress, were rescinded April 16. Work is resuming after more than $4 million in funding was released.
The scientists, who track greenhouse gases, solar radiation and the recovery of the ozone hole over Antarctica, are employed through CU Boulder’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) and funded with federal grants to NOAA. On March 24, federal funding ran out, and on April 1, CIRES informed 42 employees that they would be furloughed without pay in May unless federal funding came through.
Read: Half of staff at Boulder’s NOAA Global Monitoring Lab face furloughs as funding freeze drags on
CIRES Director Waleed Abdalati said they were told the grants would be unlikely to advance until the Trump administration outlined how it intended to spend money Congress appropriated for NOAA.
CU representatives did not respond in time for publication about whether the Trump administration had issued a plan for how to spend money appropriated by Congress or whether that was related to the release of funds. A federal court recently ruled that the Trump administration must make these “spend plans” public, but they do not appear to be publicly accessible on the White House website.
Abdalati said that in the past, if federal funding lagged, the university trusted “that the government was good for it” and could cover staff costs until funding came in to reimburse the university.
“But given the current funding environment, that’s a risk that we just can’t take,” he told Boulder Reporting Lab in early April.
In a statement April 16, Abdalati expressed gratitude for those who advocated for the release of funds and for the resilience of CIRES staff.
“The work of CIRES researchers at GML to advance our understanding of Earth’s atmosphere, track atmospheric ozone, and maintain some of the most critical scientific datasets in the world is too important to be interrupted,” he said. “This work protects human health, strengthens our nation’s competitiveness and supports our economies at every level, and now it will continue.”