Rep. April McClain Delaney (D-6th) was one of several members of Congress who addressed a crowd of hundreds outside NOAA’s Silver Spring headquarters March 3, just days after the Trump administration cut hundreds of jobs from the agency. NOAA cut another 1,000 this week. (Photo by Jack Bowman/Maryland Matters)
Tom Di Liberto always knew he wanted to be a meteorologist. There’s an old family story about how, when he was just 2 years old, he tried to wander out into a thunderstorm.
“I just always loved the weather, even from when I was little,” Di Liberto said Wednesday. “I was not afraid of thunderstorms – I just wanted to be in them.”
Di Liberto got to live out his dream, passing on higher-paying career paths and leveraging his aptitude in math to become a climate scientist, and public relations specialist, at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Until around 3:45 p.m. on Feb. 27, when Di Liberto received an email informing him that, as a probationary employee, his services and skills no longer matched NOAA’s needs. The firing took effect at 5 p.m. that day, just over an hour after the notification.
Di Liberto, along with many others, fell victim to mass layoffs that have been rolling through the federal government as part of President Donald Trump’s mission to reduce the federal workforce. NOAA reportedly laid off more than 1,000 more workers Wednesday. Combined with the original round of cuts, the total number of NOAA employees out of work totals about 20% of its original workforce of 12,000.
The Commerce Department, which oversees NOAA, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday on the latest round of firings.
Federal layoffs pose workforce threats beyond Prince George’s, Montgomery counties
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) reiterated, as he has at several rallies, that he believes the layoffs are illegal.
“The Trump Administration’s illegal actions to severely gut NOAA’s workforce – indiscriminately and without cause – will only hurt vital services that Americans depend on,” Van Hollen said in an emailed statement.
A spokesperson for Van Hollen said that the layoffs are not expected to take effect immediately, and are likely a reaction to the Trump administration deadline of March 13 for reduction in force plans.
The latest NOAA layoffs come a day after the Department of Education said it would fire about 1,300 workers. With previous reductions, that brings cuts at Education to just under 2,000, about half the department’s previous staffing.
“Today’s reduction in force reflects the Department of Education’s commitment to efficiency, accountability, and ensuring that resources are directed where they matter most: to students, parents, and teachers,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement.. “I appreciate the work of the dedicated public servants and their contributions to the Department.
“This is a significant step toward restoring the greatness of the United States education system,” she said.
Rep. April McClain Delaney (D-6th) took aim Wednesday at the cuts made to both NOAA and the Education Department.
“I have no idea the rhyme or reason by which they are going after some of these programs and the workforce,” she said.
McClain Delaney, who previously served as deputy assistant secretary of communications at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, said the cuts are not the result of a good-faith effort to determine the efficacy of programs and workers.
She said that sort of evaluation requires time and careful consideration the administration is not taking.
“To really know an organization and whether an employee is doing a great job … it takes time, McClain Delaney said. “You can’t do that in a week, or two, or three, particularly [within] a massive agency.”
Di Liberto expressed a similar sentiment, saying the layoffs seemed like they weren’t thought out.
“It was not like they did a lot of thought, or actually looked at anything, for the most part, before they sent things out,” Di Liberto said of the decision of which employees to let go.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-8th), whose district is home to NOAA’s Silver Spring headquarters, said Wednesday that, beyond the impact on workers, the cuts to the agency represent a safety issue.
“[Maryland], like the rest of America … depends on the weather information and forecasts that are coming from NOAA,” Raskin said.
He also said that Maryland is uniquely affected, both as a coastal state at risk of severe weather and as the home of many of NOAA’s workers.
“We are profoundly affected, both as beneficiaries of NOAA’s work and also as people who help deliver it,” Raskin said.
As cuts and layoffs continue on a near-daily basis, Raskin said that the easiest way to “undo this nightmare” going forward is through the courts.
“We also could clearly undo it in Congress if we had support from our Republican colleagues,” Raskin said. “But so far they are acting sheepishly and in a servile way towards Trump.”
It’s not because GOP districts have been untouched by the cuts overseen by billionaire Elon Musk, who is directing the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency.
“The Republicans were making the same complaints we were about effective programs being dismantled and about civil service workers … they did not want to see fired,” Raskin said. “Elon Musk gave the Republican members his phone number and the phone number of his assistant.
“We would like that phone number, too,” Raskin said.