▶ 0:18:24Chair Cruz: Good morning. The senate committee on commerce, science, and transportation will come to order. I want to take a moment at the outset to address the tragedy in my home state over the holiday weekend. In the early hours of july 4, central texas was hit with extraordinary flash flooding more than 100 people have died. And the death total is expected to keep growing.
▶ 0:18:55Chair Cruz: Over 160 remain missing right now, and the search effort is ongoing as we speak. I am the father of two daughters. When I think of those little girls that were lost at camp mystic, it is every parent's worst nightmare. I was at camp mystic on monday.
▶ 0:19:18Chair Cruz: The devastation and that 100-year-old beautiful girls camp that has helped raise generations of girls and women in texas -- the devastation was the most horrific thing I have ever seen. The guadalupe river is normally a quiet and peaceful river. I have been swimming and floating in that river dozens of times.
▶ 0:19:46Chair Cruz: There is a reason there are 40 camps right there in kerr county, because it is absolutely beautiful. My youngest daughter, catherine, goes to camp just a few miles up the middle -- of the river from camp mystic. My wife heidi was there the week four, picking catherine up.
▶ 0:20:07Chair Cruz: They have been celebrating because catherine had won war canoe, the girls' race in canoes against the other girls in the camp. Catherine is an athlete and had won war canoe. I looked at that same peaceful river, and 1.8 trillion gallons of water dumped on it during the early hours of july 4, and it rose some 30 feet.
▶ 0:20:33Chair Cruz: Cap mystic -- the river is hundreds of yards away from the camp. There is a lot of space. And yet you looked at the cabins, and in the cabins, there was eight foot of water in every girls' kevin. You could see the water. It washed out every single thing in the cabin. There is one cabin, the cabin where the youngest girls were -- are in -- called bumble inn.
▶ 0:21:07Chair Cruz: The water blew out the windows and that kevin, and swept all of the girls in the counselors out. Every girl in that cabin is either confirmed dead or missing. Outside that cabin are 17 single white crosses, with the names of the girls written on.
▶ 0:21:32Chair Cruz: The 17th cross, the name written on it is the name of the camp director of camp mystic. Nickel likewise posted his life in those early morning hours, and his suburban, driving through high water, trying to rescue his girls. Texas, our heart is broken.
▶ 0:22:02Chair Cruz: And we saw extraordinary courage. So search and rescue. We saw heroes. I met with the young coast guardsmen on monday who is credited with 165 rescues. They landed on camp mystic. They put them on the ground in a very difficult helicopter landing. He was at a field on the highest point in the campground, hoping rescue little girls for three and a half hours. They helicopter it out 306 the five girls.
▶ 0:22:32Chair Cruz: -- three under 65 -- they helicoptered out 365 girls. A lot of my colleagues have gotten to meet coast guard swimmers. They are kind of like navy seals and surfers mixed together. This young man, he described himself in the press. He said, "I'm just a dude," which is something a custard swimmer would say. They are completely fearless.
▶ 0:23:03Chair Cruz: When I saw him, he had just hung up the phone from talking with a mom and dad, and with their daughter. They were crying. They said, "you saved our daughter's life. She was terrified out of her mind, you held her hand and told her it would be ok." so the weather can have enormous consequences.
▶ 0:23:28Chair Cruz: Our thoughts today are also with the people in rio so, new mexico, who faced flash flooding just yesterday evening. The power of the flash, the power of a tornado, the power of a hurricane, the power of a wildfire to devastate and destroy -- flying in a coast guard helicopter of the guadalupe river, it was astonishing, the devastation that water can produce. Cars were flung around like matchbox cars.
▶ 0:23:59Chair Cruz: You know, when a car hits a tree , the car loses. The car crumples. But I will tell you, when water hits trees, the trees lose. All up and down the guadalupe river, you saw thousands of trees just run over like a bulldozer had knocked them down. That was the force of the 30 foot wall of water that crushed everything in its path -- obliterated it.
▶ 0:24:27Chair Cruz: When tragedy strikes, we ask ourselves what could have been done different. And that is a question that we need to ask. In any crisis, there is an order that things play out. Stayed number one is search-and-rescue. That has got to be the first priority, saving lives, hitting lives out of harm's way.
▶ 0:24:51Chair Cruz: Stage number two's recovery and rebuilding, and that is a process that takes months or even years, as he go to the homes that are destroyed, the buildings that are destroyed. We will. Texas will be rebuilding soon. But there is also a process of engaging in a retrospective and saying, what is the fact timeline of what transpired, and what could we have done better?
▶ 0:25:17Chair Cruz: Look -- every one of us looking at the flooding in texas, if we could step into a time machine and go back to 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning on july 4, we would rush into those little girls' cabins and get them the hell out of there. One question -- you and I had a good conversation in my office yesterday. I want to thank each of the nominees here for your expertise.
▶ 0:25:40Chair Cruz: But one question that we will certainly be asking in texas and we ought to be asking across the country is how can we improve the speed and rate of response that when an extreme weather warning comes out -- in texas, the national weather service put out one just after 1:00 a.m. And another just after 4:00 a.m. The problem is, most people are asleep at 1:00 a.m. Or 4:00 a.m., and those little girls never heard the warning.
▶ 0:26:07Chair Cruz: So there are discussions about all sorts of steps we can take, including setting up sirens and warning systems along the guadalupe river valley, which I think makes an awful lot of sense. But we ought to be asking what lessons can be learned and what can be done more effectively to protect human life. This hearing, we have three very qualified nominees. We have Dr.
▶ 0:26:31Chair Cruz: Neil jacobs, the nominee for undersecretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and no administrator, -- noaa administration, and we have Mr. harry kumar, nominee for a sector -- assistant secretary of commerce for labor and intergovernmental affairs. I think each of them are highly qualified. I appreciate your willingness to serve. I appreciate your commitment to protecting public safety.
▶ 0:27:01Chair Cruz: There is no mission that is more important, particularly concerning whether-related events. Early detection, knowing what is happening, and improving the ability to notify people in harm's way and get them out of the way -- we know we are going to have other disasters, going forward. There will be more floods, more hurricanes, more tornadoes.
▶ 0:27:24Chair Cruz: At every step we can take to remove someone from the path of that devastation is a step we need to take, and I appreciate each of your dedication to doing it. Ranking member cantwell?
▶ 0:27:39Sen. Cantwell: As you mentioned, this hearing comes at an incredible time of human loss from the floods in texas. And now, we know, in new mexico and north carolina. I want to offer my condolences to the families who lost loved ones in this unimaginable tragedy, and to the people in texas. We grieve along with you as a nation.
▶ 0:28:04Sen. Cantwell: Our thoughts and prayers to go to the families, to ask for strength for them to deal with this incredible loss. And as you said, there is a time and place to figure out what transpired.
▶ 0:28:20Sen. Cantwell: For us in the northwest, where natural disasters, whether it is fire, flooding, earthquakes -- or the big one that is someday going to hit -- this issue of first responders and communication is really important as. So I want to thank the national guard for their incredible work in response to this incident. Want to thank the coast guard men and women.
▶ 0:28:48Sen. Cantwell: I'm pretty sure we train out on the olympic, the long beach area of our state. We are proud of what they do to get those men and women ready to help do the search and rescue. But clearly, first responders did everything that they were asked to do in response to this flood. But as you said, Mr.
▶ 0:29:07Sen. Cantwell: Chairman, there will be others, so I agree that we should figure out what we can do in the future to improve her communication system, to improve the science behind the information, and to figure out how we best prepare for the future. Today, we are considering Dr.
▶ 0:29:27Sen. Cantwell: Jacobs to be noaa administrator, Mr. jordan, and Mr. kumar. Noaa does play an incredible role in preserving life and property, and reporting for sustainable fisheries to get food on the table, to support our domestic product.
▶ 0:29:58Sen. Cantwell: You play a critical role in safety and economic competitiveness. So of vesely, I'm going to ask today about cuts to noaa -- so obviously, I'm going to ask today about cuts to noaa and how you preserve the core mission of an agency or cutting so much of the science budget. The budget eliminates the office of oceanic and atmospheric research rnd arm, which is critical to improving leadtimes and accuracy of information.
▶ 0:30:26Sen. Cantwell: Noaa's r&d is core to giving communities more notice about tornadoes and other severe weather events by using prediction models instead of waiting to detect the weather that is already occurring. The budget proposal also eliminates noaa's integrated ocean observing system program, the buoy system.
▶ 0:30:52Sen. Cantwell: This is a very bipartisan program that helps us particularly in the northwest in detecting the potential of tsunamis, hurricane forecasts, fisheries, marine transportation. And even though the administration put out an executive order calling for growing american fisheries, I believe that we are doing the opposite if we are not investing in the kind of stock assessments that we need to deal with fisheries management.
▶ 0:31:22Sen. Cantwell: So while the administration seeks to slash noaa's budget, the workforce has also been guided by 2000 employees. The agency has over 3000 vacant positions, most of which cannot be filled due to the hiring freeze. Pendleton, oregon, the forecast office serving central washington, no longer has 24/seven coverage because of the 44% vacancy rate.
▶ 0:31:50Sen. Cantwell: In my opinion, that is unacceptable in the height of fire season. The hiring freeze also resulted in 150 vacancies at the research ships, resulting in 30% of those ships being left in the docks this summer instead of charting navigation in the arctic, serving key weather buoys, and conducting stock assessments. For washington, to stock assessment surveys for pollick and one for salmon have already been canceled. His means people cannot fish. We don't have the science, so they cannot fish.
▶ 0:32:21Sen. Cantwell: We are putting billions of dollars of economic activity at risk. So the west coast region of noaa fisheries have lost so many staff that we no longer have key experts to negotiate salmon or other treaties, and entire permitting teams are gone. Local communities are begging for answers. So I expect to hear how we are going to defend the science mission without the people and without the science to help deliver those essential services.
▶ 0:32:49Sen. Cantwell: I want to know what our real player and is to work to continue to protect our environment. Mr. jordan, if confirmed, you will be responsible for advising the administrator on whether water, climate, and related climate matters. I hope you will tell us how you plan to counter cuts to the weather program, and where you stand on the r&d investment that we need to improve forecasts, such as supercomputing forecasts.
▶ 0:33:17Sen. Cantwell: Climate change is driving more intense hurricanes, more frequent severe atmospheric rivers, rain events, it is doubling the number of wildfires. Since 1980, we have had on average nine extreme weather events annually that have cost us over $1 billion each. From 1989 -- 1980, 9 extreme events.
▶ 0:33:42Sen. Cantwell: That has spiked to 23 events per year, and last year, it was try seven events. We can see that we are having more devastating impact, and the cost to all of us. So we are in a state of emergency that is getting worse. We need to come up with better solutions. We know how to do this.
▶ 0:34:03Sen. Cantwell: In 2015, as firefighters were fighting a devastating wildfire and wind patterns change, resulting in the loss of fire fighters, we implement in new tools to help with the training of a new system that would help us get better information and get that information faster.
▶ 0:34:21Sen. Cantwell: I should also note that today the oig for the department of commerce, the office of inspector general, released a report on our nash -- national weather service 20 to forecasting system and the things that they believe the office has gotten wrong in forecasting -- the shortcomings of that system -- and six plans for improvement. I will probably ask you about that as well. Finally, Mr. kumar, you would be leading the legislative affairs department.
▶ 0:34:50Sen. Cantwell: The put, the departments critical engagement with members of this committee is not happening at the level we need it to happen, so I expect he will help fundamentally change that, if confirmed, and make sure that as members ask for information and data from the agency, that they will receive it in a timely manner. Thank you, Mr.
▶ 0:35:11Sen. Cantwell: Chairman, and again, our hearts are with you, your colleague, senator cornyn, the many people of texas, and we will work with you in whatever fashion we can to help move forward and help texans in any way. A vesely, our colleagues here on the committee from new mexico, and our colleagues in the larger body from north carolina. Thank you so much.
▶ 0:35:40Chair Cruz: Thank you. I appreciate that and I want to say thank you to all the comments from both sides of the aisle. Collectively, hearts are breaking across the country right now with the fourth of july weekend. Dr. jacobs, you are recognized for your opening statement.
▶ 0:35:57Dr. Jacobs: German close, ranking member -- chairman cruz, and embers of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to appear. I'm honored to be nominated for undersecretary of commerce for oceans and atmospheres. I would like to think president trump and secretary lutnick for their trust and confidence in me with this nomination. If I have the honor of being confirmed, I look forward to working with all of you on the important work performed by noaa .
▶ 0:36:25Dr. Jacobs: My heart goes out to those who lost loved ones in the devastating texas floods. As a parent with two kids in summer camp right now, I cannot imagine what those grieving families are going through. Noaa has an important, unique mission that spans the seafloor to the sun's surface. Not only cutting edge ocean research, but lifesaving forecasts on a wide range of environment a phenomenon.
▶ 0:36:52Dr. Jacobs: I served as assistant secretary for environmental observation and prediction and later as acting undersecretary for oceans and atmospheres. During that time, I gained significant experience and understanding noaa' us operations and develop a deep appreciation for the workforce. Issuing forecasts, managing facebook, mapping or coast, launching satellites into space -- their dedication and professionalism is unparalleled.
▶ 0:37:19Dr. Jacobs: I have a very detailed understanding of what is involved in managing noaa, from the policy and personnel side to the need for innovative solutions. I previously let the agency effort to support scientific communities through a focused improvement to its external engagement strategy. This culminated in the earth prediction innovation center, which brings together scientific expertise from federal partners, world-class researchers, and the private sector.
▶ 0:37:48Dr. Jacobs: I also understand that to be successful, noaa must embrace new partnerships. In 2019, under my leadership, noaa unveiled a big data project where the public has greater access to all noaa data through partnerships with cloud service providers. Running a large agency with a public service mandate of protecting property during a pandemic is not something anyone could have been prepared to do.
▶ 0:38:14Dr. Jacobs: Under my leadership, noaa rapidly adapted operational protocols and accelerated onboarding of new technology like virtual environments for daily meetings, autonomous vehicles for acoustic surveys. Despite the pandemic, noaa successfully met mission requirements, including saving countless lives during the 2020 hurricane season, which had 30 named storms, 11 U.S. land falls, shattering a record that had stood for over a hundred years. If confirmed, one of my priorities is to return U.S.
▶ 0:38:43Dr. Jacobs: To the world leader in forecast modeling capability. As a matter of public safety, national security, and national pride, we will restore american technological superiority with this vital service for our country and military serving around the world. This will require new technologies, novel approaches, and partnerships with industry to advance local observing systems. Reducing the seafood trade deficit is also a top priority. The U.S.
▶ 0:39:11Dr. Jacobs: Has an estimated $20 billion trade deficit in seafood, much of it due to unfair trade practices and import of aquaculture seafood which is often mislabeled, and the lack of domestic processing capacity. In addition to promoting the sale of U.S. fish products, and bracing new technologies and science-based approach stock assessments will benefit U.S. commercial fishing agency and the recreational fishing community.
▶ 0:39:40Dr. Jacobs: Leveling the playing field will also require cracking down on illegal and unregulated fishing. While advancing numerical weather prediction's tone in my career, the ocean is where I am most at home, whether I am fishing, diving, or surfing. I began as a marine electronics technician and spent the last 30 years guiding recreational saltwater anglers.
▶ 0:40:03Dr. Jacobs: I have a unique appreciation for the maritime industry and extensive knowledge of coastal marine fisheries spinning carolinas to the florida keys. If confirmed, it would be a tremendous honor to lead such a distinguished organization. I can assure the committee that I will do my best to ensure this team of scientists, engineers, forecasters, and uniformed officers have the resources and leadership needed to fulfill their mission of science, service, and stewardship.
▶ 0:40:31Dr. Jacobs: I would like to thank my family and friends for their support and encouragement along the way. I would also like to thank the amazing people of noaa for their dedication and service, and for sharing their knowledge and passion with me during my previous tenure. Mr. chairman, ranking member cantwell, and memos of the committee, thank you again for the opportunity to be here.
▶ 0:40:52Chair Cruz: Thank you, Dr. jacobs. Mr. jordan, you are recognized.
▶ 0:40:57Mr. Jordan: Chairman cruz, ranking number cantwell, and member's of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to appear. I'm honored to be nominated for the position of assistant secretary of commerce for environmental observation and prediction by president trump, and I want to thank sec. Lutnick, who supported my nomination. If I have the honor of being confirmed, I look forward to working with all of you on the areas of observation, data, and forecasting.
▶ 0:41:25Mr. Jordan: I would also like to thank and recognize my fiancé and my family, watching from texas. My mother, cindy jordan, and her husband, scott wright, as well as my father, jean jordan, my brother christopher, and his family. As a born and raised texas -- texan, I have a fascination with whether I grew up in longview, east texas, which is seen tornadoes, straight-line winds, hail, lightning strikes.
▶ 0:41:52Mr. Jordan: As a kid, every time the sirens would go off, my father would first go outside and look up at the sky, which might be a uniquely texan behavior. I would head to my parents closet for protection. I would also like to take a moment to mention the floods in texas this past weekend. As a texan, this hits close to home as a tragic reminder that weather effects happen every day.
▶ 0:42:19Mr. Jordan: I will work closely with the secretary of commerce and the no administrator to ensure the national weather service continues to provide weather forecasts that keep americans out of harm's way. Collectively, I have had the privilege of working on noaa issues for the last 14 years, and from three distinct vantage points -- in congress, at noaa, and in the private sector. After graduating from the university of texas, had an intern with the house committee on science, space, and technology. I worked under chairman ralph hall and then chairman smith.
▶ 0:42:52Mr. Jordan: On the committee, I learned about noah's mission and how the weather forecasting resulted in the sirens I always heard growing up, and the forecast for the severe storm started with noah. -- noaa. I spent seven years on the house committee. I was the lead author of the weather forecasting and innovation act, also known as the weather act.
▶ 0:43:14Mr. Jordan: That bill was the first piece of major weather-related legislation in decades, and gave noaa tools to better achieve its mission of protecting lives and property. Many of the authorizations are still operating today and I look forward to working with this committee to reauthorize this important piece of legislation. I also had the privilege of serving as a senior policy advisor to the administrator from 2018 2020.
▶ 0:43:39Mr. Jordan: In this role, I oversaw ample mentation of the weather act, and worked closely with leadership and staff to provide accurate and timely weather forecasts. I also worked with line offices to help manage multibillion-dollar programs and acquisitions across the agency. Since 2021, I have worked in the private sector to advocate for programs and policies that support noaa' is mission and create many for partnerships.
▶ 0:44:05Mr. Jordan: I've worked with private companies that provide valuable weather data, contractors that provide technical and expert support services, scientists that contribute cutting edge knowledge for understanding of the earth, and many others that support noaa in various ways. Thanks to these experiences, I developed a deep appreciation for the mission and lifesaving information. Noaa operates in every state, forecasts for every location, and provides important and unique information across the country every day.
▶ 0:44:34Mr. Jordan: Noaa achieves this through extensive observing networks and infrastructure, dedicated scientists and forecasters, and public/private partnerships. Noaa relies on expertise from our robust american science and technology ecosystem -- private companies, contractors, academic, nonprofits, state, local, and tribal partners.
▶ 0:44:58Mr. Jordan: If confirmed, it will be a tremendous honor to help lead such a distinguished organization of scientists, engineers, forecasters, and uniformed officers. We will work closely with this committee to ensure accurate and timely weather forecasting to protect lives and property and safeguard the national economy. Mr. chairman, ranking member, members of the committee, thank you again for the opportunity to appear before you and to answer your questions.
▶ 0:45:23Chair Cruz: Thank you. Mr. kumar?
▶ 0:45:25Mr. Kumar: Chairman cruz, ranking member cantwell, and distinguished members of the senate commerce committee, I am honored to appear before you today is the nominee to serve as assistant secretary of commerce for legislative and intergovernmental affairs. I am deeply grateful to president trump for my nomination, to sec. Lutnick for his leadership of the department, and to this committee for its consideration of my nomination.
▶ 0:45:56Mr. Kumar: Before I begin, I want to express my deepest gratitude to those joining me here today, including my parents, whose unwavering support and example have profoundly shaped my commitment to public service, and my better half, whose love, encouragement, and support have been my foundation throughout this journey. I am a native texan who grew up in the southeast texas town of beaumont.
▶ 0:46:25Mr. Kumar: I was fortunate to be raised in a community that taught me the value of hard work, determination, and service, and I am grateful to have the support of countless family and friends who have helped shape my journey to this point. My heart remains with my home state, and to all those affected in the wake of last weekend's tragic events. I come before you filled with both humility and a strong sense of purpose.
▶ 0:46:52Mr. Kumar: I believe my accumulated experience, including my prior work and legislative affairs at the department of commerce during president trump's first term, and as a staffer in this body, will serve me well and faithfully executing the responsibilities of the assistant secretary position.
▶ 0:47:09Mr. Kumar: In previous roles across both the legislative and executive branches, I have worked to build bipartisan consensus, navigate complex environments, and strengthen the relationship between government and the communities it serves. If confirmed, I will bring that same approach to the assistant secretary role, grounded in transparency, responsiveness, and collaboration.
▶ 0:47:37Mr. Kumar: The office of legislative and intergovernmental affairs plays a vital role in connecting the department's work with congress, state and local governments, and tribal partners. If confirmed, I will focus on three key priorities. Number one, kindly responsiveness, prioritizing clear, proactive communication with members of congress and their staff.
▶ 0:48:00Mr. Kumar: Number two, intergovernmental partnership, deepening coordination with governors, mayors, and tribal leaders, to ensure the opportunities and challenges facing communities are understood by the commerce department. And number three, bipartisan collaboration, working across the aisle to achieve the goals shared by all americans, such as economic growth, revitalizing U.S. manufacturing, and protecting american innovation. Across the department's diverse mission, from supporting U.S.
▶ 0:48:30Mr. Kumar: Exporters and small businesses to safeguarding critical supply chains and/or our domestic seafood industry, success depends on strong relationships. I believe that effective public policy is built through engagement, trust, and shared accountability. If confirmed, I will work to ensure that the commerce department is a reliable partner to congress and to governments at every level. In closing, I am deeply grateful for the committee' is consideration of my nomination.
▶ 0:48:59Mr. Kumar: I wholeheartedly leave in the mission of the department of commerce, which is to create the conditions for economic growth and opportunity for all communities. I look forward to working closely with members of this committee to strengthen that mission. Thank you, and I look forward to your questions.
▶ 0:49:18Chair Cruz: Thank you very much. Dr. jacobs, let's start with you. You and I discussed at length yesterday the flooding that occurred in texas, and the tragedy that unfolded. As the head of noaa, which oversees the national weather service, if confirmed, what will you do to better ensure that americans are aware of and able to respond to emergency weather warnings, especially those that arrive in the middle of the
▶ 0:49:49Chair Cruz: Night.
▶ 0:49:50Dr. Jacobs: Thank you for the question. As I said in my opening statement, weather prediction is a top priority. The weather service did a great job. But there is a lot of things I would love to improve. Obviously, weather forecasting being one of them. I would also love to advance and modernize noaa weather radio. It saved my life in 1996.
▶ 0:50:19Dr. Jacobs: There are other things we can do as far as communications. As you said, even if the forecast is perfect, getting the to people, particularly in late hours of the night, is a challenge. I think we could do more advancements moving away from copper wire and toward potentially satellite. We also need more data in doing storm assessments.
▶ 0:50:47Dr. Jacobs: One of the things I have envisioned, because I have worked on several aviation accidents with ntsb, is something along the lines of what they do with weather disasters. We need the data to understand what went right, what went wrong. If other people got the warnings, and if they did, -- and if they did get the warnings, did they not understand them.
▶ 0:51:08Chair Cruz: You mentioned that noaa weather radio saved her life. What happened?
▶ 0:51:14Dr. Jacobs: I was at a campsite in florida with some friends and they issued a tornado alert. It was about 10:00 p.m., and this was back before I had a cell phone or smartphone. I took out a disaster -- gazetter and looked at the towns along the way and extrapolated the direction, which is where we were. I drove around the campsite yelling my heart out and told us many people as I could to leave. Everyone left.
▶ 0:51:42Dr. Jacobs: We went further down the coast to a hospital, the emergency room, because it was the closest building. When we went back to the campsite, it was nothing but bare dirt.
▶ 0:51:54Chair Cruz: In 2017, hurricane harvey devastated entire communities all up and down texas's gulf coast. The damage to our state was well over $120 billion, and may prove to be closer to $180 billion, when all is said and done. Texans prepare for hurricanes and flooding by using noaa's weather forecasts.
▶ 0:52:23Chair Cruz: But european numeric weather prediction models have been outperforming U.S. models and forecasting. The question for both Dr. jacobs and Mr. jordan -- if confirmed, how do you plan to close the gap and ensure that the forecasts are the best in the world?
▶ 0:52:38Dr. Jacobs: Closing the gap is going to require a mix of collecting more, better observations, because these problems all start from better observations -- and then data assimilation. A joint effort. One of the reasons the europeans have a better model than the U.S. is the use a four dimensional data simulation. The U.S.
▶ 0:53:02Dr. Jacobs: Needs to advance its data simulation where it can consolidate its model systems across time and space.
▶ 0:53:10Mr. Jordan: I agree with Dr. jacobs. Of the pillars of creating a weather forecast, you have model development, you have observations, you have data assimilation, and you have the ability to route the forecasts. As observation goes, we need to push the technology stack forward and ingest new sources of data.
▶ 0:53:36Mr. Jordan: The europeans also have the same data, so what is the difference between the american modeling in the european modeling? Part of it is model code development, data simulation. I think we need a targeted investment into data assimilation to ensure we can push the model forward and have a better forecast.
▶ 0:53:54Chair Cruz: Dr. jacobs, one of the things you and I talked about yesterday was your vision for expanding cloud computing for weather forecasting. Can you describe what you envision there?
▶ 0:54:07Dr. Jacobs: Sure. One of the things that I think would be a tremendous leap forward for the national weather service is the system they process the information on. They have to download the data locally in the higher resolution files get, the longer it takes them to get that information. That is one issue. The other issue is they have to be behind the computer to do this part.
▶ 0:54:36Dr. Jacobs: I think transitioning the software to the cloud so they are actually uploading the code instead of downloading the data, as well as having the ability to have laptops so they can access it from anywhere -- not only improves their ability to get the data faster, but it would allow a forecaster from anywhere to do a forecast for anywhere.
▶ 0:54:55Chair Cruz: You were saying this would enable forecasters from the national weather service to embed in an emergency operation center and be right on the ground in texas?
▶ 0:55:03Dr. Jacobs: Correct. They could literally work from anywhere. Embedding in the emergency management centers, particularly during major weather events, would really make a difference.
▶ 0:55:15Chair Cruz: It is an ongoing problem, particularly in south texas, dealing with illegal next room and fishman -- illegal mexican fishermen illegally fishing red snapper. The coast guard fights it. The federal government fights against it. It is paid for by mexican drug cartels in many instances. What more can noaa do to combat the problem of illegal fishing in texas?
▶ 0:55:42Dr. Jacobs: I appreciate the question. Fishing is another top priority of mine. As you know, just recently, 40 tons of red snapper were seized by a court in brazil that were headed toward the U.S., as well as this last april, around 700 pounds of red snapper was seized just off of brownsville from mexican fishermen that were illegally fishing in U.S. waters.
▶ 0:56:07Dr. Jacobs: I think it is a mix of new technology -- there are ways, when these boats turn off their transponders, to track them through satellites. I also think it is combating -- using the seafood inspection monitoring program, beefing that up, looking at it potentially not just for fishing, but like aquaculture things like shrimp that are brought into the U.S. almost all of that shrimp is mislabeled.
▶ 0:56:37Dr. Jacobs: Understanding the origins of the seafood.
▶ 0:56:38Chair Cruz: Thank you very much. Ranking number cantwell?
▶ 0:56:42Sen. Cantwell: Thank you, Mr. chairman. Following up on your line of questioning, since you approached this -- certainly, Dr. jacobs, as I mentioned in my opening statement, I'm concerned about 27% budget cuts, particularly the atmospheric the oceanic and atmospheric research organization itself. And the people.
▶ 0:57:06Sen. Cantwell: To get this right, following on senator cruz's questioning -- we had a less tragic event, but a tragic event, out on the olympic peninsula. There were like, you don't need a doppler. We were like, yes, we do. We have a mountain range blocking the information. The weather service said no you don't. We had a 100 year event that killed people, did unbelievable damage.
▶ 0:57:36Sen. Cantwell: All of a sudden, we are going to help you. We still have a community that -- we have information. But every day, we have the threat of a tsunami. We built a tower. That is it. There's no real coordination. The bottom line is we have beautiful places around the united states of america, and people want to go visit them and live there. And they do. But guess what? They are not the most resourced communities in our country.
▶ 0:58:07Sen. Cantwell: Then, the question becomes, what do we do to provide the emergency response -- whether it is fire or hurricane or tsunami, or tornado? What do we do? You mentioned the radio, and I want to get to that communication, but I want to start with just the basic research. At that same event when we got the doppler, we got the tower, they said, now were done, right? We are not done. Why is that?
▶ 0:58:37Sen. Cantwell: Because every particle in a storm is its own algorithm, and we could be computing this and we could tell you two weeks in advance what the storm is likely to do, if we put in a supercomputer. I have no idea why in heck our nation lets the european model get ahead of us. I have no idea why we do this when all we need to do is you senator blackburn's suit -- supercomputing time at the national lab and put resources behind it. Let's start with that.
▶ 0:59:09Sen. Cantwell: Should we be putting more resources into supercomputing time so we can predict storms further out?
▶ 0:59:15Dr. Jacobs: Well, obviously, high performance supercomputer -- these algorithms need a lot of it. One of the priorities of mine is advancing numerical weather prediction. But one of the reasons why the american model is lagging the european model is not just lack of commute, but the code was not architected to run on certain computers.
▶ 0:59:41Dr. Jacobs: I'm not letting some meals out code us. I represent seattle. This is all doable. This is about whether we have the resources and the investment. I would say let's make the investment. And you agree is what I'm try to get at. You agree. Let's put the investment into this.
▶ 1:00:01Dr. Jacobs: Cloud-based high-performance computing is critically important. Another thing I would like to point out is once we transition that code to architectures that industry could run, now we have private industry investing in the same code.
▶ 1:00:16Dr. Jacobs: I am all for that, but I want you to maintain your role. And I think the difference here -- and we do that. The university of washington has planned for an eventual tsunami more than anybody has, but it comes to the second point, which I want to drill down on real we are having this problem now with not having the forecasters.
▶ 1:00:40Dr. Jacobs: The fire situation I mentioned -- we woke up one day and the meteorologist said, I'm in seattle, and this is -- there is a totally different picture. Central washington, where they have a meteorologist in that region on the ground, predicted something else. People went out and they died. The fire was too volatile in the high winds.
▶ 1:01:08Dr. Jacobs: So we have been a big believer in having that local meteorologist and having that coordination when you know what a weather event is going to be. I'm not suggesting that this be dealt with regionally. I want to clarify this. This is what is going on now when we shortchange resources, and I do not want the fire season to be shortchanged.
▶ 1:01:37Dr. Jacobs: It can spin up in dramatic form and we need the accuracy. In the last thing is I want to see, I hope, even all my experiences, and also -- we have had a lot of national disasters -- natural disasters in the state of washington. There is weather event information that could have put data out to the community.
▶ 1:02:03Dr. Jacobs: The point is, somewhere we all collectively have to come to a conclusion about what we are going to do when we have massive populations in communities that you actually have to have an implementation plan. Whose responsibility is that implementation plan?
▶ 1:02:24Dr. Jacobs: We see it all the time because the gap -- noaa says I'm going to give you the information, and then it is a rural community that cannot process it. University of washington is filling that gap what can we do, now that we have had 27 extreme events this year? What can we do to help communities get better plans?
▶ 1:02:45Dr. Jacobs: Going back to your weather service question, if confirmed, I will ensure that staffing levels are a top priority. It is really important for the people to be there, because they have relationships with the people in the local community. They are a trusted source. I did not mean to imply this was going to be regionalized. As I mentioned --
▶ 1:03:10Dr. Jacobs: Some people have suggested that. Private sector, one location. Try to get to this point of the regional data and integration with the emergency responders.
▶ 1:03:21Dr. Jacobs: Consolidating the data, not consolidating the people. I would love for the people to be more embedded in the community.
▶ 1:03:29Dr. Jacobs: Thank you for that answer. Can you tell me about stock assessment, salmon, your commitment to that?
▶ 1:03:38Dr. Jacobs: Stock assessment is a huge priority of mine. If confirmed, I will do everything I can to get them back on track. I realize it is a sensitive issue because we have the quote is set from stock assessment data. Without that, the fisherman cannot fish. It is a very important priority. Pacific salmon, obviously critical to the culture and the economy. It has my support.
▶ 1:04:09Dr. Jacobs: If confirmed, I would welcome the opportunity to navigate this.
▶ 1:04:14Chair Cruz: Senator moran?
▶ 1:04:17Sen. Moran: Thank you. Kansas, we are all glued to the television, watching the news, watching what transpired in texas with great concern and sympathy. I share that with my fellow kansans. We are not immune from significant weather events ourselves. One of those weather events, Dr. jacobs and Mr. jordan, occurred in kansas about a month ago. It was an ef three tornado.
▶ 1:04:47Sen. Moran: When that occurred, the weather forecast offices in kansas, some of them lack 24/seven coverage, given hiring freezes. I worked with noah and the department of commerce to lift that freeze for meteorologists and other specialists to ensure uninterrupted service.
▶ 1:05:06Sen. Moran: A community in kansas on the colorado line, the western part of our state, was short neurologists because of the hiring freeze, and were bringing in or attempting to bring in other meteorologists from other national weather service stations, forecast offices. I am pleased the freeze have been -- has been lifted. Today's politico magazine has an article that none of those positions of been posted yet for hiring.
▶ 1:05:37Sen. Moran: I don't know the veracity of that article, but can you bring any light to that, from your past experience? What needs to take place once the hiring freeze is lifted? The positions are not yet filled.
▶ 1:05:51Dr. Jacobs: I don't know the exact details because I'm not there yet. I appreciate you advocating to lift the hiring freeze and getting that done. I also appreciate your legislation to classify them as public safety. It is not a very quick process, but it is my understanding that the national weather service has direct hiring authority which could expedite that. And also, the potential to relocate people.
▶ 1:06:18Dr. Jacobs: If confirmed, like I said, getting these offices staffed up would be a top priority. Several moran if you see -- Sen.
▶ 1:06:27Moran: If you see an opportunity for those on this committee are in the appropriations process to speed this along, please let me know. I was going to highlight what you already mentioned -- we have introduced legislation, as you mention. I appreciate your statement of support. Thank you. What could you tell me about the technology and capabilities?
▶ 1:06:53Moran: We have for weather forecast offices in kansas -- topeka, one in wichita. What I expect that they would have the best technologies that are available and utilized across the country? Or is there something different about rural kansas, rural america, that would diminish the capabilities that are forecasters have because of technology?
▶ 1:07:15Dr. Jacobs: I don't believe there is anything unique to your region that would limit the technologies or capabilities. My hope is that a lot of these technologies that would advance this are not just nationwide, but global. As we transition to a larger scale model, the modeling system to lengthen the forecast horizon, we are going to need these technologies collecting data worldwide.
▶ 1:07:42Sen. Moran: In light of what has transpired on a number of occasions, I want to make certain that all national forecast centers have the latest and best technologies. I would work with you and noaa to achieve that. We are also interested in noaa and nws radars that are nearing the end of their life. Several efforts are underway to recapitalize the system, including next-generation radar.
▶ 1:08:12Sen. Moran: In addition, the hurricane hunter aircraft are essential tools for preparation for and preparing for severe weather, and are in need of significant maintenance, repair, and overhaul and replacement. Would you plan as no administrator to ensure these critical instruments are upgraded and replaced?
▶ 1:08:34Dr. Jacobs: Yes.
▶ 1:08:36Sen. Moran: Mr. kumar, you have had no questions this morning. You must be a good bridge builder. I noticed your alma mater is two universities in the state of texas that are not necessarily friendly to each other, so look forward to using those circumstances to allow congress and the administration to work well together and republicans and democrats to reach good conclusions.
▶ 1:09:04Sen. Moran: The department of commerce, including noah, has not completed its spend plan this current fiscal year, last year's fiscal year, so the appropriators do not have the data that is required by law for the department of congress to provide us. And I would encourage you, if confirmed, to see if you can make that happen. It is useful for us in our oversight, but also in helping make decisions to coordinate investments. What is taking place at the department?
▶ 1:09:34Sen. Moran: Would you commit to me that you would see that the department of commerce, including noaa, follows the law, in the spend plan has the detail that is required by law, provided the appropriations committee?
▶ 1:09:49Mr. Kumar: Thank you for the question, senator. Yes, I understand fully the importance of spend plans, and if confirmed, I will make sure to work with you and your office to make sure that you'll are -- y'all are given the information that is requested.
▶ 1:10:07Chair Cruz: Thank you. >> chairman, I want to start by expressing my deep sadness for the tragedy in texas. Just really horrific. I am a parent of a seven-year-old and nine-year-old , little kids going to camp this summer. I know so many parents and families are just so heartbroken and feel shattered by what has happened.
▶ 1:10:36Chair Cruz: And I express the urgency of trying to figure out not only how we can better predict and have an early warning system, but how to get that information to people as quickly as possible. I home state in new jersey, we suffered from superstorm sandy, hurricane ida. Dr. jacobs, you and I talked about this briefly.
▶ 1:10:58Chair Cruz: Building on what you talk to the chairman and others about, these early warning systems, there has been talked about even just using sirens similar to what we have done for tornadoes in this country. As far as I know, we don't -- do you know of any usage of sirens when it comes to flooding in the united states at this point? Not to my knowledge -- Dr.
▶ 1:11:20Jacobs: Not to my knowledge, but I know some systems deployed in spain and france essentially network a flow meter to a siren, and if the flow rate exceeds a certain amount, it triggers a siren. Depending on where the upstream rainfalls and the rate of rain, it does not give you a lot of lead time, but it is better than nothing.
▶ 1:11:41Sen. Kim: Even a few minutes can make a huge difference. Is that something you would work with us here in congress to think through, and figure out how best to be able to deploy some of this?
▶ 1:11:52Dr. Jacobs: Absolutely.
▶ 1:11:55Sen. Kim: Another part of this, in terms of being able to understand where flooding might happen and what communities are most vulnerable is about hydrological modeling. I worry about this, because in new jersey, we have had concerns about whether or not we are up-to-date with the latest modeling. A lot of the models we have seen sometimes use outdated data from decades ago. There has been talk about trying to invest in lidar technology.
▶ 1:12:26Sen. Kim: I would like to get your thoughts on that, as well as whether or not that is something for the federal government to be able to take on.
▶ 1:12:31Dr. Jacobs: I agree. I believe this is a federal mission. A lot of it right now, capability is state estate. So some states have more significant data and flood mapping than others. Hydrological modeling is extremely challenging and technical because you are essentially using one model to initialize another.
▶ 1:12:52Dr. Jacobs: So the hydrological model could be perfect in its equations, and if the atmospheric model puts it -- puts the rainstorm in the wrong place, the secondary model is not going to be right. So that is critical. But the hydrological models, to be successful, need the most updated digital elevation, and the only way I know to get that data as accurate as possible is through lidar.
▶ 1:13:17Dr. Jacobs: So I think having access to lidar data to optimize that, and having a nationwide flood map capability, would be very good.
▶ 1:13:26Sen. Kim: Does not make sense to me that we would have each state do its own. It would create such asymmetry in the data. You would like baseline federal hydrological data to draw from. Am I thinking about it right?
▶ 1:13:40Dr. Jacobs: It does make sense. If the capability stops at the state border but the roads don't, and you need to deploy assets on the other side of the state border, you need to actually have that information.
▶ 1:13:54Sen. Kim: Especially when it comes to hurricanes often affecting multiple states simultaneously. My correct that we do not necessarily have modeling that combines both the forecasting for hurricanes as well with the hydrological data? We don't have modeling that combines the two, which seems like that would be incredibly important. Is that correct?
▶ 1:14:14Dr. Jacobs: It is. I will florence that made landfall in the carolinas a few years ago. It put down almost 36 inches of rain but also was in one place almost three days and so you have that storm surge and the water from the rain can't drain east because the winds are pushing it west. Those two models need to be coupled.
▶ 1:14:39Sen. Kim: I would like to read a sentence here and get your thoughts on it. "it is extremely likely that human activities, especially emissions of greenhouse gases, are the dominant cause of the warming since the mid-20th century for the warming of the last century, there is no convincing alternative explanation supported by the extent of the observational evidence." I just wanted to get your thoughts if you agree with that statement or not.
▶ 1:15:08Dr. Jacobs: There's a lot of natural signals that are mixed in there so in the absence of unique natural signals that might dominate that, yes, sir, there is human influence.
▶ 1:15:18Sen. Kim: You see human influence being part of the concern when it comes to climate change, extreme weather?
▶ 1:15:25Dr. Jacobs: Yes, there is influence.
▶ 1:15:28Sen. Kim: It is important for us to think that through because as we are trying to assess predictions and trying to do forecast, it is important understand causality. We are trying to understand what is causing the warming of ocean temperatures that affect hurricane strength and other aspects. I just want to continue to make sure we are pushing this forward, letting science drive our decision-making in so many ways. I hope that is something you can commit to if you are confirmed. Thank you.
▶ 1:15:58Sen. Cantwell: Center blackout, are recognized. Civil blackwell thank you and congratulations to each of you on your nominations. I know you will get through this process and we look forward to having you confirmed and getting hard to work for the american people. Mr. jordan, I want to come to you.
▶ 1:16:28Sen. Cantwell: Senator cantwell mentioned the national lab. The supercomputing capacity, the fastest in the country. And of course noaa and oak ridge have had a partnership that they have been working on that trying to do some modeling on predictions for disasters and severe weather event.
▶ 1:16:57Sen. Cantwell: I think these collaborations are important for the american people and for helping us to come past some of these extreme weather events and to be able to avoid some of the catastrophes that we have seen. We all have -- are grieving for those families in texas.
▶ 1:17:27Sen. Cantwell: What a catastrophic loss. Late september last year when hurricane helene stalled out between north carolina and tennessee and we had eight counties in tennessee -- we had rivers cresting as high as 29 feet. 20 feet. 19 feet. 15 feet. And tremendous loss of life.
▶ 1:17:59Sen. Cantwell: We are still reeling. The rebuilding is taking place. Debris removal is still taking place. So the impact is felt for years and years. It takes so much time to recover. So I want to return to some of these partnerships that can help us.
▶ 1:18:24Sen. Cantwell: I would like for you to talk a little bit about how you would prioritize partnerships like the one between noaa and oak ridge national labs so that we are better able to predict what is taking place.
▶ 1:18:44Mr. Jordan: I believe the partnership with oak ridge and noaa is a very important one. I look forward to working with you and the committee and noaa to strengthen that partnership so that we can utilize the expertise at oak ridge to run our models, do the research, to make sure we have the best forecast and then again as you were mentioning, push that information to local decision-makers to take action.
▶ 1:19:12Sen. Blackburn: Drill down for a minute on that data transfer to these local ems, these local first responders. They are always the first ones that show up. It is followed by the state and then followed by the federal government. But drill down on that partnership.
▶ 1:19:36Mr. Jordan: Thank you for that. It is important to get as close as possible to the local emergency managers and in some instances the weather service employees in bed with emergency managers because they have the local expertise to know specifics of topography and how things can be affected.
▶ 1:19:54Sen. Blackburn: You would encourage that? Dr. jacobs, I want to come to you. Memphis, the lower mississippi river is the lifeblood of barge traffic, import commerce, not only tennessee but also the entire midsouth. The mississippi river area.
▶ 1:20:16Sen. Blackburn: How would you ensure noaa's forecasting tools for river navigation services and data such as water level forecast sediment mapping, navigation charts so that they are supporting the needs of the ports and the barge operators in the lower mississippi river?
▶ 1:20:40Dr. Jacobs: Thank you for the question. The ocean service does an amazing job with airports program as well as -- with their sports programs as well is running models. The water models for this. There's a lot of development on coastal model as well as the cap sensors. -- gap sensors. I use their information for my boat. A very high priority.
▶ 1:21:11Sen. Blackburn: We wrote to recognize the critical role of undersea cables. And their necessity in our communications infrastructure. The cables undergo rigorous state and federal permitting as you are well aware and they have proven time and again to have a minimal environmental footprint.
▶ 1:21:40Sen. Blackburn: In response to those concerns, noaa instituted a two year on special use permits for submarine cables in newly designated marine sanctuaries so that it could review the category.
▶ 1:21:57Sen. Blackburn: In line with this administration's efforts to streamline permitting, do you agree that noaa should permanently exempt undersea cabled deployment maintenance and repair from duplicative sanctuary specific permitting requirements that risk delaying infrastructure deployment and undermining our national resilience?
▶ 1:22:24Dr. Jacobs: Thank you for the question. Because I am not there, I don't have access to that information but if confirmed, I would definitely love to learn more about it and support the priorities as best I can. >> I now recognize myself. First of all, thank you so much to the nominees for being here and your families we had Dr. jacob, great conversation yesterday.
▶ 1:22:51Dr. Jacobs: I did not share with you but I assume you know this. I represent delaware which is the lowest mean elevation state in the country. For us, we are deeply, deeply concerned about rising sea levels, inland flooding, and like the rest of the country, extreme heat. It doesn't appear these things are going away.
▶ 1:23:14Dr. Jacobs: To me it is vitally important, the conversation you had with senator kim about making sure this is science-based and that we recognize the impacts of climate change are a priority. As I did share, I am concerned about cuts to noaa. Gutting noaa is a costly mistake that americans will pay the price through rising home insurance rates, destroyed communities, and in some cases, their lives.
▶ 1:23:46Dr. Jacobs: Again, I hope there is a real focus on this and that noaa gets the support it needs. As a ranking member of the coast guard maritime subcommittee, I understand the role that noaa place in safeguarding our marine ecosystems, supporting our coastal communities, and enforcing laws against illegal unreported and unregulated or iuu fishing. Right now noaa's capacity to do this is under serious threat.
▶ 1:24:16Dr. Jacobs: The office is currently short 180 mariners and without an exemption from the hiring freeze as was discussed, 30% of the research fleet will remain docked this summer. In a recent subcommittee hearing on iuu fishing, I asked the witnesses, democrats and republicans, with the impact of a 30% cut to noaa's enforcement would mean for tracking and prosecuting illegal activity on the high seas and the response is that all of them painted were
▶ 1:24:47Dr. Jacobs: Very bleak. Dr. jacobs, what is your plan to mitigate this loss of operational capacity and how will you ensure noaa can deliver on its scientific mission with such a reduced lead?
▶ 1:25:06Dr. Jacobs: I definitely understand your concerns and I think it is -- if confirmed, I will get in there and really take a look at the staffing levels because there is a difference between the wage mariners and the law enforcement when it comes to the iuu fishing. I also understand the issue with the wage mariners and not having the hiring freeze lift is challenging. Particularly in this market because it is so competitive with industry for the same jobs.
▶ 1:25:36Dr. Jacobs: My approach if confirmed would be to focus on making sure that we try to get the wage mariners situation sorted out as well is looking at other options -- potentially a tumnus vehicles to do certain -- autonomous vehicles to do certain things would.
▶ 1:25:57Sen. Blunt Rochester: Mr. kumar, as the nominee of the office of legislative affairs, you will serve as the primary liaison to congress. It is such an important role. One of your core functions is to ensure timely and substantive responses as we exercise our oversight role on behalf of the american people. I have to say I have been frustrated by the lack of response of letters that I have sent in the last six months.
▶ 1:26:28Sen. Blunt Rochester: I have sent letters to the secretary of commerce on a variety of topics from the implementation of the broadbent equity access deployment program to the abrupt restructuring of the minority business develop an agency but I have not received a substantive response yet. I am just going to ask, are you familiar with the letters that we sent to the department?
▶ 1:26:51Mr. Kumar: Thank you for the question. Yes, I am at a high level, yes.
▶ 1:26:58Sen. Blunt Rochester: A high level. I wanted to know, when you think I could receive a response or is this going to be a priority of your job?
▶ 1:27:06Mr. Kumar: Yes, if confirmed -- as I said in my opening statement, I understand fully the importance of timely information being provided back to the committee and its members. I know there is broad active litigation going on but even in those instances, I like to at least be able to communicate what we can and can't say on the matter and making sure you're getting information.
▶ 1:27:32Sen. Blunt Rochester: I brought the letters with me so I will give them to you afterwards because I would really love some substantive responses not the form letter response. I would love to follow up with you on that should you be confirmed. Dr.
▶ 1:27:46Sen. Blunt Rochester: Jacobs, just to pivot back to seafood fraud and mislabeling, I have some questions for you but what specific steps would you take to strengthen noaa's efforts to combat seafood fraud and what role should technology, interagency enforcement play in the efforts?
▶ 1:28:07Dr. Jacobs: As far as technology goes, one of the things that I found pretty interesting is a lot of these vessels and sometimes they are other nations will be fishing and they will turn off their transponders, come in illegally fish in our waters and go back out. You can see them on satellite imagery. So there is a way to trace them down and working potentially with the navy and coast guard on this I think would be great.
▶ 1:28:34Dr. Jacobs: As far as the actual import monitoring, one of the things I have been interested in is doing genetic analysis on certain seafood products because we can trace the origins.
▶ 1:28:45Sen. Blunt Rochester: I want to end with something we discussed in my office which was the sea grant program. I think it is a vitally important program, particularly for communities across this country, including U.S. port, puerto rico, guam. It is one of those things that really helps the communities. You talk about the big data.
▶ 1:29:09Sen. Blunt Rochester: If we have the data but people don't understand how they can apply it and use it, how it can help with economic development, how it can help with resiliency, making sure our communities are safe, it does us no good. In our meeting, I was pleased to hear you say this program is awesome. Those are your words, awesome.
▶ 1:29:29Sen. Blunt Rochester: So I am imploring you to make sure this program is protected because, again, it does so much for our local communities, for our business opportunities, and really to make sure folks are safe. I thank you for that. I am going to yield back time I self and I will follow-up with additional questions. I will now recognize sitter o.
▶ 1:29:55Sen. Capito: Thank you all for being here, your willingness to serve and I would like to start with Dr. jacobs will stop thank you for our meeting yesterday and our previous meetings in past years. We talked about noaa's computing center in the sec and fairmont, west virginia, at the tech park.
▶ 1:30:17Sen. Capito: As you know, that center received $100 million for the high-performance computer called -- noaa to support noaa's widespread adoption of ai. It is unique asset for noaa and broader adoption of ai. It houses a supercomputing operation with the high-performance computers. I like they are named female names.
▶ 1:30:46Sen. Capito: Raya -- I won't ask you to comment on that. It will be operational in 2026. What is your vision? We hear ai in every single aspect of testimony no matter what we are talking about whether it is finances or health care, whatever. We see this also at noaa. What is your vision for the institutionalization of ai at noaa and how would you use these assets I have referenced?
▶ 1:31:19Dr. Jacobs: Is glad to see to get installed and operational because the last time I was at noaa, we got half the data center built out. I think there's a lot of opportunity with ai. Everywhere from like improving some stock assessments and fisheries to also numerical weather prediction so right now there are ai-based models that just completely replicate the entire modeling system.
▶ 1:31:50Dr. Jacobs: They are trained on the physics-based models. There is also aspects of ai that can be used inside the physics-based models where the ai systems replicate some of these physical algorithms and the exciting thing to me is they can do it in a fraction of a second. Five years ago what would take 30, 40 minutes we can do now in a second or two.
▶ 1:32:17Dr. Jacobs: I think doing a lot of that development work, particularly on that system, it would be really good use.
▶ 1:32:24Sen. Capito: Do you feel noaa has the support to have a sufficient procurement process now to assess the quality data sets and improved data storage? We talked about going to the cloud and a lot of other things the other day. Do you feel the procurement system is going to allow noaa to move in this direction is rapidly as it needs to be?
▶ 1:32:46Sen. Capito: >> there is an interesting dynamic I think unfolding because a lot of the data that noaa has is sought after by private industry. The data that noaa is freely available to the public. But private industry may pay a cloud service provider to crunch the numbers.
▶ 1:33:09Sen. Capito: When we would process the data on an hpc system and then post it in a data center like a commercial cloud service provider, they are actually offering to host the data -- sometimes for free. And allow to pay for the egress, the download because they can also charge industry to process.
▶ 1:33:32Sen. Capito: So that gives you more flexibility. I would like to pivot to the storms in texas and the weather predicting an office the live in an area that has -- is prone to rapid flooding like that with the tragedy we see in texas, nothing like -- it is unimaginable for many of us. I think a lot of it, and I think the aftermath of community engagement, community warning systems -- how can that be improved?
▶ 1:34:05Sen. Capito: Not necessarily in that specific area simply because it is probably too early to assess that but generally speaking, there are still gaps and I think -- I am sure this is something that you think about, shared with me you have a nine-year-old and 11-year-old daughter I believe, so you are feeling this as well. Do you have any comments on that?
▶ 1:34:26Dr. Jacobs: So coming from the background of weather prediction, I always thought naively that if I could improve the forecast skill, I would say more lives. It turns out that it is really the last mile. Even if you have a perfect forecast, if you can't get the information to the people, it is totally useless.
▶ 1:34:47Dr. Jacobs: So having a way to distribute the watches and warnings and particularly in regions that don't have good cell coverage -- I think there is an opportunity to modernize noaa weather radio and also potentially look at some satellite capabilities. Data transmission. That wasn't really an option a couple of years ago. I think probably in all of the above approach and modernizing the way to distribute watches and warnings is something that is going to be a top priority of mine.
▶ 1:35:16Sen. Capito: Thank you.
▶ 1:35:17Sen. Blunt Rochester: Senator lujan.
▶ 1:35:22Sen. Lujan: To my brothers from texas, my deepest condolences for all that is happened and for all the lives that have been lost and families that have been impacted and to everyone that has been on the ground with all those first responders, other volunteers just helping those families. As my colleagues may know in new mexico yesterday, we arose at osa rose amid heavy rainfall.
▶ 1:35:55Sen. Lujan: Sweeping away homes in the flows. We have already lost loved ones out that way. This is an area that was also ravaged by wildfire not too long ago. As we have all had conversations about what needs to be done with fema and others, with wildfire come in the flooding that follows for years and years to follow.
▶ 1:36:18Sen. Lujan: Today we have witnesses that hope to serve at the national oceanic and atmospheric administration with noaa, which oversees the national weather service which provides critical forecasting data that americans rely on to protect their lives. We also know that emergency alert in the work of noaa and the national weather service does save lives. I appreciate your response to the question.
▶ 1:36:44Sen. Lujan: However, project 2025 has outlined a plan to commercialize the forecasting which would force american taxpayers to pay private companies to access the weather forecast. Dr. jacobs and Mr. jordan, yes or no, do you think americans should have to pay taxes forecasting data to protect the safety of their families and homes from natural disasters?
▶ 1:37:05Dr. Jacobs: No. I think that is an essential service that all americans deserve.
▶ 1:37:11Mr. Jordan: I agree, no.
▶ 1:37:13Sen. Lujan: Dr. jacobs, I sent a letter to the national weather service in late may along with several colleagues regarding the national weather service decision to discontinue translations of weather alerts and forecast into languages other than english. Those services have now been restored. This created a dangerous gap and access to emergency information for those nearly 60 8 million people in the united states that speak a language other than english at home.
▶ 1:37:41Sen. Lujan: You agree that people deserve to get emergency alerts in the language they can understand?
▶ 1:37:45Dr. Jacobs: Yes.
▶ 1:37:49Sen. Lujan: To commit to ensuring this lapse in translation doesn't happen again?
▶ 1:37:52Dr. Jacobs: If confirmed, making sure that the watches and warnings go out and they are understood is definitely a priority.
▶ 1:38:02Sen. Lujan: Appreciate that. September 1, 2019 when you were noaa's acting in a minister writer, president trump erroneously tweeted alabama had been hit hard by her came to rain after the national weather service birmingham office issued the kryst of an "alabama will not see any impacts from doreen." three days later, president trump went on tv and despite a weather map altered with a black sharpie line to show that it would hit alabama.
▶ 1:38:29Sen. Lujan: Two days after that, helped draft a release rebuking the birmingham nws repeating the baseless claims the hurricane could impact alabama. Were you told the department of office of inspector -- why you did not like it, you would make the same decision again to edit a less inflammatory statement as the least bad option.
▶ 1:38:59Sen. Lujan: Mr. jacobs or Dr. jacobs, do I have it right? Is that correct?
▶ 1:39:02Dr. Jacobs: That is what the that you would do nothing differently?
▶ 1:39:11Dr. Jacobs: There is probably some things I would do differently and a lot of things that I did after that I guess to change any potential future outcome.
▶ 1:39:21Sen. Lujan: I just had constituents diet new mexico, texas. Would you sign off on an inaccurate segment due to political pressure in the same event, yes or no?
▶ 1:39:34Dr. Jacobs: No.
▶ 1:39:37Sen. Lujan: I appreciate that very much. Mr. kumar, congress appropriated over $68 million for the most recent funding bill but now the secretary lutnick and the chubb administration have dismantled it, knowing the law passed in 2021. When jeopardy secretary bar was before this committee, he committed to "follow every dollar report back to this committee regarding the status of nbd a.
▶ 1:40:01Sen. Lujan: Of a letter here that I plan to send to the deputy secretary holding him to this commitment and asking a series of questions regarding mbda funds and grants. If confirmed, you will be responsible for overseeing the department's responses to congress, yes or no?
▶ 1:40:20Mr. Kumar: Yes.
▶ 1:40:26Sen. Lujan: Will you commit to me my colleagues and I will have the report deputy secretary jabbar promised regarding the status of mbda funds and complete answers to other questions within two weeks of your confirmation if not before?
▶ 1:40:36Mr. Kumar: If confirmed, I will go back to the deputy secretary on the letter you mentioned. So blue on we will get a response within two weeks?
▶ 1:40:47Mr. Kumar: I will make sure to get with him right away and try to provide as timely response as possible.
▶ 1:40:53Sen. Lujan: Less than two months?
▶ 1:40:56Mr. Kumar: I will do my best to get it in the stated timeline.
▶ 1:41:00Sen. Lujan: In less than six months?
▶ 1:41:03Mr. Kumar: I will do my best to get you in the stated timeline.
▶ 1:41:09Sen. Lujan: It is challenging when given an amount of time to respond timely when all of these witnesses take oaths they will respond timely to this committee but when we have extended that time a simple answer of yes is just cannot be found. It is frustrating. Thank you for the time. >> I recognize myself for five minutes.
▶ 1:41:31Sen. Lujan: I want to start by sending my condolences to the gym and from new mexico and our chairman from texas, both of whom have endured significant flooding and loss of life. Senator lujan, r condolences to you and your constituents. As well as senator cruz and his constituents. Such a tragedy.
▶ 1:42:08Sen. Lujan: Dr. jacobs and Mr. jordan, welcome. Mr. kumar, welcome. Your relevant expense and weather operations and atmospheric science policy is noted. Thank you for your willingness to serve. I look forward to your service for the american people at the national weather service. I come from wyoming. In wyoming, the weather is the news.
▶ 1:42:36Sen. Lujan: I'm also a rancher so the first thing we look at in the morning is the weather because it affects every move we make and that is true for a lot of people in wyoming, whether it is a closed road because it is icy, the weather turning for people who are recreating in wyoming, people who want to know what the snowpack is in jackson hole at the mountain resort.
▶ 1:43:05Sen. Lujan: When blizzards are rolling in and you might get trapped in your home if you don't get your vehicle out right away. These are all real life, every day occurrences for wyoming people. The weather is the news. I have been in tornadoes in wyoming, flooding, hail, wind, lightning. I know people who have been struck by lightning.
▶ 1:43:28Sen. Lujan: I remember dealing with -- I was laying with my brother in an irrigation ditch while it was raining really hard because while I was on the baler and he was on the windrow or, a tornado came in literally took the hay up into the air that we were trying to bale. So we are laying there getting hailed and trying to for the tornado.
▶ 1:43:58Sen. Lujan: That is life in wyoming with the weather. I want to talk to you specifically about how important national weather service is to wyoming. We have two major national weather service facilities. One is in riverton, which is in central wyoming, and the other in cheyenne, which is southeast. A decision was made to close overnight service in cheyenne and route evening coverage through riverton. So the closures from 1:00 a.m.-7:00 a.m.
▶ 1:44:30Sen. Lujan: I will want to visit with you after you are confirmed about this a little more. That is about 250-300 miles difference between riverton and cheyenne. It is as different as night and day as far as the weather experience. It would be extremely helpful if we could have a presence in that cheyenne weather service facility. We have almost 100,000 square miles.
▶ 1:45:00Sen. Lujan: Multiple mountain ranges, tremendous topographical and elevation differences. The weather conditions are very, very local. My sister can get hail on her farm and I'm just hunky-dory just 30 miles or 40 miles away from her. The weather is a significant factor in our economy and in our survival and in our health and well-being.
▶ 1:45:27Sen. Lujan: So I do want to work with you on the shy and riverton issue as well as other issues regarding the national weather service and its ability to serve the people of this country. Quick question now that I've been on my soapbox, what role do you see technology playing in addressing current forecasting challenges? And how would you balance the ability of technology to serve versus human forecasters?
▶ 1:45:58Sen. Lujan: Dr. jacobs?
▶ 1:45:59Dr. Jacobs: I have been to that office. One of the fascinating things that I had not thought of as a forecaster is one of their big concerns are high wind events. They are actually worried about 18 wheelers getting blown off the highway, which to me seems like pretty high wind.
▶ 1:46:19Sen. Lummis: I have seen them blow over on the interstate 25.
▶ 1:46:23Dr. Jacobs: To answer your question, I think the use of technology is probably a mix. Technology -- well, maybe like a three-pronged mix. Using new technology whether it is space-based or drums to collect observations to build a data set is going to improve the models, then a lot of computer architecture, cpu's promise phased out, we are looking at gpu's now and other types of
▶ 1:46:54Dr. Jacobs: Chips using ai. And on the back end as we have been discussing, using different types of technologies and capabilities to more rapidly and effectively distribute the watches and warnings.
▶ 1:47:06Sen. Lummis: Mr. jordan, do you have a comment?
▶ 1:47:08Mr. Jordan: Thank you for the question. I would agree with Dr. jacobs but also want to mention in addition to technology and move next-generation technologies into the stack of what we use for weather forecast is important and technologies like ai are going to help the forecasters do their jobs. The people in the offices at the local level understand how wacky the weather can be sometimes is extremely important.
▶ 1:47:33Sen. Lummis: Wacky is right. It is both scientific and real-life term that we all understand. So if confirmed, I would ask you would review the national weather service arrangements in wyoming from a weather accuracy and safety standpoint. I want to thank you for meeting with my staff yesterday. I look forward to working with you all and my time is up. Thank you very much.
▶ 1:47:59Sen. Lummis: The chair recognizes senator klobuchar.
▶ 1:48:03Sen. Klobuchar: Thank you very much, madam chair, and thank you to my colleagues here. We are heartbroken over the loss of life. The kids at the camps come the people in the senator cruz's and senator lujan's state. I think we all know this is not an isolated incident. We could pretend it is but it is not. Extreme weather events like this one have been getting worse and worse all over our country.
▶ 1:48:32Sen. Klobuchar: And we must ensure that noaa -- this hearing could not be more timely and the department of commerce as a whole is ready and able to take this on. As we know and has been repeated by my colleagues, noaa is lost elite 1875 employees, and now has over 3000 vacant staff positions at the very worst
▶ 1:49:03Sen. Klobuchar: Time. I know Dr. jacobs, responded to senator cantwell's questions about confirming that staffing is a priority at the national weather service. In may, noaa started reassigning employees and if confirmed, we make sure these employees have the necessary technical expertise and how do you plan to recruit additional employees when the message from this administration, honestly, has been, please, leave?
▶ 1:49:31Sen. Klobuchar: We will give you buyouts, we want you to leave. How are you going to turn that around?
▶ 1:49:40Dr. Jacobs: I guess maybe it is a multipronged approach. Obviously, one of them would be the reassignments, lifting of the hiring freezes is certainly going to help. As far as recruiting, I am optimistic as a former teacher of a lot of former students of mine who are weather service employees now. I can appeal to their sense of mission. That this is important.
▶ 1:50:08Dr. Jacobs: Like, ensuring that americans have timely and accurate forecast to protect lives and property is something that appeals to people. This is why they go into study meteorology.
▶ 1:50:21Sen. Cantwell: --
▶ 1:50:27Sen. Klobuchar: We address the strongest terms that we know our scientific-backed, warming client -- clement possibly advocate against attempts to limit information sharing on the impacts of climate? I don't know how we are going to respond to the storms if we pretend it is not happening.
▶ 1:50:49Mr. Jordan: I would let the science drive it.
▶ 1:50:53Sen. Klobuchar: Thank you. How you ensure that noaa is able to maintain and improve its extensive observing networks and infrastructure that you mentioned in your testimony?
▶ 1:51:03Mr. Jordan: Thank you for the question. In the planning of these major acquisitions, these observing networks, these are large-scale items that span many fiscal years. It is important to ensure that we don't have gaps in the systems or satellites and likewise so working with the department and in congress here to ensure there is funding to continue this programs.
▶ 1:51:29Sen. Klobuchar: When I first got to the senate, was on the ocean subcommittee most of Dr. jacobs, I realized I was the only one without an ocean on the subcommittee but then I remembered it also included the great lakes and we have lake superior, which is of course superior. Janie ocean. -- to any ocean. We have incredible research going on with our great lakes observing center in duluth. We have incredible research going on through the minnesota sea grant and education.
▶ 1:51:58Sen. Klobuchar: I want people to remember the inland lakes, we have more than 10,000 despite our license plate -- we have 15,000 read we have lake superior. This research is also important. You address that and what he will support the continuation of these inland sea grant?
▶ 1:52:14Dr. Jacobs: The legs are a big driver in weather, like effect snow and things like that and also I know the harmful algorithms just the algorithms are important for the folks on the legs continuing that research obviously if confirmed is a very high priority.
▶ 1:52:31Sen. Klobuchar: Mr. kumar, like many of my colleagues, I've addressed letters specifically representing clyburn and senator lujan had a letter about the beta program. It was a more recent one but there are ones going back. If you will commit to get these letters answered.
▶ 1:52:52Mr. Kumar: Thank you. If confirmed, yes, I will commit to making sure to work with my colleagues to get you accurate responses. Sen. simple kolbuchar that the trump administration is going to relaunch the program -- we discussed this in my office and also discussed with the deputy. They are to plan a new round of selection in early 2026.
▶ 1:53:22Mr. Kumar: We are one of the tech hubs of minnesota but we did not get funded despite been one of the premier -- this is back in time -- as you know, places for medical device development and the like. In the midwest or in the entire country. We you work with me and my staff to look at the med tech program in minnesota?
▶ 1:53:44Mr. Kumar: Absolutely. I know our team is very active on working with offices to make sure they have the most up-to-date information on the new competition and would be happy to work with your office.
▶ 1:53:58Sen. Klobuchar: A question I will put in writing, rural export in fargo a big priority for me, so hope will look at that as well. Thank you.
▶ 1:54:14Chair Cruz: Senator young.
▶ 1:54:19Sen. Young: My colleagues have talked about the benefits, emerging technologies can provide. For instance, how quantum computing to better track and predict the movements of severe weather patterns and how ai may predict when another event may occur and other applications.
▶ 1:54:37Sen. Young: I am working on reintroduction of several bills with my colleagues and in the impetus is technology leadership and capabilities in emerging technologies. A side of what has been discussed here already, what other benefits do these emerging technologies promise to deliver and how do you plan to work across the department and other executive agencies as applicable to make sure these deliverables are recognized?
▶ 1:55:10Dr. Jacobs: Thank you for the question. One of the things we have not talked about today that I think is really fascinating and I would love to be a focus is edge computing. I say that because as the satellites on orbit become more sophisticated and the sensors have high resolution data from the files become larger. And down linking those files takes time. Moving that data takes time.
▶ 1:55:36Dr. Jacobs: And the weather is a very time sensitive capability to do these forecasts so we have to get the data as fast as we can and to the extent it is possible to do edge computing on orbit, to process the data before it is down linked I think would be a huge step forward.
▶ 1:55:54Sen. Young: What do you anticipate needs to be done in this area? Do we need to assemble a strategy to -- or a broader effort? I will let you explain what needs to be done.
▶ 1:56:12Dr. Jacobs: I think some of this can be tested on the ground. I also think there's a lot of capabilities that have been developed on the classified intel side where the data itself might be classified by the process of compressing or sending the data might not be. So to repurpose those on the civil side would be an interesting thing I would like to work on.
▶ 1:56:38Sen. Young: Would you work with me on that priority?
▶ 1:56:43Dr. Jacobs: Absolutely.
▶ 1:56:44Sen. Young: I'm a member of the intelligence committee and commerce committee so there may be some synergy there. Thank you. Continuing with you, doctor, I would like to turn to iuu fishing. The legal unreported and unregulated fishing is not just environmental issue, though it is of course that come it also undermines our economic security and our national security.
▶ 1:57:10Sen. Young: It affects american fishermen, especially in the gulf of america, where we are often committee with illegally operating mexican fishing vessels. In addition, we have to contend with a broader pattern of illegal maritime activities by state and nonstate actors from the people's republic of china and russia.
▶ 1:57:33Sen. Young: They continue to engage in unregulated fishing that will impact our allies and the rest of us in a negative way. So it is our responsibility to protect american fishermen from these violations, to hold other nations accountable, to the same standards a maritime law and sustainability that we uphold.
▶ 1:57:57Sen. Young: How do you plan, doctor, and coordinating with offices and other departments or agencies like the state department or coast guard to effectively counter this issue at home and abroad? Dr. jacobs: thank you for the question. Countering this is a huge priority. Seafood competitiveness and reducing the seafood trade deficit is a big priority. So combating iuu is essential to accomplishing that.
▶ 1:58:26Sen. Young: I would love to work if confirmed with the coast guard, with the navy, particularly in the pacific, where there is a lot of false flag vessels doing illegal fishing. An houreez and other countries eez's were there not flag to be fishing, hiking the ships when they turn off their transponders, a lot of times there are other sort of nefarious things like human trafficking that is going along with this iuu.
▶ 1:58:53Sen. Young: As well as like we were mentioning earlier, the poaching of red snapper in the gulf of america. That is a huge issue. Working with the state department on that and also potentially exploring other technologies, not just for the fishing aspect but for the imports because there is a lot of things that are being imported that we really need to take a close look at. Mislabeling, things like that as far as imported seafood.
▶ 1:59:24Sen. Young: I think you hit on an important but often under discussed component of this which is the businesses themselves. They will supply seafood. They need to bring more transparency to their supply chains and ensure they're not procuring seafood that has been obtained illegally. I hope to work with you on this as well. You commit to doing so should you be confirmed?
▶ 1:59:51Dr. Jacobs: If confirmed, absolutely.
▶ 1:59:54Sen. Young: How do you see regional fisheries management organizations or rfmo's fitting into this equation? Is there an opportunity to push these organizations to more effectively combat iuu fishing throughout the world when origin countries refused to prosecute illegal fishermen even with overwhelming evidence of their activities?
▶ 2:00:18Dr. Jacobs: Definitely. Working through the rmfo's to ensure other countries and their laws is really important and also working through them to ensure that we have fair quotas set for U.S. fishermen is very important.
▶ 2:00:33Sen. Young: Thank you.
▶ 2:00:35Chair Cruz: Senator hickenlooper.
▶ 2:00:39Sen. Hickenlooper: Thank you to each of you for your willingness to come back into the arena as it were. Let me ask you each question to start. Honestly, natural disasters costing us over 80 $200 billion in damages last year alone. Noaa is a hugely important institution. Think everyone's questions recognize that.
▶ 2:01:06Sen. Hickenlooper: Just thumbs up or down, nothing stays the same, do you think we are spending too much money in the science, research around noaa or are we spending too little? Dr. and write down the rope.
▶ 2:01:20Dr. Jacobs: I think it probably depends on the area of research.
▶ 2:01:26Sen. Hickenlooper: Just as a whole. Are we spending too much or too little?
▶ 2:01:33Dr. Jacobs: I don't know you could spend too much on research.
▶ 2:01:37Sen. Hickenlooper: Good answer.
▶ 2:01:40Mr. Jordan: It is a difficult question to answer a much across the federal government spending on science activities, but I would say it is a good thing to fund. Hickenlooper I was thinking more about noaa. Science is full of second-guessing and always trying to get better as you all know. It is not a perfectly precise study. But it is crucial.
▶ 2:02:11Mr. Kumar: Thank you for the question, senator. I defer to my colleagues here that are noaa nominees but appreciate the importance of funding research.
▶ 2:02:25Sen. Hickenlooper: We talked a lot about our ability to forecast natural disasters, how important that is. I do agree the last mile that both of you or both of the doctors brought up is critical, but I also believe in incremental improvement. I think especially with better computing we will be able to get that recognition of when there is a potential flood event.
▶ 2:02:57Sen. Hickenlooper: Our heart goes out to people of texas and new mexico. Unbelievable the tragedy that happened. Four hours more, even with our not insufficient last mile, how do we get information to those groups in time, that extra four hours can make a huge difference.
▶ 2:03:18Sen. Hickenlooper: I look at the importance of getting data and having it there and working with that data and yet it appears we are having -- we are going to stop collecting data or storing data and using data in certain places, most specifically, national center for environmental information. Which tracks natural disasters. Is that something that you, Dr. jacobs, are concerned about?
▶ 2:03:44Sen. Hickenlooper: Are you willing to commit to updating the database? That is the foundation and so much of your work is built upon.
▶ 2:03:52Dr. Jacobs: If confirmed, definitely, ensuring that data is archived and easily accessible by the public to research from the science community is an essential function of noaa.
▶ 2:04:07Sen. Hickenlooper: In terms of predicting disasters to incorporate soil moisture, soil conditions -- all these other variables that have such a powerful effect. Mr. jordan, obviously, noaa has invested in satellites, delicate instruments to measure ecosystems of all types and a forecast the weather, issue warnings.
▶ 2:04:32Sen. Hickenlooper: In terms of the satellites, do you have concerns about the recent efforts to limit the costs around that collection of data and making sure that the recent announcement the defense meteorological satellite program is going to terminate data collection and the sharing of that data that are this month? That is you, Dr. jacobs. Sorry.
▶ 2:05:03Dr. Jacobs: -- dmsp for decades has been a really important program. It is my understanding that the funding for this was terminated back in 2015 but the atmospheric science community has had the benefit of the sensors that have lasted well beyond their lifespan. There is a couple of ways to backfill this.
▶ 2:05:31Dr. Jacobs: First of all, the sounding data -- there are other instruments that noaa operates from elsewhere. I think what is probably of more interest in hurricane forecasting community is imagery data. The microwave imagery. There is a follow-on program to this. It is my understanding and again I am not in the agency yet but I still know a lot of this because I work with the community. The follow-on program, they already have an asset on orbit.
▶ 2:06:00Dr. Jacobs: It is producing data at I believe noaa will have access to that pretty soon. I also think there is potentially other capabilities out there. There's is like the european space agency has some of these assets as well. Data sharing. It is extremely important.
▶ 2:06:19Sen. Hickenlooper: I am out of time but I do -- I won't be able to come back for second round of questions but I will submit in writing some of the questions about the cooperative institute you guys work with and I think are so important. We have a couple of colorado state university and university of colorado where you have the institutions and graduate students and phd's all working together helping you expand your effort.
▶ 2:06:40Sen. Hickenlooper: And also the fire weather testbed that noaa has based in denver to increase wildfire resilience by researching and doing all of that work around wildfires. God bless you all for all your work. It is so crucial to the safety of most of our -- all of our country. I yelled back.
▶ 2:07:03Chair Cruz: Senator fetterman.
▶ 2:07:07Sen. Fetterman: Thank you. Dr. jacobs, I am from pennsylvania and I am sure you are familiar with lake erie. I love erie. It is a very special part of my state.
▶ 2:07:27Sen. Fetterman: For me, lake erie is such incredibly important economic engine and major cultural community for pennsylvania. Tourism in erie brings in over $1.2 billion and supports more than 15,000 jobs.
▶ 2:07:48Sen. Fetterman: For me, the tourism is driven because of the beauty -- if anyone in the room has ever been to press island, one of the most remarkable parks in the country -- I'm not saying that as just a booster. I am saying that it actually is true. My family swims in lake erie. We have a lot of skin in the game. Protecting and making erie more and more clean and pure.
▶ 2:08:17Sen. Fetterman: For me, noaa's office of national marine sanctuary is working to designate lake erie as a national marine sanctuary. Of course, I fully support that. And the people that live in erie the support that. I was asking to see if you support that or would like to commit or work with my office to see this happen quickly?
▶ 2:08:42Dr. Jacobs: If confirmed, I would love to work with you and your office on it.
▶ 2:08:46Sen. Fetterman: That is wonderful. Some people -- my colleagues may not be aware of lake effect snow. I am an amateur. I would describe it as when colder air sweeps over warmer water of lake erie and that can drop three feet of snow really in a short amount of time. Is that accurate?
▶ 2:09:14Dr. Jacobs: Your science is correct.
▶ 2:09:19Sen. Fetterman: If you live in erie, 18 inches doesn't even make the news. Rarely. I live in pittsburgh. It is so different. It is very specific to that region because of lake effect snow. If you're from arizona, have no idea what that means.
▶ 2:09:41Sen. Fetterman: I remember there is one christmas time that I think 55 inches dumped on erie quickly in about 34 to 46 hours. Of course noaa is very important. For me -- and it is been brought to my attention that the national weather service that oversees erie does not have a meteorologist.
▶ 2:10:12Sen. Fetterman: So for me, even if it is like a part-time thing, I think it is reasonable when you can have three feet of snow from those things. I think perhaps -- I support having a meteorologist even part-time from a savings perspective. So if you have any thoughts?
▶ 2:10:31Dr. Jacobs: I don't know the exact staffing levels at your office but I will definitely get back to you on the numbers if confirmed. I jeff hallock commit to making sure -- I definitely commit to making sure.
▶ 2:10:46Chair Cruz: Senator markey.
▶ 2:10:50Sen. Markey: Thank you. For decades, noaa has collected and made public information on how many extreme weather-related disasters caused by more than a billion dollars worth of damage. In the 1980's, the U.S. experienced a weather or climate disaster that caused more than a billion dollars in damage every four months. On average.
▶ 2:11:24Sen. Markey: On average by every three weeks now. Dr. jacobs my appreciated our conversation on this yesterday. Do you stand by your statement that you made to me yesterday that noaa's data on billion dollar disasters should be made available to the public?
▶ 2:11:42Dr. Jacobs: The data noaa collects, yes, I think that is a really important thing.
▶ 2:11:49Sen. Markey: That is great to hear. Back in may, the trump administration is going to start bearing that information and lobbing the public about the cost of disasters. I appreciate your commitment. The administration is fighting disasters the only way they know how by denying the even exist.
▶ 2:12:17Sen. Markey: The only problem solved by bearing the date is the trump administration's pi problem. That information should be out there so the public can see how much worse these storms are as each decade is unfolding. Dr. jacobs, do you think climate focused research data and grant programs are relevant to noaa's patient understand the health of coastal and marine resources and predict marine environments?
▶ 2:12:50Dr. Jacobs: Weather, water, and climate is essential to noaa's mission. It is a fundamental part of it.
▶ 2:13:00Sen. Markey: I'm a great -- I'm glad we agree on that. Do support the efforts to collect and understand regional climate data which is so important for developing the forecast that farmers and other small business owners used to make decisions every single day?
▶ 2:13:17Dr. Jacobs: Well, essentially, all data is regional at some level.
▶ 2:13:23Sen. Markey: I know that, but do you agree there should be continuation of the collection?
▶ 2:13:30Dr. Jacobs: The collecting of data observations is essential to noaa's mission. That is critical as well because it is too bad that president trump's budget uses the exact language of climate research as a justification to kill that exact program that noaa, frankly, shocked that an agenda that would cause such problems could even be talked about right
▶ 2:14:04Dr. Jacobs: Now. Dr. jacobs, the trump administration wants to cut noaa 's budget by 27%. Many programs are exempted. Dr. jacobs, do you support these cuts?
▶ 2:14:21Dr. Jacobs: Yes, I support the president's budget.
▶ 2:14:24Sen. Markey: Do these cuts improve the weather readiness of our country?
▶ 2:14:31Dr. Jacobs: D because I believe you're referring to, a lot of that work is being transitioned from the research side to the operation side. The national weather service, the national ocean service, their mission and central functions will continue.
▶ 2:14:47Sen. Markey: I have a disagreement with you. 27% cut is going to have an impact because there is a definite ripple effect that occurs when that kind of funding is slashed. Weather readiness without funding is an hallucination. You can't cut something by 27% -- each year goes by without having the additional capacity.
▶ 2:15:18Sen. Markey: I do not agree with you on that issue. Finally, Mr. jordan, 2012, senator inhofe called the greatest hoax how the global warming as chrissy threatens your future. -- conspiracy hoax threatens your future. Yet a reference for that book. Is that correct?
▶ 2:15:46Mr. Jordan: That name came about what I was earning my masters.
▶ 2:15:51Sen. Markey: I understand. Can you explain as you kept that as your online identity? Based upon the book? What was the joke in that?
▶ 2:16:03Mr. Jordan: It was a young man's attempt at wit. There shall no deeper meaning.
▶ 2:16:13Sen. Markey: If you want to be a comedian, she may be go to open mic night at the local club because this is serious business. "the greatest hoax" is not in any way a joke. It is to undermine legitimate climate science, undermine the lead on protecting our oceans.
▶ 2:16:37Sen. Markey: It just says to me that all of the rest of us have to get more serious if the greatest hoax is your handle because that is not where our country should be.
▶ 2:16:47Chair Cruz: Thank you. Senator baldwin.
▶ 2:16:50Sen. Baldwin: If I may, I wanted to start by taking a moment of personal privilege to say I heard your remarks about your visit to camp mystic. There were heartfelt. Closing with hunt store which is now hunt strong.
▶ 2:17:12Sen. Baldwin: I just want to let you know that our prayers, my prayers go out to all the folks impacted by the tragedy in kerr county in central texas.
▶ 2:17:27Sen. Markey: I should have led with that as well.
▶ 2:17:32Sen. Baldwin: Dr. jacobs, wisconsin feels the impact of weather events like flooding, tornadoes and drought and noaa weather and satellite services are more important than ever. In particular, farmers in wisconsin depend upon the agency's data to decide when to plant.
▶ 2:17:59Sen. Baldwin: Our shipping and fishing industries rely on it to place safe routes and travel schedules. Noaa data is vital for the economic security across the midwest and the great lakes region. If confirmed, will you commit to reversing the gutting of noaa's resources by restoring satellite services and staffing in particular?
▶ 2:18:24Dr. Jacobs: If confirmed, definitely, making sure staffing is a top priority and also satellite data both procurement of it from access to it, utilization of it is also essential top priority.
▶ 2:18:41Sen. Baldwin: Thank you for meeting prior to this hearing today. I wanted to put on the record something we talked about so if confirmed will you ensure that high-quality weather and climate data remains both freely and publicly accessible to everyone that relies on it? Simple
▶ 2:19:03Dr. Jacobs: It is my believe this should be readily available by the public.
▶ 2:19:07Sen. Baldwin: I want to take a moment to recognize the incredible network of wisconsin organizations that partner with noaa to protect the great legs, including the wisconsin sea grant, the national estuary research reserves system, the coastal management program, the marine sanctuary program, and many more. These programs operate on incredibly small tight budgets.
▶ 2:19:37Sen. Baldwin: While delivering economic returns. I would like to thank the people who lead this work in my home state of wisconsin. Dr. jacobs, the great lakes are vital resource not just for industry but for the 40 million people who rely on them for their drinking water. Noaa plays a major role in protecting the legs alongside its federal state, tribal, and local partners from invasive species, from flooding and harmful blooms.
▶ 2:20:07Sen. Baldwin: If confirmed, will you work to catch on restoring and fully funding coastal programs that most impact our great lakes, including the sea grant come the coastal zone management program, the assuring research program, and marine sanctuaries that are doing this work right on the ground every day?
▶ 2:20:27Dr. Jacobs: Thank you for the question. If confirmed, would love to work with you on this going forward. I actually went home last night and read up on lampreys after our conversation.
▶ 2:20:39Sen. Baldwin: What did you learn?
▶ 2:20:42Dr. Jacobs: Stuff I didn't really want to think about.
▶ 2:20:46Sen. Baldwin: Same here.
▶ 2:20:49Dr. Jacobs: These are important to you and your state as well as to noaa and I look forward to working with you on this.
▶ 2:20:55Sen. Baldwin: Mr. kumar, I am concerned that the president's fiscal 26 budget proposal eliminates funding for the eda, which among many other critical functions runs the tech hub the tech hub program, which was enacted through the bipartisan chips and science act.
▶ 2:21:19Sen. Baldwin: As we discussed, wisconsin has a tech hub focused on personalized medicine and bio health technology, key areas for improving patient care and competing with china. The future of the tech hub program is too important to leave in question. Will you commit to keeping congress updated for plans for the tech hub program and will you be responsive when we have questions?
▶ 2:21:47Mr. Kumar: Thank you for the question, senator. I enjoyed our discussion on this topic. I know the secretary sees this as a very -- to ensure that you and your problem have the necessary information about tech hubs.
▶ 2:22:08Sen. Baldwin: To reiterate, the program is supposed to be closed. It will be hard to have them be the ones tech contact. I need to know from you that you will keep congress informed where it is re-housed if that is a successful proposal on the part of the president.
▶ 2:22:27Mr. Kumar: If confirmed I will work with you and your office.
▶ 2:22:31Sen. Baldwin: I would like to close by reiterating my frustration with the lack of communication from the commerce department regarding the dismantling of the minority business development agency. It is unacceptable the secretary has been unresponsive to congress as he takes away the resources for small businesses that we built up on a bipartisan basis. If you are confirmed, I sincerely hope this will change.
▶ 2:23:00Chair Cruz: Thank you. Dr. jacobs president trump made it a priority to expand offshore oil and gas production. Noaa plays a key role. If you are confirmed, how will you improve the efficiency of the offshore permitting process when it comes to environmental reviews underneath the or the mmpi?
▶ 2:23:31Dr. Jacob: If confirmed I will work with the white house to find efficiencies to unlock america's energy potential consistent with the executive order.
▶ 2:23:44Chair Cruz: Mr. jordan, a persistent challenge within noaa has been the structure of his line offices resulting in research projects stalling or never transitioning into operational use. Noaa must close the gap between research and operations to give the public and decision-makers more timely and actionable information.
▶ 2:24:09Chair Cruz: How would you accelerate the research to operations timeline at noaa and foster greater collaboration across offices?
▶ 2:24:19Dr. Jacobs: Moving the research closer to the operational line offices at noaa will be important to take the research from where we currently exist now and moving it to the weather service of the national ocean service. The coordination with the operational interviews or outcome of that data will foster greater collaboration and innovation. You also get that feedback loop of research to operations, operations to research. The operations really should be driving with the research is focused on.
▶ 2:24:48Chair Cruz: Dr. jacobs, we have seen a pattern of dual engine flameout caused by water and hail indigestion when aircraft to send in severe storms. Noaa's hurricane hunters use props that are less vulnerable because they don't pull water directly into the engines.
▶ 2:25:09Chair Cruz: Can you and the department of commerce commit to working with the faa to ensure that a future, improved hurricane hunter fleet uses appropriate technology to prevent deadly incidents?
▶ 2:25:19Dr. Jacobs: Thank you for the question, senator. I spent many years in the aviation industry. The turboprops operate differently. They essentially are affected by the air-fuel ratio, and that is what helps them in saturated environments and I would commit to working with the faa on this issue.
▶ 2:25:43Chair Cruz: Hurricanes have also been known to pick up entire homes off of their foundations. How big would a drone need to be to navigate through a hurricane, and it to your knowledge, is such a drone available?
▶ 2:25:59Dr. Jacobs: Well, I think -- thank you for the question. There are probably two capabilities. Flying against the wind and flying with the wind. For the last couple of years one of the things that noaa has been doing is deploying small drones inside the hurricane to fly around. But they are a foot or two long. There are other potential opportunities to fly above the hurricane and deploy things through the hurricane.
▶ 2:26:28Dr. Jacobs: I think that it's to be determined if we can actually fly through the hurricane. But I have been in conversations with a couple of companies that are interested in potentially testing capabilities.
▶ 2:26:39Chair Cruz: What are the benefits in your judgment of artificial intelligence for improving weather forecasting?
▶ 2:26:47Dr. Jacobs: The primary benefit, in my opinion, is computational efficiency. Even if artificial intelligence cannot do something better, if it can do it faster and more efficiently I think it's worth using.
▶ 2:27:04Chair Cruz: Senator sullivan.
▶ 2:27:07Sen. Sullivan: Thank you, chairman. Mr. jacobs, I look forward to meeting with you. I missed a lot of the hearing because they were marking up the defense bill. I want to -- I look forward to working with you, particularly on noaa's jobs in my state of alaska. Noaa does really important work.
▶ 2:27:34Sen. Sullivan: I have appreciated the trump administration's executive order on restoring american seafood competitiveness. You know, I talked to secretary lutnick about this, our fishermen often get the raw end of the deal. If you are a farmer or high-tech silicon valley guy, wall street guy come of the american government takes care of you. Those are important, particularly our farmers. Nothing against them.
▶ 2:28:05Sen. Sullivan: When you are a fisherman often it is like, hey, good luck. Our fishermen don't ask a lot. They ask a few basic things from the federal government. Robust fish surveys to inform accurate stock assessments and the timely promulgation of regulations to open up the fisheries. Unfortunately, noaa, this was during biden for sure, they didn't do stock assessments. They were doing other things.
▶ 2:28:36Sen. Sullivan: They had a lot of money but they weren't doing the basic blocking and tackling of stock assessments. How much fish is in certain parts of the ocean, and how much can we fish it, knowing we want to sustainable, environmentally sound fisheries? I have been worried. When the deputy secretary of commerce was here during his confirmation hearing, I let him know about my concerns that the trump noaa guys are not doing it either. It's not good.
▶ 2:29:07Sen. Sullivan: You have a basic job to do. So, I need your commitment right now that if you get confirmed, and you and I will have a long talk about this when you see me in my office, but you have to do this. You cannot cut staff to do this work. If you don't do surveys, guess what happens. The great american fishermen that I represent -- by the way, my state is the superpower of seafood.
▶ 2:29:32Sen. Sullivan: 2/3 of all of seafood harvested in america comes from alaska. If and when you get confirmed, you will have to spend a lot of time in alaska. Right?
▶ 2:29:47Dr. Jacobs: Absolutely.
▶ 2:29:49Sen. Sullivan: All right, good. My point is, if you don't do the surveys then the science is crimped. People say, we aren't sure what you can do. It limits their ability to go fish. I want your view on that. I'm sure senator cantwell has already hit you up on that, but this is so important and I'm concerned that the department of secretary lutnick is not doing it either. It's unacceptable.
▶ 2:30:19Sen. Sullivan: You have to commit to me. Don't do what biden did. They had all of this money, they had all this money, I don't know what the did. This will be a main part of your job. The first six months I have been really concerned. Gosh darn it, we are not asking a lot. Do the science, do the surveys,.
▶ 2:30:46Sen. Sullivan: During covid people were making up -- oh, we can't go out, it is too dangerous. No, go to the surveys. Can you talk about that and make a commitment to me and my fishermen that you will get out and do the surveys? Again, we don't ask for much. Basic blocking and tackling that noaa is supposed to do. I don't know why it's a problem. It shouldn't be a problem with the trump administration. I need you to focus on it and commit to me right now to do it.
▶ 2:31:15Dr. Jacobs: Thank you for the question. If confirmed, absolutely stock assessments and surveys are a top priority. We wouldn't be competitive in the seafood industry we don't do those. Understanding, for example, the status of pollock stock is essential for setting the quotas. I understand and appreciate your concerns. If confirmed, very high priority.
▶ 2:31:41Sen. Sullivan: I appreciate that. We have a lot of issues. The by catch issue is an issue. The yukon river, there is no fishing again on the yukon. I was up -- my wife's family has a fish camp on the yukon river. There is no king fishing again. We need to get to the bottom of what's happening to our salmon runs.
▶ 2:32:06Sen. Sullivan: My legislation, my alaska salmon research task force act which was passed, no I did good work, we have some runs doing great. Other iconic runs in alaska, the king runs on the yukon, they are cratering. That really hurts people. More than just food security, it is culture for our native communities.
▶ 2:32:30Sen. Sullivan: Can you commit to me to continue to work getting the best science, the best minds on why we are seeing in certain parts of alaska these dramatic crashes in our salmon runs and why that is happening and take action to help us return to what everybody in alaska and america wants, strong, vibrant salmon runs?
▶ 2:32:49Dr. Jacobs: Thank you for the question. Absolutely. If confirmed we will commit to working on this. This is something that I have been wondering about for a while. We do fund a lot of this restoration and a lot of these stocks don't seem to be improving. It's deeply concerning.
▶ 2:33:06Chair Cruz: -- Sen. sullivan: there is a gap in the research. It is a long story but the salmon live in the ocean most of their life. The research from the feds is actually not focused on salmon. Alaska, the state, focuses on salmon research, but within the rivers, not the big ocean, we need more research on what is happening to the salmon as they live out in the ocean for most of their lives. That is where noaa could be very helpful.
▶ 2:33:35Chair Cruz: Can I get your commitment on that as well?
▶ 2:33:38Dr. Jacobs: Yes, definitely commit to working with you on this.
▶ 2:33:41Sen. Sullivan: I want to complement secretary lutnick and his team. President trump and his team on their executive order on seafood competitiveness. That was really welcomed. It was a really good too. We have to work together to implement it. -- really good eo. We have to work together to implement it. Secretary lutnick has been great on this.
▶ 2:34:08Sen. Sullivan: The unfair, unbalanced trade relationship that we have, had, particularly with russia and china. What do I mean? Russia banned the importation of american seafood in 2014. Zero fish from america could go to russia. For the last decade we've let them import as much fish as they want. That's crushing our fishermen, fishing communities.
▶ 2:34:36Sen. Sullivan: Two years ago under the biden, I give them credit, they block to the importation of russian seafood. The russians sent it to china to have it laundered in china. We close that loop -- we closed that loophole. The trump administration has been good about keeping that ban on the importation of russian seafood, regardless of where they send it for secondary head gutting and fileting.
▶ 2:35:09Sen. Sullivan: I need your commitment to work with us. We had a good hearing on fishing with the chinese, the russians. They have no standards. They use slave labor. We need your help to work on those issues. Can I get your commitment?
▶ 2:35:22Dr. Jacobs: Absolutely.
▶ 2:35:23Chair Cruz: Dr. jacobs, you have spent decades as a redfish fishermen on the atlantic. I have to ask and follow-up with my friend senator sullivan's questions. Have you been salmon fishing in alaska?
▶ 2:35:37Dr. Jacobs: I have.
▶ 2:35:38Chair Cruz: That was the right answer. I have, too.
▶ 2:35:42Sen. Sullivan: That was the right answer.
▶ 2:35:45Chair Cruz: It is a unique and beautiful place.
▶ 2:35:48Sen. Sullivan: Maybe when you come to alaska maybe me and the chairman can host you for fishing.
▶ 2:35:54Chair Cruz: He is a guide, so we might be better with him along. >> I brought it up in my earlier questions about stock assessment, but I want to echo, our industries are chasing a never ending go around. It all starts with stock assessments. Really basic information.
▶ 2:36:19Chair Cruz: Making sure that we play a more aggressive role internationally to stop the russians and chinese from collaborating and impacting our fisheries. Very much appreciate your comments. I would like to follow on with, do you think that we should have an organic act to persevering and preserving stock assessments in a more robust way?
▶ 2:36:45Dr. Jacobs: Thank you for the question. I believe noaa's long-overdue to have its mission authorized in statutes. Very much.
▶ 2:36:57Sen. Cantwell: Do you support the weather act reauthorization?
▶ 2:37:02Dr. Jacobs: Yes.
▶ 2:37:03Sen. Cantwell: Do you support replacing the northwest fisheries science center? So what senator sullivan was talking about all of these issues, I remember the whole canadian threat to salmon and all of the work that we do at the noaa facility in seattle. We need to replace that and make sure that it still exists?
▶ 2:37:23Dr. Jacobs: If I remember correctly, this was an issue when I was at noaa last time and something we were working on. I believe there was discussion of potentially working with the university, or something --
▶ 2:37:34Sen. Cantwell: I think it just needs to take the final steps.
▶ 2:37:38Dr. Jacobs: I would love to work with you on that if confirmed.
▶ 2:37:42Sen. Cantwell: Do you support tribal government consultation?
▶ 2:37:48Dr. Jacobs: I do.
▶ 2:37:50Sen. Cantwell: I think that is something that is not an ongoing effort -- we understand it, we get what tribal government consultation, government to government consultation means, but we think from time to time agencies forget this. Even in the last administration they forgot this. So, hopefully you can help restore that. I understand my colleague asked about the budget cuts which you said you supported, the 27% budget cut to noaa?
▶ 2:38:19Sen. Cantwell: How do you keep your science mission? And particularly in atmospheric and oceanic areas? How do you keep that science mission if we are cutting the budget, when in reality it is a core part of your mission?
▶ 2:38:32Dr. Jacobs: Appreciate the question. A lot of these priorities, particularly, you know, weather forecasting, things we've been discussing all day, some of that has been transferred to the weather service. It is my hope for certain things that we are looking at the basically fulfill the mission requirements of the forecasting capabilities that the weather service takes over a lot of that.
▶ 2:39:02Dr. Jacobs: Some other aspects transferred to the ocean service.
▶ 2:39:06Sen. Cantwell: Ok, so you think the missions will be preserved just somewhere else?
▶ 2:39:13Dr. Jacobs: Yes. I mean, yes. It's my objective to make sure the noaa fulfills their mission requirements.
▶ 2:39:21Sen. Cantwell: I'm glad you said that. We had a discussion earlier where you were saying that these people need to be on the ground, you can't replace people on the ground. People implementing, understanding the local, regional dynamic and/or implementing an action plan, basically getting first responders and everybody to help and implement that based off of that data. Very much appreciate that answer.
▶ 2:39:46Sen. Cantwell: It reminds me, boeing said, we will get rid of all of these safety inspectors. We will get rid of, like, 300 safety inspectors. That was their main job. We can with and certify our work. That didn't turn out well because they missed a lot. The safety people were actually doing something critically important. In fact, they try to automate parts of it, and that turned out to be a disaster. So, they changed it. I'm cautioning you.
▶ 2:40:15Sen. Cantwell: I don't agree with the trump administration proposal on cutting these programs. I think that they are essential scientific search information. I'm all for elevating the game. I have been for years. Elevating with more supercomputing and, certainly -- I think one of the things we can do is get better information so that forecast is two weeks in advance. Or, why are we cutting weather balloons?
▶ 2:40:41Sen. Cantwell: The fact that the weather balloon as there to tell you the amount of moisture and condition of the atmosphere, what was that so important for us with fires? The land was getting so dry. The lightning strike that may not have caused a problem all of a sudden causes a problem. The critical nature changed. We had to understand that.
▶ 2:41:01Sen. Cantwell: I just hope that we aren't thinking that we are going to put weather up here in this, oh, we have this really great way of getting information from the private sector somehow. We are not going to play this critical role. You are shaking your head or nodding. I don't know if you have a thought on this. You can't shift these resources somewhere else. We have to own them.
▶ 2:41:31Sen. Cantwell: Noaa has to own weather forecasting. We need it to be better. We can't transfer some of it out and say that that is someone else. Mr. jordan?
▶ 2:41:39Mr. Jordan: Thank you for the opportunity to provide a comment. I was shaking my head in agreement that yes, the weather forecasting is important. America has a robust private american industry that amplifies the work that noaa does, but it's important for noaa to do its weather forecasting mission.
▶ 2:41:57Sen. Cantwell: How can we preserve that in the mission?
▶ 2:42:00Mr. Jordan: I believe looking at the budget not from noaa but from the outside, I see the weather service mission, the line off, is preserved.
▶ 2:42:10Sen. Cantwell: What about all the work they do? I don't understand.
▶ 2:42:15Dr. Jacobs: Within the weather --Mr. jordan: within the weather service? The budget I believe funds the weather service.
▶ 2:42:23Sen. Cantwell: I'm talking about the r&d office. That research.
▶ 2:42:27Mr. Jordan: Understood. Sorry. As Dr. jacobs said, looking at the budget, not having the conversations with the folks inside about what's happening, but it looks like the transition of some of that work is happening from lar to the weather service.
▶ 2:42:42Sen. Cantwell: This is probably where we are, because that office, the weather research office, is eliminated. I think what I should do, what we should do, we heard what Dr. jacobs said, I think that we want to get a clear understanding. I think that we were in disagreement. I think that we like this office. I don't we want it to be zeroed out. We think that is the key to noaa doing his job overall. As people talk about killing hurricane hunters -- correct?
▶ 2:43:14Sen. Cantwell: These are the people who fly into the hurricanes and give us all the information. Why would we kill that? Let's get a framework here and follow up with some questions to both of you on this entire regime and how you think that it's going to work. I get it. You are nominees by this administration so you will generally agree with their budget.
▶ 2:43:34Sen. Cantwell: We disagree with it, but more importantly, let's look at the programs that will be cut and have an understanding from you, at least, about what you think and how that responsibility will be served. Without it being served, I have serious concerns about our ability to do the job that noaa is requested to do on forecasting.
▶ 2:43:53Chair Cruz: Thank you, senator cantwell. My final question is required of all nominees. If confirmed, do you pledge to work collaboratively with this committee to provide thorough and timely responses to the committee's request and appear before the committee when requested?
▶ 2:44:09Dr. Jacobs: Yes.
▶ 2:44:10Mr. Jordan: Yes.
▶ 2:44:12Mr. Kumar: Yes.
▶ 2:44:14Chair Cruz: I have letters of support for Dr. jacobs and Mr. jordan's nominations which I asked for consent to be inserted into the hearing record. Without objection, so ordered. Senators have until the close of business july 11 to submit questions for the record. Nominees have until the close of business monday, july 14 to respond to those questions. That concludes today's hearing. The committee stands adjourned. [gavel falls]