Tsunami Relief And Preparedness Cut In GOP Budget Proposal: National Weather Service

WASHINGTON -- Thursday night's massive earthquake in Japan and the resulting tsunami warnings that have alarmed U.S. coasts, seem likely to ignite a debate over a previously little-discussed subsection of the spending bills currently being debated in Congress.

Tucked into the House Republican continuing resolution are provisions cutting the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, including the National Weather Service, as well as humanitarian and foreign aid.

Presented as part of a larger deficit reduction package, each cut could be pitched as tough-choice, belt-tightening on behalf of the GOP. But advocates for protecting those funds pointed to the crisis in Japan as evidence that without the money, disaster preparedness and relief would suffer.

"These are very closely related," National Weather Service Employees Organization President Dan Sobien told The Huffington Post with respect to the budget cuts and the tsunami. "The National Weather Service has the responsibility of warning about tsunami's also. It is true that there is no plan to not fund the tsunami buoys. Everyone knows you just can't do that. Still if those [House] cuts go through there will be furloughs at both of the tsunami warning centers that protect the whole country and, in fact, the whole world."

The House full-year continuing resolution, which has not passed the Senate, would indeed make steep cuts to several programs and functions that would serve in a response to natural disasters (not just tsunamis) home and abroad. According to Sobien, the bill cuts $126 million from the budget of the NWS. Since, however, the cuts are being enacted over a six-month period (the length of the continuing resolution) as opposed to over the course of a full year, the effect would be roughly double.

As for NOAA, the House GOP cuts are even deeper. The House spending bill is roughly $450 million below the president's 2011 budget requests. The Senate Democratic bill would be $110 million below that request. The White House-allied Center for American Progress, argued that the House spending bill would actually cut $1.2 billion from the president's budget requests, likely by taking into account that the bill does not provide NOAA the funding increase requested for the Joint Polar Satellite System.

A request to comment from the Republican-led House Appropriations Committee was not immediately returned.

Either way, the lower funding levels would force major institutional readjustments. An internal analysis put together by the House Democratic Finance committee before the tsunami struck, argued that such cuts "could result in the closure of up to 12 forecast offices that safeguard American lives and property. Each forecast office issues forecasts and warnings to an average population of 2.5 million people."

The proposed cut to the Operation, Research, and Facilities account would also result in a 21 day furlough of NOAA's employees.

The ramifications of spending cuts would potentially extend beyond tsunami or natural disaster preparedness to the post-catastrophe operations as well. In late February, a wide coalition of aid groups wrote Speaker John Boehner, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to warn against the major cuts that the House bill made with respect to global disaster aid (67 percent cut relative to 2010 levels), refugee assistance (45 percent) and global food relief (41 percent).

"It is shocking to imagine that in the next major global humanitarian crisis - the next Haiti, Tsunami, or Darfur - the United States might simply fail to show up," the heads of 29 international aid organizations wrote. "Addressing the drivers of the national debt is wise. Abruptly reducing US humanitarian commitments in order to save less than one quarter of one percent of total discretionary spending is not. These cuts would imperil the longstanding US commitment to provide lifesaving humanitarian assistance for those threatened by disaster and conflict."

READ THE LETTER HERE:

disaster

UPDATE: In a three-week continuing resolution proposed by House Republicans on Friday to keep the government funded while long-term negotiations continue, lawmakers included $99 million of the proposed cuts to NOAA's Operations, Research, and Facilities budget.

Comments

[graceaustin]

01:16 PM on 03/13/2011

Is it a coincidence that the areas at greatest risk of tsunami are blue states? How come no one mentions the obscenely bloated dept. Of defense budget? How come no one asks about, or attempts to look for, that five BILLION in Iraq?

[Reversecigol]

11:18 AM on 03/13/2011

On one hand, I am not surprised by Republican efforts to cut costs, but on the other, it should empower voters to reconsider their options in 2012. Asking a Republican to alter his or her approach is akin to forcing a person to chance their belief system. It does not work. They get elected because their beliefs reflect those of the majority of their constituents (which raises two concerns--either there aren't enough people voting, or the public in certain areas retains that boxed-in mentality).

1) If you accept Global Warming is happening, then you need improved services to monitor events which could have catastrophic consequences--whether in Japan, New Orleans, or elsewhere.

2) Acknowledging the deficit is in beyond dire conditions and is unacceptable--two things need to happen:
1) America needs to produce more (more domestic jobs, more production, dollars stay stateside, increase exports)
2) Pragmatically, there do need to be reductions in spending, but if you want to maintain some of the services provided, you as tax-payers must be willing to pay higher taxes. The GOP finds this option unacceptable. I think it's necessary.

[Strings55]

07:43 AM on 03/13/2011

Rena Lanfordway saying:

"I don't really support a nanny state either, but compared to what any corporatio­n would do if left unchecked? At least government cannot have, ideally, a profit-min­ded mentality. Government is supposed to be loyal to the people."

Rena, the problem is with human nature itself, not whether it's government or private enterprise. Please take a moment to look at this Phil Donahue clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p31-xQ2Rrz4

"A company need not even be loyal to its customers, especially if it knows it has recognitio­n and reach to subsist and persist."

And what of General Motors? They were not loyal to their customers or their share-holders.

What happened to them?

"I find nothing wrong with having informatio­n that lacks the bias of the supplier, personally­. I'd rather be more worried about freedom of speech, press, and content."

Following on what Milton Friedman just said. You don't think the government or its employees are without bias? This whole business about a so-called budget 'cut' (look up "baseline budgeting" to see what I mean) from NOAA that amounts to about 2% of a $5.5 billion budget. They focus right on tsunami preparedness that's going to get "cut back". Why? Because it's in the news right now. Does the budget cutback specifically talk about tsunami preparedness programs?

NO!

There are no angels in government or in the free market.

[Jared Hemmila]

07:00 AM on 03/13/2011

Honestly, can't we take care of the problems at home first? I never hear of other countries bailing out the States when there's a natural disaster here.

[hopeisalive]

10:04 AM on 03/13/2011

If you have never heard of countries offering help to the United States during natural disasters, then you weren't listening when the Gulf Oil explosion took place as many countries offered skimmers and other boats, but it would have taken an act of Congress to allow other countries to be that close to our shores for that purpose and the Party of No effectively cut that off.

[justin sane]

03:01 AM on 03/13/2011

Until Michael Moore indirectly pointed it out to me, I never realized the collective wealth of all those evil billionaires in America adds up to a small fraction of the national debt (about 1/15th). The fact is there is a huge federal spending problem and it has been getting worse. You could say people get hurt when NOAA or the national weather service is underfunded, but who gets hurt when you're government is paying half a trillion dollars ($1666 per person) per year in interest?

[hopeisalive]

10:07 AM on 03/13/2011

The National Debt has taken decades to form and will take decades to reduce. When the tax cuts were extended, $600 billion was added to the debt. I'd suggest to you that recinding those cuts would be one bigger way that trying to cut $100 billion out of the smallest part of our budget, descretionary spending.

[Coyote50]

01:31 PM on 03/13/2011

I think you misheard Michael Moore - we could cut $800,000B out of the deficit simply by rolling back the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy. If we went back to the rates during President Eisenhower's term (Republican, 1950's), we could knock it off quite quickly. Those rates were 70% to 90% on all income over what was then $750,000 (now $5.5M). Cheney was the architect of dismantling the truly progressive tax rates we had at the time. Do you really think that cutting what the NOAA is doing is worth saving rich people more money than most of the rest of us make a year - but which is a fraction of their fortunes?

[justin sane]

12:13 AM on 03/16/2011

I agree with you. I think we should cut the Bush tax cuts. And we should cut federal spending in every area. Programs like NOAA are great when you have the money to pay for them.

[Mrpibb]

10:55 PM on 03/12/2011

I’d much rather be know as the country that shows up to help in times of need versus the country that shows up to take over when we need something.

[Coyote50]

01:31 PM on 03/13/2011

Fanned. Very sweet and humane comment. I agree totally.

[rob126]

10:51 PM on 03/12/2011

It's the Regressives way. Profits before people. The market place will determine who gets rescued. Pay to be saved.

(Many thanks for those who came up with the Regressive label.)

[GenXer]

09:42 PM on 03/12/2011

Tsunami's and Hurricains are rare and relatively cheap to recover from.

[hopeisalive]

10:11 AM on 03/13/2011

"Relatively cheap to recover from?" New Orleans is not recovered from Hurricane Katrina as yet and that is over 5 years ago. This tsunami in Japan will take billions and many years to recover from, but I guess that these events don't happen monthly or that frequently in the US allows you to make your statement. These events do happen in many parts of the world, but because they are elsewhere and in areas of less importance to us, they don't make the news. If one of these events happened in your community, I believe you might sing a different tune.

[GenXer]

01:17 PM on 03/13/2011

See also fesecious

[Coyote50]

01:33 PM on 03/13/2011

I don't think that the families of the over 200,000 people who died in Indonesia because they weren't warned in time, or the 10,000 so far who have died in Japan would agree with you. And think how many more there would have been in Japan if they weren't able to get some warning out.

[MinerSam]

08:35 PM on 03/12/2011

Early into the Iraq war the Republicans sent **Billions to Bagdad in Hundred dollar bills**
To be paid ($200Million) to such companies as the based in Texas -- that called the
White regularly -- whose jobe was such things as preparing the Airport for tourists when
no tourists were coming, and have new Iraqi money printed in Lebanon.

[Knute]

07:14 PM on 03/12/2011

Translation into English of Republican talking points:

"Better that corporations and the rich pay little to no taxes than to have the lives of the general public protected in the event of a natural disaster."

[1deepstar]

06:54 PM on 03/12/2011

Tell those bozos that we had millions of dollars worth of damage right here in Hawaii, see the pics at my website www.everbluefreediving.com , and the tsunami early warning system saved a lot of lives. Why is it that these guys are always on the wrong side when a crisis comes down the pipe or common sense is required?

[susanai]

07:31 PM on 03/12/2011

Love your site. Great photo's - pity about the thong.

[Coyote50]

01:39 PM on 03/13/2011

That's the nature of being a conservative - always trying to pull us back to an earlier century. These folks are the inheritors of those who have opposed science for centuries and those who opposed the very formation of our country. As someone above pointed out, they should really be called regressives. Bottom-line, what they are conserving is their own money. They have no commitment to the society at large, they don't care about helping other people (despite their shrieking about their so-called christian values). I'm sorry about what happened in Hawaii and I'm glad that there weren't a lot of deaths.

We all do well when we ALL do well -- Senator Paul Wellstone.

[Brian J Conway]

06:13 PM on 03/12/2011

Japan is a wealthy nation. They do not need U. S. dollars. We are sending them aid in the form of search and rescue assets, airlift capability, and other technical assistance. Isn't it time for some other nations to put their shoulders to the wheel. We're broke.

BrianConway__NY

[readmoreandoften]

06:55 PM on 03/12/2011

Quit being a jack_a** Brian. Seriously.

[Knute]

07:25 PM on 03/12/2011

Compassionate guy, aren't ya?

.....and quit parroting Fox/Teapublican talking points. We're not broke! But corporations and the wealthy have successfully shaped "reality" to the point that this is the dominant narrative. We were running massive surpluses the last time Democrats were in charge, and the only thing that changed is that Republicans took over to once again prove that government doesn't work.

The truth is that aggregate (federal/state/local) tax rates on the wealthy are now at their lowest rates in 60 years, and any corporation with a tax department worth their salt is paying little to no taxes -- regardless of what the official "tax rate" is. As you might have heard recently, 2/3 of the corporations in Wisconsin paid ZERO in corporate taxes last year. What IS happening is that the top economic class has decided to simply stop investing in the common good of this country, whether it be schools, roads, bridges, and now disaster preparedness.

True patriots, aren't they?

[Alexander Cardosa]

06:12 AM on 03/13/2011

And why should the rich pay?

This is not new this problem should have been fix long ago and now it may be the end of an America we loved. Maybe if less people went to the military and that started to go down hill then the rich would not feel as safe. But since the middle class is to stupid now and the poor are basically useless and can't even vote in their best interest I say the more cuts the better and let it all burn down in the coming decade. Then maybe we will stop playing this game we started playing since the 70's.

[Coyote50]

01:41 PM on 03/13/2011

F&F. They are selfish greedy people who don't care a whit about anyone else.

[Tabuism]

06:01 PM on 03/12/2011

We can all send our Love and compassion, to those who survive this tragedy, and pray that the lost find peace...

[desert bloom]

05:34 PM on 03/12/2011

This may be off topic but did any one hear what Ed Shultz said about the earthquake victims in Japan? He is a horrible man.

[exPatPatti]

04:48 PM on 03/12/2011

Cmon mods. Jeez!