Musk’s government cost-cutting team ‘has been visiting’ Maryland-based NOAA weather agency, letter says

Representatives of billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency “have been visiting” the Maryland-based National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, according to congressional Democrats who are urging the Trump administration not to gut the weather-reporting agency.

“Unvetted and unknown DOGE bureaucrats on Musk’s landing team have been visiting NOAA’s headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, which we represent, reportedly with the intent to break up NOAA and move its functions into the Department of the Interior, an idea that you explicitly rejected in your Congressional testimony and would require Congressional approval,” Maryland lawmakers said in a letter Tuesday to Commerce Secretary-designate Howard Lutnick.

The letter, obtained by The Baltimore Sun, was led by Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Montgomery County Democrat whose district includes NOAA, and was signed by all of the Democrats in Maryland’s congressional delegation.

NOAA is part of the Commerce Department. According to the Congressional Research Service, it is “the principal federal agency tasked with understanding and predicting changes in climate, weather, oceans, and coasts.” It also works to conserve and manage coastal and marine ecosystems and resources.

The letter urged Lutnick, who is awaiting Senate confirmation, to reject gutting NOAA, which it called “the backbone of the nation’s weather-reporting infrastructure.”