Trump’s plan to gut funding for Nasa and climate science

The administration is planning to slash budgets at both the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (Noaa) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa).

If the plan is approved by Congress, funding for OAR would be cut from $485m to $171m.

All budgets for climate, weather and ocean laboratories would be drained.

Noaa is facing a $1.3bn reduction to overall operations and research, and the National Ocean Service would be cut in half.

The proposal would also remove more than $324m from the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS).

Species-recovery grants, habitat conservation and restoration, and the interjurisdictional fisheries grant program, which support coordinated management and research with the states, would all lose funding. 

The government also  plans to significantly defund research at Nasa. Its budget will be cut by 20%, but deeper reductions will be directed at programs overseeing planetary science, earth science and astrophysics research.