US lawmakers fight Trump cuts to $386m ocean monitoring program: ‘supreme stupidity’

A bipartisan group of US lawmakers, including Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski and several Democrats, along with two Democratic House committees, are challenging the National Science Foundation's (NSF) decision to defund the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI). The OOI is a $386 million network of over 900 ocean sensors that has been crucial for tracking climate change, ocean circulation, and marine ecosystems for a decade, with data freely available and used in over 500 scientific publications. Lawmakers sent letters to the NSF asking them to reverse the plan to dismantle the program, which was intended to run for another 15 to 20 years, with House lawmakers accusing the agency of illegal action. The controversy highlights a conflict over federal funding for critical scientific research and environmental monitoring.