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On March 11, the White House released the President’s Budget for Fiscal Year 2025, which proposes funding levels for government offices, including NOAA. NOAA houses the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing Network (U.S. IOOS), which supports the nation's 11 Regional Observing networks — including GCOOS.
The proposed funding for the Regional Associations within the U.S. IOOS office budget is $10 million.
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This is a reduction of more than 76% from the budgets enacted in fiscal years 2023 and 2024.
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If enacted, funding at this level would cripple the nation's ocean observing capabilities.
The federal funding provided via U.S. IOOS is critical for GCOOS and other Regional Associations to maintain observing infrastructure like ocean platforms, sensors and radars, to maintain data management capacity and to provide data services and products for end-users.
While coastal residents may not always realize it, data collected and disseminated by GCOOS and the nation's 10 other regional associations impact their lives in large and small ways almost every day. The data our partners collect and that we disseminate are crucial for things such as predicting hurricane and tropical storm intensification, supporting a safe offshore energy industry, supporting safe ship navigation within ports and even keeping people safe from toxic algal blooms.
- The President's proposed budget is less than any funding level for the Regional Associations since the U.S. IOOS Program's inception in the 2008 federal budget.
- For context, the FY2024 enacted budget provided $42.5 million in core funding for all of the Regional Associations.
The IOOS Association, a nonprofit advocacy organization which supports the nation's Regional Associations, is asking that ocean observing partners, supporters and user communities send a strong message to Congress against these funding cuts.
To help, you can sign on to one of the IOOS Association letters of support:
- Simply click the link below that corresponds with your position
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