WASHINGTON — Staff reductions and budget cuts at the U.S. Commerce Department have Sen. Lisa Murkowski concerned for Alaska's major industries.
Alaska pilots, she said Wednesday, depend on the proper functioning of Automated Surface Observing Systems.
“The ASOS systems, as they are known, which provide for the aviation safety, are managed by the National Weather Service,” Murkowski told Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick at a Senate hearing. “So right now, we're looking at about a 40% staffing shortage.”
Murkowski urged Lutnick to look at the staffing levels in Alaska and make sure those systems aren’t compromised.
“We need them to stay operational. So if you can just commit to me that you'll look at that,” she said.
“Sounds sensible to me,” he responded.
At the hearing, Murkowski was one of several senators to confront Lutnick with home-state issues, suggesting the Commerce Department’s efforts to reduce its workforce come at a cost to their constituents.
The Commerce Department has targeted the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which includes the Weather Service, for a 20% staff reduction. NOAA has conducted decades of research on climate change, a field of science the Trump administration seeks to defund.
Nationwide, the Trump administration has shrunk the National Weather Service by about 600 workers, the New York Times reports, and is now trying to hire back about 100 employees.
Murkowski also told Lutnick that Alaska’s oil tankers depend on another service of the Commerce Department: the National Data Buoy Center, which manages hundreds of buoys in Alaska, including a critical one in Prince William Sound.
“The tankers can't leave Valdez unless they get the wave height information from the buoy, the weather buoy that's sitting out there, right? This buoy has been out of commission for months,” she said. “And we're told it's due to funding for operation and maintenance in NOAA’s budget.
“It's really old. It needs to be replaced,” Lutnick said.
Murkowski agreed on the need for an upgrade, but in the meantime, she told him, the system needs to work so that safety isn’t compromised.
She also said Alaska’s seafood industry needs trade policies to counter Russian moves to dominate the market.
Lutnick spoke at a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing to defend President Trump’s 2026 budget request.
