Trump Admin Drops Plan to Upend Ocean Research After Senate Unanimously Approves Reed, Whitehouse Backed Bill to Safeguard Critical Ocean Monitoring Network

WASHINGTON, DC - After the U.S. Senate unanimously passed a bipartisan bill last night to pause the Trump Administration's shortsighted dismantling of the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI), the Administration announced today that it is backing off its plan to end the complex ocean observation network that provides real-time, publicly available data for fishermen, coastal communities, and researchers.

U.S. Senators Jack Reed (D-RI) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) cosponsored the Saving the OOI Act (S.4822) introduced by Senators Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK).

The NSF's OOI is made up of about 900 instruments and sensors that provide real-time ocean monitoring by collecting and sharing data that is beneficial to local fishermen, coastal communities, and ocean researchers. Data made available by OOI has helped researchers to better understand hurricanes, climate change, heat wave impacts on fisheries, and other ocean phenomena.

"This is good news for our fishermen, our climate, and our researchers," said Senator Reed. "In the midst of hurricane season, while a strong El Niño is expected to drive up temperatures to historic highs again this summer, it was a reckless move by the Trump Administration to try to get rid of the OOI's critical network of ocean monitoring equipment that has helped researchers advance discoveries on exactly these kinds of ocean phenomena. I am glad that climate advocates, scientists, and fishermen made their voices heard and that bipartisan Senators came together to sink the Trump Administration's plan."

"I've been working behind the scenes with Senator Murkowski and our Oceans Caucus to get President Trump's oily fingers off the nation's ocean monitoring network," said Whitehouse, Ranking Member of the Environment and Public Works Committee and co-founder of the Senate Oceans Caucus. "Trump's fossil fuel donors would love the federal government to stop measuring the enormous damage their pollution is doing to the oceans. With an extreme El Niño starting, and climate change warming our oceans by the zettajoule, this President must not leave fishermen and weather forecasters flying blind."

In addition to Senators Reed and Whitehouse, the Merkley-Murkowski bill was cosponsored by U.S. Senators Dan Sullivan (R-AK), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Patty Murray (D-WA), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Edward J. Markey (D-MA), and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD).

The Trump Administration has repeatedly tried to halt OOI monitoring by proposing to slash the program's budget, only to be defeated by bipartisan lawmakers, including Reed and Whitehouse, who successfully fought to restore the funding.

Off the coast of New England, OOI operates the Coastal Pioneer Array of sensors and instruments. This station is one of five arrays located in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. According to a previous statement, the NSF planned to dismantle and remove the Pioneer Array beginning in June 2027. The Administration had already begun decommissioning the Endurance Array off the coast of the Pacific Northwest, but today reversed course and announced that they "are developing plans to redeploy the equipment after servicing."

In 2024, the University of Rhode Island won a $3.2 million NSF award to support OOI over five years. The funding is being used to expand access to OOI data and to educate and engage scientists and the public about key discoveries made possible by the complex network of ocean monitoring instruments and sensors.

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