Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) sent a letter to Department of Commerce acting Inspector General Roderick Anderson, asking him to investigate whether cuts at the National Weather Service affected the response to the tragic Texas floods.
There have been questions about whether NWS staff cuts due to the Trump administration’s cost-saving mission could have led to a slower response to the floods, though the Department of Homeland Security has strongly rejected those claims. DHS outlined the various warnings sent out from the NWS, dating back to the morning of July 3. At least 82 people are dead from a deluge that hit Central Texas over the Fourth of July weekend.
Among the 82 dead are nearly two dozen children, most from Camp Mystic, a summer camp near the Guadalupe River. The mass casualty event is one of the deadliest for children in United States history. Twenty children were killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012.
“Following the disastrous and deeply devastating flash flooding in Texas this weekend, I urge you to immediately open an investigation into the scope, breadth, and ramifications of whether staffing shortages at key local National Weather Service (NWS) stations contributed to the catastrophic loss of life and property during the deadly flooding,” Schumer wrote in the Monday letter.
The NWS is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Experts previously warned that cutting staff or funds to NOAA could lead to more weather-related deaths because of slower warnings and less accurate forecasts.
Sen. Chuck Schumer is sending a letter to the Acting Inspector General asking him to explain whether NWS cuts affected the response to Texas floods.
h/t @PunchbowlNews: pic.twitter.com/c5ldw56Lud
— Ross O'Keefe (@RossOKeefe2) July 7, 2025
Schumer cited the New York Times’s reporting that the NWS offices in San Angelo and San Antonio had critical vacancies during the floods. They explained that positions such as warning coordination meteorologist, science officer, hydrologist, and other vital forecasting, meteorology, and coordination roles were vacant.
The vacancy rate across the NWS offices has roughly doubled since January, the New York Times reported.
“The roles left unfilled are not marginal, they’re critical. These are the experts responsible for modeling storm impacts, monitoring rising water levels, issuing flood warnings, and coordinating directly with local emergency managers about when to warn the public and issue evacuation orders. To put it plainly: they help save lives,” Schumer wrote.
However, the same outlet also reported that the failure to adopt a new local warning system, or “last mile” efforts, also contributed to residents not seeing the many alerts from NWS.
Schumer is asking Anderson, who has been deputy inspector general of the Commerce Department since 2019 before taking over the head position at the start of the Trump administration, whether the cuts affected the flooding event, delayed flood warnings, or had an impact on their coordination with emergency officials.
He is also asking about specific vacancies across the United States and in the San Angelo and San Antonio offices, whether risk assessments have been performed for the shortage of staff, whether restoring staffing levels would help, and whether the two offices were operationally equipped for the floods.
A Commerce Department spokesperson told the New York Times that the “timely and accurate forecasts and alerts for Texas this weekend prove that the NWS remains fully capable of carrying out its critical mission.”
Independent experts denied that the forecasting or warnings were insufficient. “The forecasting was good. The warnings were good. It’s always about getting people to receive the message,” Chris Vagasky, a meteorologist based in Wisconsin, told NBC News. “It appears that is one of the biggest contributors — that last mile.”
Nevertheless, Nim Kidd, chief of the Texas Division of Emergency Management, seemed to blame the NWS for inaccurate rainfall forecasts. “The amount of rain that fell in this specific location was never in any of those forecasts,” he said.
As a result of all the rain, dangerous flash floods occurred. Flash floods can overwhelm places with water very quickly. Camp Mystic was one of the most affected sites, and its director, Dick Eastland, reportedly gave his life while trying to save children from the flooding.
Photos showed the camp in disarray as the world, including several world leaders and President Donald Trump, mourned the tragedy at Camp Mystic. Trump said he will visit Texas on Friday to survey the flood damage.
TEXAS DEMOCRAT SEEKS ANSWERS ON ‘MISSING KEY’ WEATHER PERSONNEL AS FLOOD DEATHS RISE
Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) remarked on Sunday that the cuts at the NWS should be investigated as they pertain to the floods. Castro said he did not want to say “conclusively” whether the cuts did affect the response.
“I don’t think it’s helpful to have missing key personnel from the National Weather Service not in place to help prevent these tragedies. When I say we ought to do everything possible to help prevent a tragedy. … That’s part of what I mean,” Castro said.
