Bipartisan lawmakers challenge NSF plan to dismantle $386 million ocean monitoring network

Summary

Democratic senators, one Republican senator (Lisa Murkowski), and two Democratic House committees have sent letters to the National Science Foundation opposing its plan to dismantle the Ocean Observatories Initiative — a $386 million network of over 900 ocean sensors that has tracked ocean circulation, marine ecosystems, climate change, and extreme weather over the past decade. House lawmakers have accused the agency of acting illegally in its efforts to cut the program.