Axios: Lutnick’s Order Has Crippled NOAA Operations

Axios reports:

A Commerce Department requirement to have Secretary Howard Lutnick approve many NOAA contracts or extensions is slowing the agency’s operations to a crawl, current and former NOAA staff tell Axios. Six current and former NOAA staff described dozens of contracts currently awaiting Lutnick’s sign-off.

As severe thunderstorms rumbled along the East Coast on Monday, the National Weather Service faced the possibility of losing its ability to bring satellite and observational data into forecast offices in a timely manner, starting at midnight, current and former NOAA staff told Axios.

The department had yet to sign off on an extension to a contract for Raytheon to maintain and help upgrade the software system that powers every Weather Service forecast office nationwide. Known as the Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System, or

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