Leader Schumer Floor Remarks Calling On DHS To Reinstate Funding To Critical Weather Safety Programs

Washington, D.C. – Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor to call on the Department of Homeland Security to reverse its decision to cut critical weather monitoring funding, warning that eliminating essential programs, like one in New York, amid increasingly severe weather and in the wake of devastating floods in Texas, will have dangerous, far-reaching consequences across the country. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

We continue to pray and mourn for everyone affected by the flooding in Texas.

I still can't get the picture of those beautiful little girls [out of my head], I believe it was 27 of them, all gone in the flood. And I think about them, their parents mourning for them. Beautiful young lives, cut short.

The tragedy is a reminder that we all have a responsibility, as public servants, to secure every resource possible to protect our communities from the threats of Mother Nature, which we all know are growing every year.

You don't have to be a scientist, you don't have to be someone who studies the weather every day, to know that it has changed rapidly. And it's obvious that global warming, and more carbon in our atmosphere, is the main cause.

So, we need all the help we can get against natural disasters. We need to protect ourselves from the threats of Mother Nature, which are growing rapidly, with increasing frequency.

This is especially true in my home state of New York, which has seen its own share of natural disasters, including a tornado earlier this week in Ontario County. In New York, we never used to have any tornadoes. Last year, they counted 40.

So, I am alarmed that the Department of Homeland Security has cancelled a $3 million grant to the University at Albany’s Mesonet program. The EMPOWER program at the University at Albany is essential to help all New Yorkers stay safe, whether you live in New York City, in the suburbs or upstate.

It's essential for all New Yorkers, who need to be protected against extreme weather like flooding, who need the warning – which obviously didn't occur in Texas – that bad, bad, dangerous weather is coming.  

The program takes data from 127 different weather stations – from Western New York to Staten Island – to provide better weather models using real-time observations. It helps local emergency managers make better-informed decisions to protect lives and property.

It is just utterly amazing that right after the Texas flood, the Department of Homeland Security is thinking of eliminating this program, which should go across the whole country. It's one of the most advanced weather detection programs we have, and it looks at the atmosphere in various layers. It quickly combines information from various Mesonet stations and gets to the local authorities more quickly and accurately the dangers that might occur from extreme weather.

So, today I am calling on Secretary Noem and the Department of Homeland Security to reinstate funding to the EMPOWER Program immediately.

It makes no sense to deprive states like New York of resources when we need to stay fully prepared against natural disasters and severe weather.

Make no mistake: this cut to this program based in Albany will reverberate one end of the state to another. It will reverberate in places like Staten Island, where the College of Staten Island has a Mesonet Facility that is used by the EMPOWER Program.

If this funding is cancelled, it puts pressure at the state level to make it up – and that means fewer resources to alert local officials when dangerous and fast-developing storms develop.  

Canceling this funding is wrong-headed. It is ill-informed.

You know, it's typical of this administration. They just cut, cut, cut without even realizing the consequences.

And in the wake of the horrible tragedy in Texas, to do this now, seems all the more inappropriate, galling, and wrong-headed. People in New York will be at greater risk to unexpected storms.

Canceling this funding is ill-informed. It's also dangerous. I urge Secretary Noem to reverse course immediately.

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