BOULDER - Rumors spread on Monday, April 21, 2025, that Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE/Musk) was to appear at the U.S. Department of Commerce building on South Broadway in Boulder, presumably to visit the offices of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

With both scientific research agencies having been recently targeted by the Trump Administration, and due to the local resistance against DOGE/Musk, the rumors circulating across social media, including 50501 Colorado on Facebook and on Boulder-based Reddit threads, resulted in up to 100 protestors gathering outside. 

The immediate action also grabbed the attention of Colorado Representative Joe Neguse, who arrived at the scene to speak with community members before entering the building to meet with those federal workers whose jobs are potentially in danger.

Neguse later made a statement to the crowd and media present, stating that the rumors of DOGE/Musk personnel having been at the building, or turned away by security because of lack of proper identification, were untrue.

However, despite that fact, Neguse spoke candidly in opposition to DOGE/Musk’s and the Trump Administration’s efforts against scientific institutions.

“I had an opportunity to visit with personnel from both agencies and was told that DOGE personnel were not on scene today,” Neguse said. “That being said, we know that NOAA, NIST, and our federal labs remain targets of DOGE and this administration in their efforts to deconstruct the agencies that are serving the American public.

“NIST and NOAA are crown jewels of the national laboratory system, and of course, here in Colorado. Make no mistake, we’re going to continue to stay on it and do everything that we can to prevent the disastrous cuts that the Trump Administration has proposed, and will continue to do our part to defend these laboratories.”

Joining Rep. Neguse at the impromptu demonstration outside of the U.S. Department of Commerce on Monday were the building’s namesake, former U.S. Rep. David Skaggs, and Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, who also joined Neguse in naming NOAA and NIST “crown jewels.”

“We don’t mess with our core institutions here in the USA,” Weiser said on a live Facebook feed. “We need to make sure that the people working here can do work that’s critical to deal with the challenges of our changing climate, to make sure that we in Colorado, we in America, have the benefit of science. That’s what we’re fighting for. Stay in the fight.”

Neguse promised the crowd that no federal job cuts would take place on that Monday, but the severe cutting of Boulder’s federal jobs and probationary employees was what brought the crowd out so quickly that morning.

With signs reading “Science Saves Lives” and a banner exclaiming “Colorado Resists the 2025 Fascist Coup,” protestors were gathered to speak out against the loss of hundreds of NOAA jobs back on February 27, the loss of more than 80 probationary employees, and the potential removal of all researchers at NOAA on work visas. 

A leaked White House document that highlights the Passback Agency’s pre-decisional funding plan for 2026 indicates that the Trump Administration plans to cut NOAA’s budget by 27% and plans to close the NOAA’s Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) program. 

According to the document, through billions of dollars in funding to the Department of Commerce, the Passback Agency “refocuses the Department on core activities like enforcing trade laws, producing core statistical products, conducting leading edge R&D, and collecting essential scientific observations like ocean and weather data to support navigation and forecasting.

“Passback eliminates functions of the Department that are misaligned with the President's agenda and the expressed will of the American people,” the document continues. “There are a number of areas described below where the Department should act now to align existing resources and activities to the direction in Passback. This includes taking proactive action to address unsustainable costs in NOAA's satellite acquisition programs and realize savings in the Office of Space Commerce.

“The Department should similarly evaluate spending across NOAA's various education, grants, and research programs to shift away from programs that are not funded, or significantly reduced, in Passback.”

NOAA will be provided with $4.456 billion from the Passback Agency, a reduction of $1.672 billion from 2025; the agency also plans to cancel NOAA’s $537.4 million IA advanced appropriation for 2026. 

The elimination of the OAR program as a line office in turn eliminates funding for Ocean Laboratories and Cooperative Institutes, Regional Climate Data and Information, Climate Competitive Research, College and Aquaculture Sea Grants, and the National Oceanographic Partnership Program. 

It also moves the funding apparatus for several other ocean and weather-related programs to remaining line offices in an attempt to “streamline program management rather than increase bureaucratic layers.”  

Despite any federal budget cuts still requiring final approval from Congress, the leaked document directs the Department of Commerce to follow through with the proposed 2026 budget as if it is pre-approved.   

These cuts, if enacted, will greatly affect the country’s ability to provide any further research and understanding into climate and environmental sciences. 

One partnership that NOAA has had since 1967, in conjunction with CU Boulder, is with the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), which will also be shuttered if the Passback Agency’s pre-decisional funding plan for 2026 is enacted as written. 

CIRES’s mission is to “conduct innovative research that advances our understanding of the global, regional, and local environments and the human relationship with those environments, for the benefit of society.”

With partners around the world, CIRES’s expert scientists continually research the changes in our weather and climate, to our air quality, our atmospheric chemistry, and to changes at our North and South poles. 

CIRES employs more than 900 people and is the leading research institute of its kind.