The White House pushed back Monday against claims that the DOGE cuts to the National Weather Service played a role in the deadly floods that swept through Texas Hill Country.
President Donald Trump and the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency presided over deep cuts to the NWS, but White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told reporters that the weather service issued alerts and the administration shouldn’t be blamed for the disaster.
“That was an act of God,” Leavitt said. “It’s not the administration’s fault that the flood hit when it did. But there were early and consistent warnings, and again, the National Weather Service did its job.”
Finger-pointing has become a familiar ritual after natural disasters, fueled in this case by social media and the well-publicized efforts of the Trump administration to slash the federal government, including the weather service.
Nearly 600 employees left the National Weather Service in a period of several months ending in June, including fired probationary employees and people taking early retirement.
Several top Democrats have suggested that the staff cuts undermined forecasting and hampered the disaster response. Vacancies at local National Weather Service offices in San Angelo and San Antonio were for jobs “meant to coordinate disaster response and save lives,” the Democratic Party wrote on X.
“Accurate weather forecasting helps avoid fatal disasters,” Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy said in a social media post. “There are consequences to Trump’s brainless attacks on public workers, like meteorologists.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Monday sent a letter to the Commerce Department’s acting inspector general, asking for a probe into whether staffing shortages at key National Weather Service stations contributed to the loss of life.
Some experts and advocates, including Tom Fahy, legislative director at the National Weather Service Employees Organization, said vacancies at local NWS offices that serve the affected areas did not hamper the flood response.
Leavitt dismissed the criticism.
“Many Democrat elected officials are trying to turn this into a political game, and it is not,” she told reporters. “This is a national tragedy, and the administration is treating it as such. We know the National Weather Service provided early and consistent warnings; they gave out timely flash flood alerts.”