The following is the April 3, 2025, report, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) FY2025 Budget Request and Appropriations.
From the report
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is an agency in the Department of Commerce whose mission is to understand and predict changes in climate, weather, oceans, and coasts; share that information; and conserve and manage coastal and marine ecosystems and resources. On March 15, 2025, Congress passed a full-year continuing resolution discretionary appropriations for NOAA for the remainder of FY2025, and President Trump signed it into law (P.L. 119-4). NOAA must submit a spending plan for the appropriations to the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations within 45 days of the law’s enactment; it is unclear how similar to or different it will be from other FY2025 funding proposals.
NOAA’s work is divided among six line offices: National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS); National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS); National Ocean Service (NOS); National Weather Service (NWS); Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR); and Office of Marine and Aviation Operations (OMAO). NOAA’s Mission Support provides planning, leadership, finances, information technology, educational programming, and other support across the line offices.
Congress typically provides NOAA with annual mandatory and discretionary appropriations. Mandatory appropriations, which generally comprise a small percentage of total NOAA funding, are disbursed to various accounts that support programs in NOS, NMFS, and OMAO. NOAA’s discretionary appropriations typically are included in the annual Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS) appropriations act. Discretionary appropriations support two broad accounts—Operations, Research, and Facilities (ORF) and Procurement, Acquisition, and Construction (PAC)—and few smaller accounts. Annual appropriations are one part of the agency’s direct obligations or funding level, which also include transfers and recoveries from prior year obligations. This product focuses on the NOAA’s FY2025 direct obligations for ORF and PAC.
Agency Funding
NOAA has requested between $4.7 billion and $7.2 billion in direct obligations for ORF and PAC since FY2015; Congress provided between $5.5 billion and $6.7 billion in nominal dollars during that time. The OAR and PAC direct obligations were higher in the mid-2010s, relative to the recent past, when using adjusted for inflation (see orange line in Figure 1).
FY2025 Request
The Biden Administration requested over $6.9 billion in discretionary direct obligations for ORF and PAC for FY2025 (out of $7.1 billion in total for all accounts), including almost $6.5 billion in appropriations (Figure 1). The request was $129.0 million above the FY2025 base level ($6.8 billion) and $175.1 million over the FY2024 enacted amount ($6.7 billion). NOAA calculated the FY2025 base level as equal to the amounts in a FY2024 continuing resolution (P.L. 118-40) plus expected “Adjustments-To-Base,” such as certain inflationary modifications.
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