Senators call on Holder to investigate Weather Service finances

[Geee]

TheHill:

Sens. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) on Friday called on Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate financial problems at the National Weather Service that threaten to cripple the agency.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has warned the union representing weather service employees that it will have to furlough thousands of employees just as hurricane season arrives because it is running out of money.

The budget deficit has occurred because National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has for years asked for too little money for the weather service and then paid employees by transferring funds from other projects. The secret transfers stopped following an investigation this spring.

Under federal law, these transfers may violate the Antideficiency Act which prevents bureaucrats from overriding the will of Congress and spending money on their own own accord.

"We cannot allow furloughs because of inept bureaucracy. I am on the side of the men and women of the Weather Service, and the American people who depend on their forecasts and warnings," Mikulski said. "I am working on a bipartisan basis with my Ranking Member Senator Hutchison to get all the facts so we can agree to a new plan to prevent furloughs in the short term, and right the Weather Service's financial ship for the long term.”

The senators, who chair the Senate Appropriations subcommittee in charge of the Commerce Department, have said they will not consider appropriating the $36 million the Weather Service needs

[RandyM]

Someone tell me again why we even have a NWS?