They're ganging up on a hapless incompetent bush,jr

May 17, 2007

Hurricane Chief: NOAA Wasted Millions

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 3:53 p.m. ET

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- The federal government is spending millions of

dollars on a publicity campaign while its hurricane forecasters are

struggling with budget cuts, the National Hurricane Center's director said

Thursday.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is spending up to $4

million to publicize a 200th anniversary celebration, said Bill Proenza, who

heads the hurricane center, part of the National Weather Service, which is a

NOAA agency. At the same time, it has cut $700,000 from hurricane research,

he said.

''No question about it, it is not justified. It is using appropriated funds

for self promotion,'' Proenza said in a phone interview while attending the

Florida Governor's Hurricane Conference in Fort Lauderdale.

NOAA spokesman Anson Franklin said the agency is only spending about $1.5

million on the campaign over two years. He said it is justified to publicize

the agency's mission to a public that is often unaware of its involvement in

weather prediction and forecasting.

''It's part of our responsibility to tell the American people what we do,''

Franklin said. ''It's inaccurate and unfair to just characterize this as

some sort of self-celebration.''

Proenza has been critical of NOAA since taking over the post in January.

He says millions of dollars in new funding is needed for expanded research

and storm forecasting. One immediate concern is the ''QuikScat'' weather

satellite, which lets forecasters measure such basics as wind speed and

direction. Proenza said the satellite could fail anytime, degrading storm

prediction capabilities, and there are no plans to replace it.

Franklin said NOAA is considering several options if the satellite fails,

including outfitting other satellites with similar technology. Overall, he

said, NOAA spends $300 million of its $4 billion annual budget on hurricane

forecasting and research.

NOAA is also considering name changes for the National Hurricane Center and

the National Weather Service, adding its own logo to both entities. NOAA

officials say it is about broadening the agency's name recognition as a

whole and establishing an identity.

However, Proenza fears the move could dilute funding to individual agencies

within NOAA and will confuse the American public, which has come to rely on

the credibility of the National Weather Service as a brand name.

Craig Fugate, Florida's emergency disaster chief, was also frustrated by

that move.

''I think it really shows how sometimes bureaucracies lose sight of their

mission, trying to capitalize in such a way that short-term goals are

actually detrimental to long-term goals,'' he said.

The 2007 hurricane season begins June 1, and forecasters are predicting it

will be busy. The hurricane center issues the watches, warnings and

forecasts as potentially hazardous tropical storms form.