A new proposed rule from the President’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) would restructure federal grantmaking throughout the United States, with potentially major effects on the weather, water, and climate enterprise as well as many other sectors and governments (e.g., state and local) that receive federal grant funds.
Titled “Regulation for Federal Financial Assistance,” the new OMB rule would give political appointees in the executive branch of the federal government significantly more authority in federal grantmaking decisions — requiring that political appointees determine whether specific grant proposals should be funded and giving appointees more power to terminate existing grants if they do not meet a presidential administration’s priorities. OMB is requesting comments on the proposed change by Monday, July 13 2026.
Today, AMS issued a statement outlining concerns with the proposed rule. In addition, a message sent to the AMS community strongly encourages members to review the proposed rule change and submit their own comments about how it would affect their work. You can find a resource page here with more information and links to submit comments. AMS will be submitting a formal comment on behalf of the Society.
The AMS statement reads, in part:
“The American Meteorological Society (AMS) is concerned that the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB’s) recently proposed rule, if implemented, would damage the nation’s ability to understand, predict, and respond to severe weather, drought, and other natural hazards with negative impacts on public safety and the economy.
The rule, as written, can be expected to cause reductions in the availability of environmental information for public audiences; slow the commercialization of advances in weather, water, and climate science; and reduce potential for future advances in the science of understanding and prediction of the Earth system.
Here we highlight five primary concerns with the proposed rules:
- Reduced public access to weather, water, and climate information as recipients of federal funding face new restrictions on public communication of their scientific knowledge and understanding (§ 200.206 and § 200.450);
- Reduced commercialization potential due to restrictions on the use of government funding to attend meetings where opportunities for researchers to engage directly with the private sector abound (§ 200.407, § 200.454, and § 200.432);
- Reduced emphasis on scientific merit for grants as political appointees may prioritize political interests and may not possess state-of-the-art technical knowledge and understanding with respect to science (§ 200.202, § 200.211, § 200.340, § 200.341, § 200.342, § 200.343);
- Reduced stability for projects requiring sustained effort and investment (e.g., long-term observations, long-running research projects, and training of the future scientific workforce) as political winds and interests shift (§ 200.202, § 200.205, § 200.211, § 200.340, § 200.341, § 200.342, § 200.343); and
- Reduced opportunities for scientific advancement as scientists would be more limited in how they report their research findings in scientific journals (§ 200.461) and less able to attend meetings where discussions of recent weather events, research advances, and potential new projects occur (§ 200.432).”
You can read the full statement here.
AMS is also among 323 organizations who have signed on to a letter requesting OMB to extend its comment deadline to August 27, 2026.
The letter notes that “The scope and impact of OMB’s proposed rule is vast. The proposed rule amends 91 parts of Title 2 of the Code of Federal Regulations across 456 different sections of the regulations, adding 52 new subsections and fully restating 375 sections. The rule will impact the entirety of government grant-making across the United States. … A 45-day comment period is insufficient to allow completion of the multi-disciplinary analysis needed to provide useful feedback to OMB.” Read the letter here [PDF].
