Congress freezes NOAA layoffs until budget passes, protecting federal workforce.
H.R. 2211 — Saving NOAA’s Workforce Act · Filed by Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) · 19 cosponsors · Introduced Mar 18, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill freezes layoffs and involuntary separations at NOAA until Congress passes a full-year budget for fiscal 2026. Employees can still be fired for misconduct, delinquency, or inefficiency, but NOAA cannot conduct mass reductions in force or force out workers for other reasons during the freeze period.
Why we flagged it
The bill's operative mechanism is a time-limited freeze on involuntary separations at a federal agency, protecting employee job security pending budget enactment. It is a straightforward personnel protection measure, not a broader policy reform.
What the text implies
- The moratorium expires automatically upon enactment of full-year FY2026 appropriations, creating a cliff where NOAA regains full reduction-in-force authority without further legislative action.
- The bill does not restrict hiring freezes, furloughs, or other non-RIF personnel actions, leaving NOAA alternative cost-control tools during the moratorium period.
- Employees in the Senior Executive Service (SES) and excepted service are protected equally with competitive-service employees, extending the freeze beyond the typical civil-service core.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Federal employees at NOAA gain job security and protection against arbitrary layoffs during budget uncertainty. The public benefits indirectly through workforce stability at an agency responsible for weather forecasting, climate monitoring, and fisheries management — functions that depend on continuity and expertise.
Named in the bill
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), U.S. House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, Title 5, United States Code (federal personnel law)
Where it stands
19 cosponsors: 19 Democrats.
- Mar 18, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Mar 18, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology and House Committee on Natural Resources · Congress.gov: “Referred to the Committee on Natural Resources, and in addition to the Committee on Science, Space, and…”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
2 lobbying clients named this bill on 3 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $413,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 68 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 41% of bills with at least one filing.
Zoe Lofgren, the sponsor, reported $470,979 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Ocean Conservancy — $403,000 on 2 filings
- Vineyard Wind 1, LLC — $10,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 16, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (1,099 characters) on Nov 2, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,927 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 16, 2026 · page rendered 2026-11-02.
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