Murkowski leads Democrats in effort to fight ocean climate monitoring reductions

By SUZANNE DOWNING

June 15, 2026 – Sen. Lisa Murkowski has once again found herself aligned with some of the most liberal members of Congress, this time leading an effort to block the Trump Administration from dismantling an ocean-climate monitoring network that has become emblematic of Washington’s sprawling climate research bureaucracy.

Murkowski joined Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon in leading a letter Monday demanding that the National Science Foundation halt plans to dismantle much of the Ocean Observatories Initiative, a $386 million network of more than 900 ocean-monitoring sensors deployed off the coasts of Alaska, Oregon, Washington, North Carolina, and Greenland.

Merkley has repeatedly in the past introduced legislation to shut down Alaska’s oil and gas economy. Yet Murkowski has partnered with him on this letter opposing Trump.

The ocean monitoring project, built over the past decade to the tune of hundreds of millions  of dollars, gathers data on ocean circulation, marine ecosystems, climate trends, and weather. It was expected to continue operating for another 15 to 20 years.

The letter places Murkowski alongside some of the Senate’s most prominent anti-Alaska voices, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Edward Markey of Massachusetts, Patty Murray of Washington, Maria Cantwell of Washington, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, Ron Wyden of Oregon, and Merkley.

Together, the senators demanded that National Science Foundation stop the dismantling effort and conduct a comprehensive review with input from the marine science community before moving forward.

“Eliminating most of this complex ocean monitoring system threatens the safety of our coastal communities while undermining our nation’s ability to monitor coastal environments, marine currents, and extreme weather events,” the senators wrote.

The dispute centers on the National Science Foundation’s decision to remove most of the observatory’s equipment by 2027. The agency has characterized the move as a “descoping” rather than a cancellation, It’s reducing the scope of the project and moving resources elsewhere at a time when the Trump Administration has proposed a 55% reduction in th foundation’s funding as part of a broader effort to reduce federal spending and refocus research priorities.

The senators point to federal appropriations law, which requires NSF to notify congressional appropriations committees at least 30 days before decommissioning agency-owned facilities or assets valued above $2.5 million. Critics claim no such notification was provided.

Murkowski and Merkley announced plans to introduce legislation that would prohibit NSF from spending federal funds to dismantle the observatory until a formal review is completed.

The Senate effort was quickly joined by Democrats in the House of Representatives, who launched an even more aggressive attack on the administration’s decision.

A joint letter from Democrats on the House Science, Space and Technology Committee and the House Natural Resources Committee demanded that NSF “cease this expensive, destructive, and — crucially — illegal action at once.”

The House letter was led by California Democrats Zoe Lofgren and Jared Huffman.

Huffman is well known in Alaska political circles as a close ally of former congresswoman Mary Peltola and an aggressiv opponent of Alaska resource development projects. He has repeatedly advocated for stricter environmental regulations affecting energy, mining, and fisheries policies important to Alaska’s economy.

The House Democrats accused NSF of wasting taxpayer dollars by paying contractors to remove and dismantle equipment that is already deployed and operational.

“Instead of paying for the valuable insights that can be gleaned from the 10-years-and-counting continuous monitoring, taxpayers are now paying for research vessels to span the ocean dredging up hundreds of pieces of instrumentation,” the House Democrats wrote. “This is pathetic.”

NSF says its decision was informed in part by a 2025 National Academies report examining the future of ocean science and maintains that it remains committed to supporting high-priority ocean research.

The latest alliance by Murkowski with Democrats is part of a broader pattern of Murkowski breaking with President Trump since his return to the White House.

Murkowski was one of only a small group of Republicans to oppose Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s confirmation and she also voted against several other Trump nominees, including Kash Patel for FBI director.

She became the first and one of the only Republican senators to publicly oppose the SAVE Act, Trump’s election-integrity proposal requiring proof of citizenship for federal voter registration.

In January, she joined Democrats in supporting a War Powers resolution aimed at limiting Trump’s authority to conduct military operations in Venezuela without congressional approval. Murkowski has also criticized aspects of the administration’s spending cuts, tariffs, and government restructuring efforts, making her one of the most frequent Republican dissenters during Trump’s second term, a pattern she established during his first term.