https://crsreports.congress.gov
Updated April 3, 2025
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
FY2025 Budget Request and Appropriations
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA) is an agency in the Department of Commerce
whose mission is to understand and predict changes in
climate, weather, oceans, and coasts; share that information;
and conserve and manage coastal and marine ecosystems
and resources. On March 15, 2025, Congress passed a full-
year continuing resolution discretionary appropriations for
NOAA for the remainder of FY2025, and President Trump
signed it into law (P.L. 119-4). NOAA must submit a
spending plan for the appropriations to the House and
Senate Committees on Appropriations within 45 days of the
law’s enactment; it is unclear how similar to or different it
will be from other FY2025 funding proposals.
NOAA’s work is divided among six line offices: National
Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service
(NESDIS); National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS);
National Ocean Service (NOS); National Weather Service
(NWS); Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research
(OAR); and Office of Marine and Aviation Operations
(OMAO). NOAA’s Mission Support provides planning,
leadership, finances, information technology, educational
programming, and other support across the line offices.
Congress typically provides NOAA with annual mandatory
and discretionary appropriations. Mandatory appropriations,
which generally comprise a small percentage of total
NOAA funding, are disbursed to various accounts that
support programs in NOS, NMFS, and OMAO. NOAA’s
discretionary appropriations typically are included in the
annual Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies
(CJS) appropriations act. Discretionary appropriations
support two broad accounts—Operations, Research, and
Facilities (ORF) and Procurement, Acquisition, and
Construction (PAC)—and few smaller accounts. Annual
appropriations are one part of the agency’s direct
obligations or funding level, which also include transfers
and recoveries from prior year obligations. This product
focuses on the NOAA’s FY2025 direct obligations for ORF
and PAC.
Agency Funding
NOAA has requested between $4.7 billion and $7.2 billion
in direct obligations for ORF and PAC since FY2015;
Congress provided between $5.5 billion and $6.7 billion in
nominal dollars during that time. The OAR and PAC direct
obligations were higher in the mid-2010s, relative to the
recent past, when using adjusted for inflation (see orange
line in Figure 1).
FY2025 Request
The Biden Administration requested over $6.9 billion in
discretionary direct obligations for ORF and PAC for
FY2025 (out of $7.1 billion in total for all accounts),
including almost $6.5 billion in appropriations (Figure 1).
The request was $129.0 million above the FY2025 base
level ($6.8 billion) and $175.1 million over the FY2024
enacted amount ($6.7 billion). NOAA calculated the
FY2025 base level as equal to the amounts in a FY2024
continuing resolution (P.L. 118-40) plus expected
“Adjustments-To-Base,” such as certain inflationary
modifications.
Figure 1. ORF and PAC Annual Direct Obligations,
FY2015-FY2025 ($ in billions, nominal and adjusted)
Sources: CRS, from NOAA budget justifications, congressional
explanatory statements, and Budget FY2025, Table 10.1, Gross
Domestic Product and Deflators Used in the Historical Tables: 1940-
2029.
Notes: See text for abbreviations. Figure does not include additional
appropriations. Direct obligations include appropriations, transfers,
and recoveries from prior year obligations. Congress provided an
appropriations amount in P.L. 119-4 and did not provide a direct
obligations amount for FY2025.
FY2025 Enacted Appropriations
After various short-term CRs, in March 2025, Congress
provided the agency a total of $6.1 billion in appropriations
in P.L. 119-4. The law did not specify a direct obligations
amount. Congress had previously provided NOAA with
additional appropriations also available to the agency in
FY2025. According to NOAA, $515.6 million from the
Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA; P.L. 117-58),
$330.0 million from P.L. 117-169, known as the Inflation
