Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Nebraska first District Congressman Mike Flood back to the program, Michael,
good morning.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Hey, Good morning everyone.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Hey, I want to get an update because, well, I
don't know. About three weeks ago, I think we chatted
about the report of staffing issues at the National Weather
Service to the point where they were unable to launch
enough weather balloons at least to satisfy the meteorologists in
the area. You now have found out more right.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
That's right. So I went out there about a month
ago and met with the National Weather Service folks. And
you know, this has been going on for years. This
has happened under Joe Biden. Obviously, when they started offering
buyouts to employees. This year, we were losing staff and
they suspended the weather balloons. I went to the White House,
I shared with them what was going on, and I'm
pleased to report they are back in the weather balloon business.
(00:47):
We've got one going up a day today and next
week we'll be back to two. And they are reassigning
staff from other Weather Service stations in the nation to
make sure that Omaha will have what it needs. And
by extension, through this whole process that started with us
here in Omaha, We're going to see a bandlifted on
(01:08):
the hiring cap and we'll have meteorologists getting hired on
a temporary basis and then on a permanent basis around
the United States. So this is not only good for Omaha,
North Platte, Rapid City, but this is something that started
at Omaha with us, and it's going to affect the
entire nations.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Okay, I know that that is important, particularly on severe
weather season. Did you find out anything during this process
about what is involved in releasing a weather balloon, Because
I got to tell you, to the average bear or civilian,
it doesn't look like it's a major project, but it
must be.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Well, you know, to do two balloons a day, you
need six full time folks because not only do the
launch of balloon, you got to manage the day. You
got to put it all in the system. A lot
of that happens in the bigger issue here is, uh,
the Weather Service used to have three people per shift
that we're forecasting and doing all of that. Sometimes they're
(02:07):
down to one per shift, and so you got to
cut duties, and obviously the weather balloon's one of those duties.
I mean, we're to the point where if we didn't
get this fixed, there would be weather stations and offices
in the United States that wouldn't even be operating. And
so right now the Weather Service office in Valley is
close to fifty percent of their off the rized staffing,
(02:28):
which means there's one person on duty at times, which
is really unacceptable in an area that's got tornadoes and
wildfires and flooding and blizzards. And ironically, of all the
weather stations in the nation, people from meteorologists in San Diego,
they're like begging to go to Omaha. They want to
be at Aloha. We have to get a o.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
Yeah, because the weather what never changes. Shouldn't the shouldn't
these facilities Mike flood be in part funded by the states.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Why would they?
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Well, got to remember all of these weather UH Service
stations feed all their data into the FAA. So UH
aviation is a federally controlled uh you know, obviously regulated area.
It's interstate commerce. This is something that federal government has
done efficiently for one hundred years.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Efficiently. Really, Yeah, The National Weather Service has been pretty Yeah,
it has been that'd be the only federal agency has
been officially.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Run for the last hundred years.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
You have experience, I don't know if you do. I do.
I have experience going back into the seventies the National
Weather Service covering tornadoes and Grand Island, and then here
they're yeah, they're they're pretty good.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
Well they aren't. But uh, the reason that I bring
it up is that if you are partially funded by
the states, then you are immune from some of these
federal budget vagaries and you keep your people on staff.
If there is a specific fake appropriation from the states
to keep these vital services, nobody's going to argue that
(04:05):
we don't need a fully staffed National Weather Service. There
are just two offices, one in Norman, Oklahoma, and one
up here in Valley in the whole country that are
the top line, you know, weather observers, So we don't
have budget problems in the federal government that they're partially
funded by the states.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Didn't you say to Mike that some of them took
the initial Doge buyout offer at the time it was offered.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Yeah, Actually, nation wide, about five hundred and seventy one
Weather Service personnel have taken the buyout, including some in Omaha.
So yeah, that's you know, under Biden, he wasn't refilling
positions either, so they were down five and then of
course you get the buy outcoming and there's more at
the end of the day.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Though.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
This is a good bang for a buck, and I'm
going to introduce a bill probably within the next two
weeks that reclassifies National Weather Service personnel as public safety,
which should exempt them from situations like this.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
Well, that's helpful. So are you going to be making
any trips to El Salvador soon with your congressional colleagues.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
No, I'm going to Washington on Monday. Does that count?
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Same? Different? Bad enough?
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Okay, so you won't be making any trips to sip
Margarita's with MS thirteen gang members.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Can we be assured of that?
Speaker 2 (05:21):
No, that's not That's not on the bingo card this week.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
What do you think's going to happen before we run here?
What do you think is going to happen with this
with a spending resolution, the big beautiful bill.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Well, I think there's going to be it's gonna be
a very contentious may. Just inside the Republican conference, we
had twelve members on the Republican side come out and
say they don't want any custom medicaid. Well, any they
were concerned about custom Medicaid. Then you've got the Freedom
Caucus that they have an appetite that's much larger than
the Senat or some of their colleagues in the House.
(05:54):
And my guess is we're going to get down to
the ten yard line. It'll be March, it'll be May
twenty fifth, and everybody that's a holdout will be invited
to the White House for a very casual sit down
in President Trump and I'm sure, I'm sure that will
resolve a few issues, and then there'll be hard feelings yea,
and they want to.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Get away from Memorial Day weekend that are we going
to cut spending or not? Because dojes found one hundred
and fifty billion, Well that's nice, but it's a six
to seven trillion dollar budget. So are we going to
get serious about cutting spending or are we just going
to talk about it and then maybe nibble around the edges,
because either we're going to cut spending or we're not.
And one hundred and fifty billion is not cut and
(06:30):
spending I.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Totally agree with that. I would tell you that the
appetite in the House to cut spending is pretty high.
In fact, just in the Energy and Commerce Committee, they're
talking about trying to find eight hundred and eighty billion
dollars in cuts. I can tell you inside the Financial
Services Committee, where we actually all of our agencies that
we oversee, we're a net positive to the US Treasury
(06:55):
because we collect regulatory fees. We're at a minimum looking
to cut one hundred billion dollars. Uh So, at the
end of the day, there's going to be some savings.
There's gonna there has to be some savings. If we
want the big beautiful bill, we have to find the
pay for us as well.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Mike. Thanks always good to have you on. Congressman Mike
Flood
Nebraska first District Congressman Mike Flood back to the program, Michael,
good morning.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Hey, Good morning everyone.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Hey, I want to get an update because, well, I
don't know. About three weeks ago, I think we chatted
about the report of staffing issues at the National Weather
Service to the point where they were unable to launch
enough weather balloons at least to satisfy the meteorologists in
the area. You now have found out more right.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
That's right. So I went out there about a month
ago and met with the National Weather Service folks. And
you know, this has been going on for years. This
has happened under Joe Biden. Obviously, when they started offering
buyouts to employees. This year, we were losing staff and
they suspended the weather balloons. I went to the White House,
I shared with them what was going on, and I'm
pleased to report they are back in the weather balloon business.
(00:47):
We've got one going up a day today and next
week we'll be back to two. And they are reassigning
staff from other Weather Service stations in the nation to
make sure that Omaha will have what it needs. And
by extension, through this whole process that started with us
here in Omaha, We're going to see a bandlifted on
(01:08):
the hiring cap and we'll have meteorologists getting hired on
a temporary basis and then on a permanent basis around
the United States. So this is not only good for Omaha,
North Platte, Rapid City, but this is something that started
at Omaha with us, and it's going to affect the
entire nations.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Okay, I know that that is important, particularly on severe
weather season. Did you find out anything during this process
about what is involved in releasing a weather balloon, Because
I got to tell you, to the average bear or civilian,
it doesn't look like it's a major project, but it
must be.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Well, you know, to do two balloons a day, you
need six full time folks because not only do the
launch of balloon, you got to manage the day. You
got to put it all in the system. A lot
of that happens in the bigger issue here is, uh,
the Weather Service used to have three people per shift
that we're forecasting and doing all of that. Sometimes they're
(02:07):
down to one per shift, and so you got to
cut duties, and obviously the weather balloon's one of those duties.
I mean, we're to the point where if we didn't
get this fixed, there would be weather stations and offices
in the United States that wouldn't even be operating. And
so right now the Weather Service office in Valley is
close to fifty percent of their off the rized staffing,
(02:28):
which means there's one person on duty at times, which
is really unacceptable in an area that's got tornadoes and
wildfires and flooding and blizzards. And ironically, of all the
weather stations in the nation, people from meteorologists in San Diego,
they're like begging to go to Omaha. They want to
be at Aloha. We have to get a o.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
Yeah, because the weather what never changes. Shouldn't the shouldn't
these facilities Mike flood be in part funded by the states.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Why would they?
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Well, got to remember all of these weather UH Service
stations feed all their data into the FAA. So UH
aviation is a federally controlled uh you know, obviously regulated area.
It's interstate commerce. This is something that federal government has
done efficiently for one hundred years.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Efficiently. Really, Yeah, The National Weather Service has been pretty Yeah,
it has been that'd be the only federal agency has
been officially.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Run for the last hundred years.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
You have experience, I don't know if you do. I do.
I have experience going back into the seventies the National
Weather Service covering tornadoes and Grand Island, and then here
they're yeah, they're they're pretty good.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
Well they aren't. But uh, the reason that I bring
it up is that if you are partially funded by
the states, then you are immune from some of these
federal budget vagaries and you keep your people on staff.
If there is a specific fake appropriation from the states
to keep these vital services, nobody's going to argue that
(04:05):
we don't need a fully staffed National Weather Service. There
are just two offices, one in Norman, Oklahoma, and one
up here in Valley in the whole country that are
the top line, you know, weather observers, So we don't
have budget problems in the federal government that they're partially
funded by the states.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Didn't you say to Mike that some of them took
the initial Doge buyout offer at the time it was offered.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Yeah, Actually, nation wide, about five hundred and seventy one
Weather Service personnel have taken the buyout, including some in Omaha.
So yeah, that's you know, under Biden, he wasn't refilling
positions either, so they were down five and then of
course you get the buy outcoming and there's more at
the end of the day.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Though.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
This is a good bang for a buck, and I'm
going to introduce a bill probably within the next two
weeks that reclassifies National Weather Service personnel as public safety,
which should exempt them from situations like this.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
Well, that's helpful. So are you going to be making
any trips to El Salvador soon with your congressional colleagues.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
No, I'm going to Washington on Monday. Does that count?
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Same? Different? Bad enough?
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Okay, so you won't be making any trips to sip
Margarita's with MS thirteen gang members.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Can we be assured of that?
Speaker 2 (05:21):
No, that's not That's not on the bingo card this week.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
What do you think's going to happen before we run here?
What do you think is going to happen with this
with a spending resolution, the big beautiful bill.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Well, I think there's going to be it's gonna be
a very contentious may. Just inside the Republican conference, we
had twelve members on the Republican side come out and
say they don't want any custom medicaid. Well, any they
were concerned about custom Medicaid. Then you've got the Freedom
Caucus that they have an appetite that's much larger than
the Senat or some of their colleagues in the House.
(05:54):
And my guess is we're going to get down to
the ten yard line. It'll be March, it'll be May
twenty fifth, and everybody that's a holdout will be invited
to the White House for a very casual sit down
in President Trump and I'm sure, I'm sure that will
resolve a few issues, and then there'll be hard feelings yea,
and they want to.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Get away from Memorial Day weekend that are we going
to cut spending or not? Because dojes found one hundred
and fifty billion, Well that's nice, but it's a six
to seven trillion dollar budget. So are we going to
get serious about cutting spending or are we just going
to talk about it and then maybe nibble around the edges,
because either we're going to cut spending or we're not.
And one hundred and fifty billion is not cut and
(06:30):
spending I.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Totally agree with that. I would tell you that the
appetite in the House to cut spending is pretty high.
In fact, just in the Energy and Commerce Committee, they're
talking about trying to find eight hundred and eighty billion
dollars in cuts. I can tell you inside the Financial
Services Committee, where we actually all of our agencies that
we oversee, we're a net positive to the US Treasury
(06:55):
because we collect regulatory fees. We're at a minimum looking
to cut one hundred billion dollars. Uh So, at the
end of the day, there's going to be some savings.
There's gonna there has to be some savings. If we
want the big beautiful bill, we have to find the
pay for us as well.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Mike. Thanks always good to have you on. Congressman Mike
Flood
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