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Tom Allen is a former Maine congressman and a seventh-generation Mainer who has never lived far from the sea.
In Maine, the ocean isn’t just beautiful scenery — it’s where we work, where we raise families, and where our history is anchored. It’s the lobster boat heading out before dawn and the clammer watching the flats. From Kittery to Eastport, the Gulf of Maine shapes our economy and our way of life.
That’s why I was glad to see Congress overwhelmingly pass a bipartisan funding package this month that avoids the worst of the president’s proposed cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). This is a win for people across the country who rely on NOAA’s vital services, including all of us here in Maine.
But this budget only gets us through September. As Congress turns to the next budget, it should continue to keep NOAA strong. Washington can argue about a lot of things, but in Maine we don’t have the luxury of pretending the ocean and the weather are “political.”
I served in Congress for 12 years and later wrote a book about why Congress so often stalls out. One lesson is simple: convictions can become dangerous when they lead us to dismiss evidence, expertise, and real-world consequences. NOAA is the opposite of that. It is an evidence-driven agency with real-world impact that helps people make good decisions in the face of uncertainty.
Most people know NOAA because it houses the National Weather Service. If you’ve ever watched a nor’easter build in the Gulf, or had to decide whether to haul gear ahead of a storm, you already know how much those forecasts matter. But NOAA is more than the 10-day forecast. It tracks ocean conditions, maps our waters, supports fisheries science, and keeps critical data flowing to our mariners, businesses, and communities.
Take shellfish. Maine’s clammers and growers depend on clean water and timely warnings. When harmful algal blooms like red tide make shellfish unsafe, the costs hit families and small businesses immediately. NOAA-backed monitoring and forecasting help protect public health, guiding closures when they’re needed and avoiding unnecessary disruption when they’re not.
Or consider Sea Grant. For more than 50 years, Maine Sea Grant — part of NOAA’s national program — has been a quiet workhorse providing practical help for fishermen, aquaculture operators, and coastal towns. In 2023, a federal investment of $1.5 million in Maine Sea Grant was associated with $23.5 million in documented economic benefits for our state — a 15-to-1 return! That’s the kind of return taxpayers should expect more often.
NOAA also helps protect places Mainers cherish. The Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve in York County — 2,250 acres of marsh, forest, beach, and trail — supports research and education that help communities prepare for rising seas, coastal flooding, and changing estuaries that shelter young fish and blunt storm impacts.
And in the Penobscot watershed, long-term partnerships to restore habitats and improve fish passage for Atlantic salmon and other native species show what happens when we stick with science: real progress that can be seen and measured, not just hoped for.
These programs are not frills. They are the everyday infrastructure of our coastal state — along with navigation charts, buoys, satellites, and the experts who take all that data and turn it into knowledge. When budgets shrink and skilled people leave, we can’t just snap our fingers to rebuild the capacity that’s been lost. That’s why it’s so crucial that Congress keep fully funding NOAA.
When Congress works well, it practices virtues that matter in any Maine community: respect for evidence, care for consequences, and a commitment to the common good. NOAA embodies those virtues. Congress has taken an important step by properly funding NOAA for the current fiscal year. Now they need to do the same for next year. Pass strong NOAA funding, protect the people and places that rely on it, and make it clear — this year and every year — that America is not going to steer by guesswork when the stakes are this high.
