The Trump Administration Wants to Close Down Key Weather Labs Across the Country

The National Severe Storms Laboratory sits on a campus of radar equipment and office buildings at the University of Oklahoma, off State Highway 9 in Norman. It’s responsible for radar breakthroughs in forecasting that the nation relies on for storm warnings and emergency preparedness.

But the Trump administration wants to shut it down, prompting a rare rebuke from a prominent Republican member of Congress.

“I want to make sure that whoever’s proposing this actually goes down there and looks at it and meets them,” said Oklahoma Rep. Tom Cole, chair of the Appropriations Committee. “I’ve allowed things in my district to be closed before, but this is a national asset, and I want to be very careful about what we do with it.”