1. United States
2. Ohio
3. Letter

The NSF must halt the decommissioning of the Ocean Observatories Initiative immediately. Congress restored OOI funding in both 2025 and 2026, and proceeding with dismantlement anyway isn't a policy disagreement — it's a defiance of congressional authority. That's not how our government is supposed to work. This network cost $370 million to build and $48 million a year to run. It monitors AMOC collapse, coastal flooding along the East Coast, marine heat waves destroying commercial fisheries, and how our oceans absorb greenhouse gases. As Professor Helen Findlay put it, without sustained ocean observations "we are effectively choosing to navigate an increasingly volatile ocean with diminishing visibility." Tearing out 900 deep-sea instruments in June doesn't just end a program — it destroys irreplaceable infrastructure and expertise that took decades to build and cannot be reconstructed. This shutdown follows Project 2025's explicit directive to disband OOI climate research. That's not science policy — that's ideological sabotage of public safety infrastructure. I need you to use every available tool to block this decommissioning, investigate whether the NSF's actions violate the congressional funding mandate, and hold the administration accountable.