Tonko Slams Trump Administration Officials for Politicizing Emergency Response in "Sharpiegate" Scandal

Press Release

Congressman Paul D. Tonko, longtime Scientific Integrity Act sponsor, broke from his typical reserved tone in a new report out today with scathing criticism of the Trump Administration's handling of the so-called "Sharpiegate" scandal. Congressman Tonko called for this investigation and is the only congressional complainant. In his published "exception" letter attached to the independent National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Scientific Integrity determination, Tonko calls out Trump Administration officials for abusing their authority and interfering with public emergency notifications intended to relay the most current scientific hurricane projections.

"The American people have placed their trust in our national emergency response systems to keep them safe and informed during a crisis; we have a responsibility to protect these systems from political interference or other meddling that threatens their credibility and usefulness," said Tonko. "The false information this Administration was pushing with a hurricane bearing down on our coastal states was reckless, dangerous, and added an unreasonable burden to the challenges of local officials and first responders in making life or death decisions. Politicizing this process at the expense of communicating accurate, science-based information directly endangered the lives of the people we are sworn to serve and compromised the integrity of future hurricane guidance. The Administration made matters worse by refusing to correct this known error in real time, and even taking steps to obstruct the career scientists and officials trying to do this work. It will be clear to anyone reviewing the accounts captured in this highly credible, independent Scientific Integrity report that the political leaders who interfered in our emergency response system need to publicly apologize or resign."

One of a handful of engineers serving in the U.S. House of Representatives, Tonko added: "NOAA made the right decision by opening an independent review of this matter, and the findings it has revealed are damning. Congress needs to move quickly to fix the critical vulnerabilities it has exposed, including passing the Scientific Integrity Act so we can finally get politics out of our federal science and away from the processes by which urgent and critical public science is communicated to the American people."

"Sharpiegate" was sparked when President Trump gave an official presentation of NOAA hurricane projections in order to make his own, scientifically unfounded, hurricane projections. In an effort to clarify the agency's science-based projections, local NOAA career officials in the Birmingham, Alabama office posted information that correctly contradicted the President's error. According to the report published today, those career officials and others faced subsequent threats to stay silent and were improperly shamed for not parroting the President's fabrications, which could have endangered lives. Unfortunately, this report and decisions released today only apply to NOAA. The Department of Commerce has refused to cooperate with Congressional oversight and with this investigation. The weak policy at Commerce should be rewritten to ensure true accountability. The Scientific Integrity Act would raise the standards at all agencies so that bad actors are held accountable and lessons can be learned for the future.

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