Typical bureaucratic response to budget reductions. Everything they do is essential. Forecasts of doom and gloom will ensue. These are the bureaucrats who each year at budget time simply pad the previous year's budget by 10%. That is exactly how these federal agencies become huge monolithic bureaucracies unresponsive to public criticism.  Businesses in the private sector and individuals frequently deal with revenue reductions, they make adjustments and life goes on.  Research NOAA cannot perform or fund will happen in the private sector providing it has a legitimate return on investment. Let me suggest cutting NOAA's budget by 20%.