NOAA is part of the Dept of Commerce. It makes as much sense as having the Forest Service still in the Dept. of Agriculture.

As for the budget -- I believe the war machine that is attached to NASA is part of the reason it gets so much money. NASA has military industrial contracts to feed our tax money to-- it isn't all moon walks and travel to Venus or Mars. Does NOAA have such demanding kids suckling on her teats?

As someone who tries to translate scientific research about the natural world into art for a living I think NOAA could do a world of good painting the pictures of ocean's ecosystems and making them public. At least make their photo library widely accessible -- and create course that connect people to our seas.

They have tons of cool maps of the ocean floor -- but hardly anyone knows how to access them.

Perhaps the climate crisis that is acidifying our oceans will create a moment in time where we invent an agency that can work with Fish & Wildlife to change the way we look -- or don't look at the ocean.

Teddy Roosevelt said: " Americans learn only from catastrophe and not from experience."

That would be just a few years from now is my guess.

best fishes,

Timothy Colman