ANN ARBOR, Mich. — NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory in Ann Arbor, Mich., is still operating after the administration tried to eliminate it, but the lab is running with far fewer people after early Department of Government Efficiency staffing cuts.
Former director Deborah Lee said the laboratory went from 52 federal employees down to 34, leaving it with one fewer worker than when she started a decade earlier. By June 2025, union data showed the federal workforce was down about 35 percent after probationary firings and early departures.
Congress did not adopt the White House plan to close the Ann Arbor and Muskegon sites or zero out the NOAA research budget that funds the lab. Gregory Dick, director of the Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research based with the lab in Ann Arbor, said base funding is close to flat despite the proposed cuts.
A separate look at Great Lakes science funding notes the lab lost about 40 percent of its staff last year after layoffs and early retirements. The president’s latest NOAA budget proposal would cut about $1.3 billion, or one-third of current levels, though House appropriators have advanced a bill that funds most NOAA programs well above that request.
U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell has pushed to restore the Ann Arbor lab toward former staffing after the cuts. The laboratory has had no permanent director since Lee retired in early 2025, with deputy director Jesse Feyen also covering the top job.
