Rep. McBride Warns Federal Research Cuts Could Undermine Disaster Preparedness for Delaware Farmers

WASHINGTON, DC — Today, U.S. Representative Sarah McBride (D-Del.), member of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, questioned hearing witnesses on how cuts to federal research and disaster preparedness programs could undermine Delaware farmers’ ability to prepare for natural disasters. Rep. McBride’s full remarks and questioning can be found here.

During a hearing titled, “Innovation in Disaster Prevention: Advancing Technology for Prediction and Response,” Rep. McBride emphasized the importance of maintaining the federal research, data, and tools that farmers rely on to prepare for extreme weather and natural disasters, especially as Delaware farmers face broader economic pressures.

“... Today I want to focus on the word ‘prevention’ and how the Administration’s attacks on federal programming are hurting Americans, and specifically farmers in Sussex County within Delaware. Farmers are already suffering due to President Trump’s reckless policies – from his war of choice with Iran to his nonsensical trade wars. On top of all of that, this Administration has moved to cut funding for essential programs that help communities prepare for and detect disasters,” said Rep. McBride. 

In recent weeks, the Trump administration has moved to dismantle or cut federal research programs that provide scientists and communities with critical weather, climate, and environmental data, including the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the Ocean Observatories Initiative. Rep. McBride stressed that, as farmers face economic uncertainty, the federal government should continue investing in the research, data, and resources that help them anticipate and prepare for natural disasters.

“These continued attempts to dismantle, dissolve, and destroy programs that experts rely on to keep Americans informed and safe is simply disgraceful. At a time when farmers are already under immense pressure, Congress must support the research, data, and tools that help communities not just respond to but prepare before disaster strikes. Farmers in Sussex County face a unique threat – during hurricane season not only do they see flooding, but they also see saltwater intrusion which poisons crops, harms soil health, and can turn productive land into marsh,” Rep. McBride continued. 

Rep. McBride raised these concerns with Dr. Ali Mostafavi, Founder and CEO of Resilitix AI, focusing on how specific cuts to the federal data sources used to train AI models could undermine emerging technologies designed to help farmers predict and prepare for disasters.

“Putting technology in farmers' hands is important. A recent report found that 23% of North American farmers use Gen AI, but only 10% of them pay for farm-specific Gen AI tools. So, Dr. Mostafavi, farmers face differing climates and growing conditions. AI models are only as good as the data they're trained on. Consistent data streams are key for improving model performance, yet data collection for key natural hazards has continuously been under attack by the administration. This includes funding that supports USGS sensors for flood monitoring and seismic centers for earthquake and tsunami data. How will the quality and lead time of AI models and predictions be affected if mission-critical data sources are substantially cut?” Rep. McBride asked.

Dr. Ali Mostafavi replied, “Absolutely. I would like to mention that the advancements in frontier AI would not necessarily translate to disaster capabilities for different users. The forward deployment requires domain-specific data, and connected, quality-controlled, and curated data sets are foundational for bringing frontier AI capabilities to disaster domain.”

Rep. McBride has been a champion for Delaware farmers. Earlier this year, she hosted Delaware’s first Agriculture Summit where she brought together farmers and stakeholders to strategize how the federal government can better support Delaware’s ag industry. She introduced a bipartisan bill, the SAVE Our Poultry Act, to protect farmers’ livestock from the threat of avian flu. Rep. McBride also introduced a bipartisan bill to encourage transparency for AI models, the READ AI Models Act which passed out of the Science, Space, and Technology Committee with unanimous support.

Rep. McBride’s full remarks and questioning can be found here.