Washington DC - The Trump administration slashed funding and staff responsible for the National Climate Assessment (NCA), a report on climate change that sees an update every four years.

The NCA is overseen by the Global Change Research Program (GCRP), which is supported via funding from NASA and other federal agencies. GCRP is supplied with technical support and staffing by ICF International.

On Tuesday, NASA issued stop-work orders on two contracts with ICF International, despite the fact that they had signed a five-year contract in 2021 worth about $33 million.

The order effectively eliminates collaborating with the GCRP, making it unclear how the next assessment can be completed, as ICF International staff complete a large amount of the work needed to produce the NCA.

The move raises serious questions, as Congress requires the federal government to produce the NCA every four years. The report provides an analysis on how rising temperatures are affecting human health, agriculture, water, energy, and other critical aspects of the US economy.

"It’s hard to see how they’re going to put out a National Climate Assessment now," Professor Donald Wuebbles of Illinois University told The New York Times. "It is still mandated by Congress."

The cuts were originally reported by Politico, which was told by an anonymous federal official that the move to cancel the contracts "forever severed" climate change work occurring across federal agencies.

Climate scientists have anticipated this move since Trump was elected in November 2024, largely because he had tried and failed to derail the NCA during his first term.

"NASA is working with [the Office of Science and Technology Policy] on how to best support the congressionally-mandated program while also increasing efficiencies across the 14 agencies," a NASA spokesperson said in a statement.