The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has placed two veteran officials on leave this week for different reasons, the agency confirmed to media outlets on Friday.
Jeff Dillen, who was serving as deputy general counsel, and Stephen Volz, assistant administrator at NOAA’s Satellite and Information Service, led the 2020 “Sharpiegate” investigation of NOAA’s acting administrator at the time, Neil Jacobs.
Jacobs is set to have his confirmation hearing before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee next week to be NOAA’s next administrator.
But NOAA communications director Kim Doster told CNN and Politico on Friday that “Sharpiegate” did not come into play for either official being placed on leave Thursday.
“Mr. Dillen was placed on administrative leave by the department’s senior career attorney pending a review of performance issues over the past several weeks,” Doster told the outlets. “Separately, Dr. Volz was placed on administrative leave on an unrelated matter.”
CNN reported that a letter sent by acting NOAA Administrator Laura Grimm informed Volz he was being placed on leave amid an inquiry into his “recent conduct.”
Jacobs, who led NOAA from 2018 to 2021, was officially censured for bowing to political pressure and misleading the public about a hurricane forecast.
At issue was President Donald Trump, using a Sharpie, modified a National Weather Service forecast in a prediction that Hurricane Dorian would hit Alabama in 2019. It didn’t.
Volz and Dillen led the investigation of Jacobs and another official and found them to have violated NOAA’s scientific integrity policy for supporting Trump’s hand-drawn modification.
Volz is the second-highest civilian employee at NOAA and its longest-serving assistant administrator, according to CNN. Volz’s work now falls to Irene Parker, a confidante of Jacobs’s, according to the report.
Hundreds of probationary employees were laid off from NOAA in February as part of cuts made by the Department of Government Efficiency. NOAA last month said it expects to cut 17% more of its full-time workforce in 2026, from 12,000 to 10,000 employees.
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