Top NOAA Officials Placed On Leave. One Said He Clashed With Trump Appointees.

Trump map — President Trump in the Oval Office in September. The map appears to have been altered with a marker to show Hurricane Dorian headed for Alabama. (Credit...Erin Schaff/The New York Times)

By Anusha Mathur and Hannah Natanson

Two high-ranking officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration were placed on leave this week, including one official who said he had recently clashed with officials over the Trump administration’s proposals for the agency.

Former agency officials said both Steve Volz, assistant administrator in the agency’s satellite division, and Jeff Dillen, deputy NOAA general counsel, held positions that allowed them to push back against Trump’s NOAA appointees. While the pair had only occasionally worked together while at NOAA, they also led the investigation into the “Sharpiegate” scandal during the first Trump administration.

Volz was not given an explicit reason for being placed on administrative leave but said tensions between him and Trump’s appointees had been rising. For one, Volz said he had recently pushed back during discussions of commercializing satellite operations.

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