Valenti reveals NOAA project delays threaten Louisiana coast

NEW ORLEANS — Sabrina Valenti is still thinking about the projects she left behind at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — months after her job, and hundreds of others, were slashed. 

“Money that should be flowing all the way down to Baton Rouge and then getting into the hands of local businesses who are building these projects is stuck in Washington,” Valenti sdaid.

Valenti, who graduated from Louisiana State University in 2017, was a budget analyst based in Washington D.C.

But her job focused on restoration projects along Louisiana’s entire coast.

She was responsible for making sure millions in grant money was spent responsibly and as intended.

“Anybody who lives in South Louisiana, or in Coastal Florida where I grew up, understands that the further you are from the coastline, the safer you are from that storm,” said Valenti.

But now she, and many others, say funding for all NOAA projects has hit a bottleneck. 

Fewer staff members are handing the work and a new, strict financial policy has reportedly caused some critical contracts to expire or lapse.

“Before this administration took office, my program was able to issue grants of up to five million dollars without higher approval. We were trusted to spend that much money,” said Valenti. “After this administration came into office, there’s new guidance in the commerce department that any actions over 100-thousand dollars have to be approved by the secretary himself.”

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has received harsh criticism for the consequences of this policy and was asked about it by lawmakers at a hearing Wednesday.

One example of the bottleneck, she says, is that money for the East, South, and North Delacroix Marsh Creation projects apparently got held up in January.

We reached out to the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, which is in charge of the project, and they stated that they are not aware of any specific delays; the project is still moving forward as planned.

A spokesperson for the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority states that the organization is not aware of any specific delays related to NOAA or other federal sources for projects in Delacroix or elsewhere. They added that the Delacroix projects are moving forward as planned.

Still, Valenti says she’s worried that tying NOAA’s hands at the federal level leaves Louisiana vulnerable.

“Back in February, when I did get fired, I had a feeling that things were not going to be resolved by hurricane season. There is so much work that goes into preparing for hurricane season, making it through hurricane season,” she said.

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