Tuesday, August 07, 2007
Aug. 7, 2007 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) --
Two members of Congress urged the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Monday to allow Bill Proenza, ousted as director of the National Hurricane Center, to return to his previous job.
Democratic Reps. Brad Miller of North Carolina and Nick Lampson of Texas said Proenza should be permitted to regain his post as head of the National Weather Service's southern region, based in Fort Worth, Texas.
They said NOAA seemed poised instead to assign him to the obscure Office of Climate, Water and Weather Services in Silver Spring, Md., and place him in charge of training there.
Proenza, 62, with more than 40 years of government service, was placed on indefinite leave of absence last month amid controversy over his six-month tenure at the hurricane center in West Miami-Dade.
He said Monday night that he wants to return to the hurricane center.
'I still have a job to do there,' he said.
Would he accept his former job in Texas instead?
'I will consider whatever opportunities are given to me, but I don't have enough information right now,' he said.
One flash point of the controversy was Proenza's charge that NOAA had failed to anticipate the eventual loss of the crucial QuikScat weather satellite.
'We already received testimony that the White House was very upset with Mr. Proenza raising concerns about the possible loss of the QuikScat satellite before a replacement had been developed,' Lampson said.
'We don't want this extremely talented public employee consigned to NOAA's backwaters because he spoke publicly about the potential loss of a critical satellite,' he said.
A NOAA spokesman did not return calls seeking comment Monday.
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