WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Rand Paul today released the latest edition to ‘The Waste Report,’ which is an ongoing project highlighting egregious examples of waste within the U.S. government. The latest edition highlights the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) spending over $40,000 of American taxpayer dollars to ensure the crew aboard the NOAA Ship Fairweather has 300 channels of premium satellite TV while at sea.

‘The Waste Report’ can be found HERE or below.

Imagine you were going to miss your favorite TV show or a critical sporting event because you had to work. Well the crew and scientists of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) ship, the Fairweather, do not have to worry about such things because the American taxpayer is spending over $40,000 to make sure they have premium satellite TV while at sea.[1]

The Fairweather is part of NOAA’s Pacific fleet, primarily charged with studying and mapping the ocean floor.[2] With a maximum duration of about three weeks between refueling, the scientists and crew can undoubtedly get homesick and even bored on the open seas. So it seems reasonable to provide some level of basic entertainment.

But there is no basic cable or satellite here. The Fairweather’s package has over 300 TV and music channels, including premium sports channels such as: the PAC-12 and Big Ten Networks, NFL, NHL, MLB Networks, and NBA TV.[3] In fact, only the Dish Network’s, winner of this contract, highest-end package offers such a line up.[4]

Nielson reported last year that the average American home has 189 channels or about one-third less than are available on the Fairweather. Interesting enough, Nielson also shows that American households consistently only watch about 17 channels no matter how many are available.[5] But when it is on Uncle Sam’s dime go-ahead load it up, someone onboard might want to watch Rural TV, which is part of the package. And load it up is just what NOAA did, with 44 satellite receivers so that everyone aboard has personal access to this viewing smorgasbord.[6]

By comparison, members of United States Navy only get three TV (News, Sports, and a variety channel) and three music channels on ship, all run by Armed Forces Networks.[7] Why not NOAA style satellite TV on Naval ships? As one source told the Federal Spending Oversight Subcommittee, “we need that bandwidth to do our jobs.”

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