The National Weather Service will no longer provide language translations of its products “due to a contract lapse.”

The weather service “paused” the translation services “until further notice” because its contract with an artificial intelligence firm had lapsed, NWS spokesperson Michael Musher confirmed to The Associated Press.

In October 2023, NWS announced it was beginning to provide Spanish and Chinese translation services by working with the machine learning company Lilt to train AI software for weather, water and climate terminology. Eventually, it went on to offer translations in Vietnamese, French and Samoan.

Nearly 68 million people in the U.S. speak a language other than English at home, including 42 million Spanish speakers, according to a U.S. Census report from 2019.

The contract lapse comes after the Trump administration declared English the official language of the United States and sought to downsize federal agencies such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Layoffs at NOAA began in February when hundreds of weather forecasters on probationary status were fired. The agency saw more layoffs in March, according to the Associated Press.

NOAA is responsible for providing daily weather forecasts, monitoring and studying Earth’s climate, protecting marine life and operating weather satellites.

Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., a ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee that oversees NOAA, said the “firings jeopardize our ability to forecast and respond to extreme weather events like hurricanes, wildfires, and floods — putting communities in harm’s way.”

“They also threaten our maritime commerce and endanger 1.7 million jobs that depend on commercial, recreational and tribal fisheries, including thousands in the state of Washington,” she said at the time.

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