President Donald Trump has disbanded a federal advisory panel responsible for transforming findings from the National Climate Assessment into workable guidance for the public and private sectors.

The Federal Advisory Committee for the Sustained National Climate Assessment was also in the midst of a report that would inform federal officials on the data sets and approaches to include in the assessment, which is due out in 2018. The committee's first meeting was held in fall 2016, although the group was formed in 2015.

The Washington Post reported Aug. 20 that National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Acting Administrator Ben Friedman informed the chairman of the committee that its services were no longer required after its charter expired the same day. NOAA has since posted a notice on the committee's website thanking the 15-member panel for its services and asserting that the disbanding of the committee will not impact the completion of the National Climate Assessment.

Committee Chair Richard Moss told the Post that dissolving the group "doesn't seem to be the best course of action." Moss is an adjunct professor in the University of Maryland's Department of Geographical Sciences. The committee has a diversity of members reflecting expertise in communications, economics, social sciences, technology and data systems, risk management and assessment, and the sciences.

Moss said without the committee's work informing state and local governments on how to apply the National Climate Assessment, "the next generation's economic prospects" could be harmed.

The assessment has been subject of much media buzz after a New York Times story in early August highlighted a draft version of one of its precursor science reports. Scientists involved in the report worried that the Trump administration might suppress or otherwise alter the scientific findings of the assessment, since it is expected to contradict statements made by administration officials on climate change. The science report was due to be signed off on by the heads of 13 different federal agencies Aug. 18, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has promised to "evaluate the merits and demerits, and the methodologies and efficacy of the report."

The Sierra Club in an Aug. 21 statement said the disbanding of the committee is another example of the Trump administration's efforts to "purge scientists from the federal government."