The U.S. Senate's top Democrat on Monday asked a government watchdog to investigate whether cuts at the National Weather Service affected the forecasting agency's response to catastrophic flooding in Central Texas.

"A lot of the weather forecast offices now are not operating at full complement of staff," said the former lead of NOAA.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) is demanding that the Commerce Department’s inspector general investigate vacancies at National Weather Service offices and if they increased the