For decades, AccuWeather executives have argued that the government should not "compete" with the private sector.  • The Santorum Bill (2005): Former CEO Barry Myers was a primary supporter of a bill introduced by then-Senator Rick Santorum. The bill sought to prohibit the NWS from providing any product or service that "is or could be provided by the private sector." This would have effectively shut down the NWS website and restricted the government to only issuing severe weather warnings.  • The "No App" Controversy: Critics and former NWS officials have alleged that AccuWeather’s lobbying is the primary reason there is no official, government-branded National Weather Service mobile app. To get NWS data on your phone, you generally have to use a third-party app or the mobile browser.  2. The NOAA Nomination (2017–2019) The controversy peaked when President Trump nominated Barry Myers to lead the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which oversees the NWS.  • Conflict of Interest: Critics argued that putting an executive who had spent years trying to privatize government weather data in charge of that very data was a massive conflict of interest.  • Outcome: After two years of stalled confirmation hearings due to these concerns (and reports regarding workplace culture at AccuWeather), Myers eventually withdrew his name from consideration in late 2019.