His nomination was controversial because he lacked scientific expertise (in contrast to previous NOAA leaders) and because of concern over Myers's financial conflicts of interest.

Myers worked for 18 years on the graduate school faculty of Pennsylvania State University's Smeal College of Business.

Myers was also an advisor to the director of the U.S. National Weather Service at the U.N.'s World Meteorological Organization meetings in Geneva, Switzerland, in 2001 and 2008.

In 2005, Santorum sponsored a bill entitled the National Weather Service Duties Act of 2005, which failed to pass.

[11] On October 12, 2017, President Donald Trump nominated Myers to head the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

[9] Myers's deputies would include the Assistant Secretary for Oceans and Atmosphere Timothy Gallaudet, a Navy Rear Admiral with a doctorate in oceanography and the Assistant Secretary for Environmental Observation and Prediction, Neil Jacobs, who was chief atmospheric scientist at the Panasonic Avionics Corporation.