Why do CI authors need a NOAA employee as a coauthor?

NOAA Cooperative Institute staff are not NOAA employees and are affiliated with their home universities. The funds for this program are derived from direct bill funding and therefore are for NOAA employees and contractors, thus they need to be included in authorship. Grantees (this includes CIs) are permitted to use their grant funds to pay for publishing costs--no need for approvals, there is blanket language that already allows this, e.g. “[p]ublication costs for electronic and print media, including distribution, promotion, and general handling are allowable1” as part of the grant or award. 

Furthermore, as part of NOAA’s agreements with CI host institutions, NOAA expects CI employees to leverage the “personnel, services, or facilities of such organizations for research, education, training, and outreach” of said institution, which could include similar agreements with publishers or additional funds to cover publication costs. For example, UC employees have a similar deal with Wiley for their employees.