Fallout over the Trump administration transition team's questionnaire to Energy Department employees continues.

The team sent a 74-question inquiry to the department which included a request for detailed information on the top salaried employees at national laboratories as well as a list of civil servants who attended the U.N. climate negotiations in the past four years. But last week, the Trump team distanced itself from the inquiry, blaming it on a "rogue" staffer, after the questionnaire cause an uproar within the science community.

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill, however, aren't letting the matter go.

They are concerned that the request for information presages moves the Trump administration will make to cut funding for national labs and climate science research, potentially sidelining researchers working in climate-related fields.

On Monday, 26 members of Congress sent a letter to Trump Tower defending the freedom of those who work at the Energy Department's 17 national labs. These labs conduct cutting edge science and national security work, including nuclear weapons research and supercomputing.

"Our DOE [Department of Energy] labs are among the crown jewels of America. Their hard-working, brilliant scientists and researchers are working to solve some of the most pressing and vexing questions and problems we face," the letter states.

"Regardless of one's views on climate change, it is simply inappropriate to target hard-working public servants simply for doing their jobs," the representatives wrote. "Staff at our DOE labs go where the science takes them, and for that they should be praised, not punished.

Smart-home-in-the-loop experiment at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Image: Energy Department/flickr

The letter pledges the lawmakers' support for lab employees who are "improperly subjected to adverse employment actions and then decide to take legal recourse."

In other words, House members are already lining up to support scientists suing a Trump administration nearly a month before the president-elect takes the oath of office.

The representatives, led by Rep. Eric Swalwell, Democrat of California, either represent districts in which national laboratories are located, or serve on committees with jurisdiction over the labs. Swalwell's district includes both the Lawrence Livermore and Sandia National Laboratories.

Questionnaire jump-started a scientific mobilization

The questionnaire, combined with Trump's picks of multiple climate deniers to lead departments tasked with overseeing climate science research and the policy responses to climate change, have put the climate community on notice that the next four years are going to be rocky at best.

Since the questionnaire was revealed, some scientists, researchers and activists have been downloading federal science datasets out of concern that they may disappear during the next administration. At the world's largest gathering of Earth scientists in San Francisco last week, climate researchers protested against the upcoming Trump administration and vowed to continue their work and speak out on the issue despite any potential attempts to silence them.

President-elect Trump himself has said human-caused climate change is a hoax, and has vowed to boost fossil fuel production across the U.S.

He is nominating a climate denier with ties to the oil industry, former Texas governor Rick Perry, to lead the Energy Department, in addition to an EPA nominee who has said there is no observational evidence for human-caused climate change.