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WASHINGTON — A congressional committee opened an inquiry on Wednesday into a report that the secretary of commerce, Wilbur L. Ross Jr., coerced the head of a federal science agency into supporting President Trump’s erroneous statements about Hurricane Dorian.

In a letter to Mr. Ross, top officials of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology demanded documents and information related to an unusual, unsigned statement that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued on Friday that was perceived as rebuking its own scientists for contradicting President Trump’s claim that Alabama was in the path of Hurricane Dorian.

“We are deeply disturbed by the politicization of NOAA’s weather forecast activities for the purpose of supporting incorrect statements by the president,” Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson, the chairwoman of the committee, along with Representative Mikie Sherrill, the chairman of its oversight panel, wrote.

A Commerce Department spokesman denied the reports and said in an emailed statement, “Secretary Ross did not threaten to fire any NOAA staff over forecasting and public statements about Hurricane Dorian.”