I 

108TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1578

To promote and coordinate global change research, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

APRIL 2, 2003

Mr. UDALL of Colorado introduced the following bill; which was referred to 

the Committee on Science, and in addition to the Committees on the 

Budget, and International Relations, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions 

as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 

A BILL

To promote and coordinate global change research, and for 

other purposes.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Global Change Re5 search and Data Management Act of 2003’’. 
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1 TITLE I—GLOBAL CHANGE 

2 RESEARCH 

3 SEC. 101. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE. 

4 (a) FINDINGS.—The Congress makes the following 

5 findings: 

6 (1) Industrial, agricultural, and other human 

7 activities, coupled with an expanding world popu8 lation, are contributing to processes of global change 

9 that are significantly altering the Earth habitat. 

10 (2) Such human-induced changes, in conjunc11 tion with natural fluctuations, may lead to signifi12 cant alterations of world climate patterns. Over the 

13 next century, these changes could adversely effect 

14 world agricultural and marine production, coastal 

15 habitability, biological diversity, human health, glob16 al social and political stability, and global economic 

17 activity. 

18 (3) Developments in interdisciplinary Earth 

19 sciences, global observing systems, and satellite and 

20 computing technologies make possible significant sci21 entific understanding of global changes and their ef22 fects, and have resulted in the significant expansion 

23 of environmental data and information. 

24 (4) Development of effective policies to prevent, 

25 mitigate, and adapt to global change will rely on im-
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1 provement in scientific understanding of global envi2 ronmental processes and on development of informa3 tion that is of use to decisionmakers at the local, re4 gional, and national levels. 

5 (5) Although the United States Global Change 

6 Research Program has made significant contribu7 tions to understanding Earth’s climate and the an8 thropogenic influences on Earth’s climate and its 

9 ecosystems, that Program has not produced suffi10 cient information to meet the expressed needs of de11 cisionmakers. 

12 (6) Predictions of future climate conditions for 

13 specific regions have considerable uncertainty and 

14 are unlikely to be confirmed in a time period nec15 essary to inform decisions on land, water, and re16 source management. However, improved under17 standing of global change should be used to assist 

18 decisionmakers in the development of policies to en19 sure that ecological, social, and economic systems 

20 are resilient under a variety of plausible climate fu21 tures. 

22 (7) In order to most effectively meet the needs 

23 of decisionmakers, both the research agenda of the 

24 United States Global Change Research Program and 

25 its implementation must be informed by continuous 
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1 feedback from documented users of information gen2 erated by the Program. 

3 (b) PURPOSE.—The purpose of this title is to provide 

4 for the continuation and coordination of a comprehensive 

5 and integrated United States observation and research 

6 program which will assist the Nation and the world to un7 derstand, assess, predict, and respond to the effects of 

8 human-induced and natural processes of global change. 

9 SEC. 102. DEFINITIONS. 

10 For purposes of this title—

11 (1) the term ‘‘global change’’ means human-in12 duced or natural changes in the global environment 

13 (including alterations in climate, land productivity, 

14 oceans or other water resources, atmospheric chem15 istry, biodiversity, and ecological systems) that may 

16 alter the capacity of the Earth to sustain life; 

17 (2) the term ‘‘global change research’’ means 

18 study, monitoring, assessment, prediction, and infor19 mation management activities to describe and under20 stand—

21 (A) the interactive physical, chemical, and 

22 biological processes that regulate the total 

23 Earth system; 

24 (B) the unique environment that the Earth 

25 provides for life; 
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1 (C) changes that are occurring in the 

2 Earth system; and 

3 (D) the manner in which such system, en4 vironment, and changes are influenced by 

5 human actions; 

6 (3) the term ‘‘interagency committee’’ means 

7 the interagency committee established under section 

8 103; 

9 (4) the term ‘‘Plan’’ means the National Global 

10 Change Research Plan developed under section 105; 

11 and 

12 (5) the term ‘‘Program’’ means the United 

13 States Global Change Research Program established 

14 under section 104. 

15 SEC. 103. INTERAGENCY COOPERATION AND COORDINA16 TION. 

17 (a) ESTABLISHMENT.—The President shall establish 

18 an interagency committee to ensure cooperation and co19 ordination of all Federal research activities pertaining to 

20 processes of global change for the purpose of increasing 

21 the overall effectiveness and productivity of Federal global 

22 change research efforts. The interagency committee shall 

23 include representatives of both agencies conducting global 

24 change research and agencies with authority over re25 sources likely to be affected by global change.
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1 (b) FUNCTIONS OF THE INTERAGENCY COM2 MITTEE.—The interagency committee shall—

3 (1) serve as the forum for developing the Plan 

4 and for overseeing its implementation; 

5 (2) serve as the forum for developing the vul6 nerability assessment under section 107; 

7 (3) ensure cooperation among Federal agencies 

8 with respect to global change research activities;

9 (4) work with academic, State, industry, and 

10 other groups conducting global change research, to 

11 provide for periodic public and peer review of the 

12 Program; 

13 (5) cooperate with the Secretary of State in—

14 (A) providing representation at inter15 national meetings and conferences on global 

16 change research in which the United States 

17 participates; and 

18 (B) coordinating the Federal activities of 

19 the United States with programs of other na20 tions and with international global change re21 search activities; 

22 (6) work with appropriate Federal, State, re23 gional, and local authorities to ensure that the Pro24 gram is designed to produce information needed to 

25 develop policies to reduce the vulnerability of the 
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1 United States and other regions to global change; 

2 and 

3 (7) identify additional decisionmaking groups 

4 that may use information generated through the 

5 Program. 

6 SEC. 104. UNITED STATES GLOBAL CHANGE RESEARCH 

7 PROGRAM. 

8 The President shall establish an interagency United 

9 States Global Change Research Program to improve un10 derstanding of global change, to respond to the informa11 tion needs of communities and decisionmakers, and to pro12 vide periodic assessments of the vulnerability of the United 

13 States and other regions to global change. The Program 

14 shall be implemented in accordance with the Plan. 

15 SEC. 105. NATIONAL GLOBAL CHANGE RESEARCH PLAN. 

16 (a) IN GENERAL.—The President shall develop a Na17 tional Global Change Research Plan for implementation 

18 of the Program. The Plan shall contain recommendations 

19 for global change research. The President shall submit the 

20 Plan to the Congress within 1 year after the date of enact21 ment of this Act, and shall submit a revised Plan at least 

22 once every 4 years thereafter. In the development of each 

23 Plan, the President shall conduct a formal assessment 

24 process to determine the needs of appropriate Federal, 

25 State, regional, and local authorities and other interested 
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1 parties regarding the types of information needed by them 

2 in developing policies to reduce society’s vulnerability to 

3 global change and shall utilize these assessments in devel4 oping the Plan. 

5 (b) CONTENTS OF THE PLAN.—The Plan shall—

6 (1) establish, for the 10-year period beginning 

7 in the year the Plan is submitted, the goals and pri8 orities for Federal global change research which 

9 most effectively advance scientific understanding of 

10 global change and provide information of use to 

11 Federal, State, regional, and local authorities in the 

12 development of policies relating to global change; 

13 (2) describe specific activities, including efforts 

14 to determine user information needs, research activi15 ties, data collection and data analysis requirements, 

16 assessment of model predictability, participation in 

17 international research efforts, and information man18 agement, required to achieve such goals and prior19 ities; 

20 (3) identify relevant programs and activities of 

21 the Federal agencies that contribute to the Program 

22 directly and indirectly; 

23 (4) set forth the role of each Federal agency in 

24 implementing the Plan; 
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1 (5) consider and utilize, as appropriate, reports 

2 and studies conducted by Federal agencies, the Na3 tional Research Council, or other entities; 

4 (6) make recommendations for the coordination 

5 of the global change research activities of the United 

6 States with such activities of other nations and 

7 international organizations, including—

8 (A) a description of the extent and nature 

9 of international cooperative activities; 

10 (B) bilateral and multilateral efforts to 

11 provide worldwide access to scientific data and 

12 information; and 

13 (C) improving participation by developing 

14 nations in international global change research 

15 and environmental data collection; 

16 (7) detail budget requirements for Federal glob17 al change research activities to be conducted under 

18 the Plan; 

19 (8) catalog the type of information identified by 

20 appropriate Federal, State, regional, and local deci21 sionmakers needed to develop policies to reduce soci22 ety’s vulnerability to global change and indicate how 

23 the planned research will meet these decisionmakers’ 

24 information needs; and 
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1 (9) identify the observing systems currently em2 ployed in collecting data relevant to global change 

3 research and prioritize additional observation sys4 tems that may be needed to ensure adequate data 

5 collection and monitoring of global change. 

6 (c) RESEARCH ELEMENTS.—The Plan shall include 

7 at a minimum the following research elements: 

8 (1) Global measurements, establishing world9 wide to regional scale observations prioritized to un10 derstand global change and to meet the information 

11 needs of decisionmakers on all relevant spatial and 

12 time scales. 

13 (2) Information on economic and demographic 

14 trends that contribute to changes in the Earth sys15 tem and that influence society’s vulnerability to 

16 global change. 

17 (3) Development of indicators and baseline 

18 databases to document global change, including 

19 changes in species distribution and behavior, extent 

20 of glaciations, and changes in sea level. 

21 (4) Studies of historical changes in the Earth 

22 system, using evidence from the geological and fossil 

23 record.
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1 (5) Assessments of predictability using quan2 titative models of the Earth system to simulate glob3 al and regional environmental processes and trends. 

4 (6) Focused research initiatives to understand 

5 the nature of and interaction among physical, chem6 ical, biological, and social processes related to global 

7 change. 

8 (7) Focused research initiatives to determine 

9 and then meet the information needs of appropriate 

10 Federal, State, and regional decisionmakers. 

11 (d) INFORMATION MANAGEMENT.—The Plan shall 

12 incorporate, to the extent practicable, the recommenda13 tions relating to data acquisition, management, and 

14 archiving made by the interagency climate and other glob15 al change data management working group established 

16 under section 203. 

17 (e) NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES EVALUA18 TION.—The President shall enter into an agreement with 

19 the National Academy of Sciences under which the Acad20 emy shall—

21 (1) evaluate the scientific content of the Plan; 

22 and 

23 (2) recommend priorities for future global 

24 change research.
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1 (f) NATIONAL GOVERNORS ASSOCIATION EVALUA2 TION.—The President shall seek to enter into an agree3 ment with the National Governors Association Center for 

4 Best Practices under which that Center shall—

5 (1) evaluate the utility to State, local, and re6 gional decisionmakers of each Plan and of the antici7 pated and actual information outputs of the Pro8 gram for development of policies to reduce vulner9 ability to global change; and 

10 (2) recommend priorities for future global 

11 change research. 

12 (g) PUBLIC PARTICIPATION.—In developing the 

13 Plan, the President shall consult with academic, State, in14 dustry, and environmental groups and representatives. 

15 Not later than 90 days before the President submits the 

16 Plan, or any revision thereof, to the Congress, a summary 

17 of the proposed Plan shall be published in the Federal 

18 Register for a public comment period of not less than 60 

19 days. 

20 SEC. 106. BUDGET COORDINATION. 

21 (a) IN GENERAL.—The President shall provide gen22 eral guidance to each Federal agency participating in the 

23 Program with respect to the preparation of requests for 

24 appropriations for activities related to the Program. 
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1 (b) CONSIDERATION IN PRESIDENT’S BUDGET.—The 

2 President shall identify in each annual budget request sub3 mitted to the Congress under section 1105 of title 31, 

4 United States Code, those items in each agency’s annual 

5 budget which are elements of the Program. 

6 SEC. 107. VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENT. 

7 Within 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, 

8 and at least once every 4 years thereafter, the President 

9 shall submit to the Congress an assessment which—

10 (1) integrates, evaluates, and interprets the 

11 findings of the Program and discusses the scientific 

12 uncertainties associated with such findings; 

13 (2) based on indicators and baselines developed 

14 under section 105(c)(3), as well as other measure15 ments, analyzes changes to the natural environment, 

16 land and water resources, and biological diversity 

17 in—

18 (A) major geographic regions of the United 

19 States; and 

20 (B) other continents; 

21 (3) analyzes the effects of global change, includ22 ing the changes described in paragraph (2), on agri23 culture, energy production and use, transportation, 

24 human health and welfare, and human social and 

25 economic systems, including providing information 
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1 about the differential impacts on specific geographic 

2 regions within the United States, on people of dif3 ferent income levels within those regions, and for 

4 rural and urban areas within those regions; 

5 (4) analyzes the vulnerability of different geo6 graphic regions of the world to global change, in7 cluding analyses of the implications of global change 

8 for international assistance, population displacement, 

9 and national security; and 

10 (5) analyzes the adoption rates of policies and 

11 technologies available to reduce the vulnerability of 

12 society to global change with an evaluation of the 

13 market and policy barriers suppressing their adop14 tion in the United States. 

15 SEC. 108. POLICY ASSESSMENT. 

16 Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment 

17 of this Act, and at least once every 3 years thereafter, 

18 the President shall submit to the Congress a policy assess19 ment which—

20 (1) documents current policy options being uti21 lized by Federal, State, and local governments to 

22 mitigate or adapt to the effects of global change; 

23 (2) evaluates the realized and anticipated effec24 tiveness of those current policy options in addressing 

25 global change; and 
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1 (3) identifies and evaluates additional policy op2 tions for mitigating or adapting to the effects of 

3 global change. 

4 SEC. 109. ANNUAL REPORT. 

5 Each year at the time of submission to the Congress 

6 of the President’s budget request, the President shall sub7 mit to the Congress a report on the activities conducted 

8 pursuant to this title, including—

9 (1) a summary of the achievements of the Pro10 gram during the period covered by the report; 

11 (2) an analysis of the progress made toward 

12 achieving the goals of the Plan; and 

13 (3) a list of the State, local, and regional deci14 sionmakers identified as potential users of the infor15 mation generated through the Program and a de16 scription of the consultations with this community 

17 coordinated through the work of the interagency 

18 committee. 

19 SEC. 110. RELATION TO OTHER AUTHORITIES. 

20 The President shall ensure that relevant research ac21 tivities of the National Climate Program, established by 

22 the National Climate Program Act (15 U.S.C. 2901 et 

23 seq.), are considered in developing national global change 

24 research efforts.
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1 SEC. 111. REPEAL. 

2 The Global Change Research Act of 1990 (15 U.S.C. 

3 2921 et seq.) is repealed. 

4 TITLE II—CLIMATE AND OTHER 

5 GLOBAL CHANGE DATA MAN6 AGEMENT 

7 SEC. 201. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES. 

8 (a) FINDINGS.—The Congress makes the following 

9 findings: 

10 (1) Federal agencies have a primary mission to 

11 manage and archive climate and other global change 

12 data obtained through their research, development, 

13 or operational activities. 

14 (2) Maintenance of climate and global change 

15 data records is essential to present and future stud16 ies of the Earth’s atmosphere, biogeochemical cycles, 

17 and climate.

18 (3) Federal capabilities for the management 

19 and archiving of these data have not kept pace with 

20 advances in satellite and other observational tech21 nologies that have vastly expanded the type and 

22 amount of information that can be collected. 

23 (4) Proposals and plans for expansion of global 

24 observing networks should include plans for the 

25 management of data to be collected and budgets re-
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1 flecting the cost of support for management and 

2 archiving of data. 

3 (b) PURPOSES.—The purposes of this title are to es4 tablish climate and other global change data management 

5 and archiving as Federal agency missions, and to establish 

6 Federal policies for managing and archiving climate and 

7 other global change data. 

8 SEC. 202. DEFINITIONS. 

9 For purposes of this title—

10 (1) the term ‘‘metadata’’ means information de11 scribing the content, quality, condition, and other 

12 characteristics of climate and other global change 

13 data, compiled, to the maximum extent possible, con14 sistent with the requirements of the ‘‘Content Stand15 ard for Digital Geospatial Metadata’’ (FGDC–STD–

16 001–1998) issued by the Federal Geographic Data 

17 Committee, or any successor standard approved by 

18 the working group; and 

19 (2) the term ‘‘working group’’ means the inter20 agency climate and other global change data man21 agement working group established under section 

22 203. 
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1 SEC. 203. INTERAGENCY CLIMATE AND OTHER GLOBAL 

2 CHANGE DATA MANAGEMENT WORKING 

3 GROUP. 

4 (a) ESTABLISHMENT.—The President shall establish 

5 an interagency climate and other global change data man6 agement working group to make recommendations for co7 ordinating Federal climate and other global change data 

8 management and archiving activities. 

9 (b) MEMBERSHIP.—The working group shall include 

10 the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space 

11 Administration, the Administrator of the National Oceanic 

12 and Atmospheric Administration, the Secretary of Energy, 

13 the Secretary of Defense, the Director of the National 

14 Science Foundation, the Director of the United States Ge15 ological Survey, the Archivist of the United States, the 

16 Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, 

17 the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, or their des18 ignees, and representatives of any other Federal agencies 

19 the President considers appropriate. 

20 (c) REPORTS.—Not later than 1 year after the date 

21 of enactment of this Act, the working group shall transmit 

22 a report to the Congress containing the elements described 

23 in subsection (d). Not later than 3 years after the initial 

24 report under this subsection, and not later than once every 

25 4 years subsequent to that, the working group shall trans26 mit reports updating the previous report. In preparing re-
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1 ports under this subsection, the working group shall con2 sult with expected users of the data collected and archived 

3 by the Program. 

4 (d) CONTENTS.—The reports and updates required 

5 under subsection (c) shall—

6 (1) include recommendations for the establish7 ment, maintenance, and accessibility of a catalog 

8 identifying all available climate and other global 

9 change data sets; 

10 (2) identify climate and other global change 

11 data collections in danger of being lost and rec12 ommend actions to prevent such loss; 

13 (3) identify gaps in climate and other global 

14 change data and recommend actions to fill those 

15 gaps; 

16 (4) identify effective and compatible procedures 

17 for climate and other global change data collection, 

18 management, and retention and make recommenda19 tions for ensuring their use by Federal agencies and 

20 other appropriate entities; 

21 (5) develop and propose a coordinated strategy 

22 for funding and allocating responsibilities among 

23 Federal agencies for climate and other global change 

24 data collection, management, and retention; 
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1 (6) make recommendations for ensuring that 

2 particular attention is paid to the collection, man3 agement, and archiving of metadata; 

4 (7) make recommendations for ensuring a uni5 fied and coordinated Federal capital investment 

6 strategy with respect to climate and other global 

7 change data collection, management, and archiving; 

8 (8) evaluate the data record from each observ9 ing system and make recommendations to ensure 

10 that delivered data are free from time-dependent bi11 ases and random errors before they are transferred 

12 to long-term archives; and 

13 (9) evaluate optimal design of observation sys14 tem components to ensure a cost-effective, adequate 

15 set of observations detecting and tracking global 

16 change. 

17 TITLE III—INTERNATIONAL CO18 OPERATION IN GLOBAL 

19 CHANGE RESEARCH 

20 SEC. 301. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES. 

21 (a) FINDINGS.—The Congress makes the following 

22 findings: 

23 (1) Pooling of international resources and sci24 entific capabilities will be essential to a successful 

25 international global change program.
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1 (2) While international scientific planning is al2 ready underway, there is currently no comprehensive 

3 intergovernmental mechanism for planning, coordi4 nating, or implementing research to understand 

5 global change and to mitigate possible adverse ef6 fects.

7 (3) An international global change research 

8 program will be important in building future con9 sensus on methods for reducing global environmental 

10 degradation. 

11 (4) The United States, as a world leader in en12 vironmental and Earth sciences, should help provide 

13 leadership in developing and implementing an inter14 national global change research program. 

15 (b) PURPOSES.—The purposes of this title are to—

16 (1) promote international, intergovernmental 

17 cooperation on global change research; 

18 (2) involve scientists and policymakers from de19 veloping nations in such cooperative global change 

20 research programs; and 

21 (3) promote international efforts to provide 

22 technical and other assistance to developing nations 

23 which will facilitate improvements in their domestic 

24 standard of living while minimizing damage to the 

25 global or regional environment. 
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1 SEC. 302. INTERNATIONAL DISCUSSIONS. 

2 (a) GLOBAL CHANGE RESEARCH.—The President 

3 shall direct the Secretary of State to initiate discussions 

4 with other nations leading toward international protocols 

5 and other agreements to coordinate global change research 

6 activities. Such discussions should include the following 

7 issues: 

8 (1) Allocation of costs in global change research 

9 programs, especially with respect to major capital 

10 projects. 

11 (2) Coordination of global change research 

12 plans with those developed by international organiza13 tions such as the International Council on Scientific 

14 Unions, the World Meteorological Organization, and 

15 the United Nations Environment Program. 

16 (3) Establishment of global change research 

17 centers and training programs for scientists, espe18 cially those from developing nations. 

19 (4) Development of innovative methods for 

20 management of international global change research, 

21 including the use of new or existing intergovern22 mental organizations for the coordination or funding 

23 of global change research. 

24 (5) Establishment of international offices to 

25 disseminate information useful in identifying, pre-
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1 venting, mitigating, or adapting to the possible ef2 fects of global change. 

3 (b) ENERGY RESEARCH.—The President shall direct 

4 the Secretary of State (in cooperation with the Secretary 

5 of Energy, the Secretary of Commerce, the United States 

6 Trade Representative, and other appropriate Federal 

7 agents) to initiate discussions with other nations leading 

8 toward an international research protocol for cooperation 

9 on the development of energy technologies which have 

10 minimally adverse effects on the environment. Such dis11 cussions should include the following issues: 

12 (1) Creation of an international cooperative 

13 program to fund research related to energy effi14 ciency and conservation, solar and other renewable 

15 energy sources, and passively safe and diversion-re16 sistant nuclear reactors. 

17 (2) Creation of an international cooperative 

18 program to develop low-cost energy technologies 

19 which are appropriate to the environmental, eco20 nomic, and social needs of developing nations. 

21 (3) Exchange of information concerning envi22 ronmentally safe energy technologies and practices, 

23 including those described in paragraphs (1) and (2). 
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1 SEC. 303. GLOBAL CHANGE RESEARCH INFORMATION OF2 FICE. 

3 The President shall establish an Office of Global 

4 Change Research Information to disseminate to foreign 

5 governments, businesses, and institutions, as well as the 

6 citizens of foreign countries, scientific research and other 

7 information available in the United States which would be 

8 useful in preventing, mitigating, or adapting to the effects 

9 of global change.

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