I 

110TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2407 

To establish the National Hurricane Research Initiative to improve hurricane 

preparedness, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MAY 21, 2007 

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida (for himself, Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN, Ms. WASSERMAN

SCHULTZ, Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi, Mr. MELANCON, Mr. TAYLOR, 

Mr. JINDAL, Mr. MEEK of Florida, Mr. KLEIN of Florida, Mr. WEXLER, 

Ms. CORRINE BROWN of Florida, Mr. MAHONEY of Florida, Mr. MARIO

DIAZ-BALART of Florida, Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida, Mr. 

MCINTYRE, Mr. ORTIZ, Mr. JEFFERSON, Mr. KELLER of Florida, Mr. 

MACK, and Mr. BUCHANAN) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Science and Technology 

A BILL 

To establish the National Hurricane Research Initiative to 

improve hurricane preparedness, 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 ‘‘National Hurricane 

5 Research Initiative Act of 2007’’. 

6 SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 

7 In this Act: 


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1 (1) DIRECTOR.—The term ‘‘Director’’ means 

2 the Director of the National Science Foundation. 

3 (2) UNDER SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Under 

4 Secretary’’ means the Under Secretary for Oceans 

5 and Atmosphere of the Department of Commerce. 

6 SEC. 3. NATIONAL HURRICANE RESEARCH INITIATIVE. 

7 (a) REQUIREMENT TO ESTABLISH.—The Under Sec8 retary and the Director shall establish an initiative known 

9 as the National Hurricane Research Initiative for the pur10 poses described in subsection (b). 

11 (b) PURPOSES.—The purposes of the National Hurri12 cane Research Initiative shall be to set research objectives 

13 based upon the findings of the January 12, 2007, National 

14 Science Board report entitled ‘‘Hurricane Warning: The 

15 Critical Need for National Hurricane Research Initia16 tive’’— 

17 (1) to make recommendations to the National 

18 Science Board and the National Oceanic and Atmos19 pheric Administration Science Advisory Board on 

20 such research; 

21 (2) to assemble the science and engineering ex22 pertise of State or local government agencies or de23 partments and nongovernmental entities (including 

24 universities and colleges and other research and acaVerDate Aug 31 2005 19:21 May 26, 2007 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2407.IH H2407

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1 demic institutions), through a multi-entity effort fo2 cused on— 

3 (A) improving hurricane and other severe 

4 tropical storm forecasting capabilities, including 

5 formation, track, and intensity change; 

6 (B) durable and resilient infrastructure; 

7 and 

8 (C) mitigating impacts on coastal popu9 lations, the coastal built environment, and the 

10 natural coastal environment, including but not 

11 limited to, coral reefs, wetlands, and other nat12 ural systems that mitigate hurricane wind and 

13 storm surge impacts; and 

14 (3) to make grants to eligible entities to carry 

15 out research in the following areas: 

16 (A) PREDICTING HURRICANE INTENSITY

17 CHANGE.—Research to improve understanding 

18 of— 

19 (i) rapid change in storm size, motion, 

20 structure, and intensity; 

21 (ii) storm internal dynamics; and 

22 (iii) the interactions of the storm and 

23 its environmental conditions, including the 

24 atmosphere, ocean, and land surface. 


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1 (B) UNDERSTANDING OCEAN-ATMOSPHERE

2 INTERACTIONS.—Observations, theory and mod3 eling, to improve understanding of air-sea inter4 action in high wind speeds. 

5 (C) PREDICTING STORM SURGE, RAINFALL, 

6 INLAND FLOODING, AND STRONG WINDS PRO7 DUCED BY HURRICANES AND TROPICAL STORMS

8 DURING AND AFTER LANDFALL.—Research to 

9 understand, model, and predict rainfall, flood10 ing, high winds, the potential occurrence of tor11 nadoes, and storm surge, including probabilistic 

12 modeling and mapping of risk. 

13 (D) IMPROVED OBSERVATIONS OF HURRI14 CANES AND TROPICAL STORMS.—Research to 

15 improve measurements of hurricanes and trop16 ical storms through mobile radar platforms, 

17 Global Positioning Systems technology, un18 manned vehicles, ground-based and wireless 

19 sensors, oceanic remote sensing technologies, 

20 and air-deployed ocean profilers and floats to 

21 improve our understanding of the complex na22 ture of storms and their interaction with the 

23 ocean and land. 

24 (E) ASSESSING VULNERABLE INFRASTRUC25 TURE.—Research to develop a national engiVerDate Aug 31 2005 19:21 May 26, 2007 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2407.IH H2407

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1 neering assessment of coastal infrastructure, in2 cluding infrastructure related to levees, sea3 walls, drainage systems, bridges, water and 

4 sewage systems, power, and communications, to 

5 determine the level of vulnerability of such in6 frastructure to damage from hurricanes and to 

7 determine strategies to reduce such 

8 vulnerabilities. 

9 (F) INTERACTION OF HURRICANES WITH

10 ENGINEERED STRUCTURES.—Research to im11 prove understanding of the impacts of hurri12 canes and tropical storms on buildings, struc13 tures, and housing combined with modeling es14 sential for guiding the creation of improved 

15 building designs and construction codes in loca16 tions particularly vulnerable to hurricanes. 

17 (G) RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HURRI18 CANES, CLIMATE, AND NATURAL ECO19 SYSTEMS.—Research to improve the under20 standing of complex relationships between hur21 ricanes and climate, including research to deter22 mine the most effective methods to use observa23 tional information and numerical model simula24 tions to examine the impacts on ecosystems 

25 over long and short periods of time, including 


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1 but not limited to impacts on coral reefs, wet2 lands, and other natural systems that mitigate 

3 hurricane wind and storm surge impacts. 

4 (H) TECHNOLOGIES FOR DISASTER RE5 SPONSE AND RECOVERY.—Research to improve 

6 emergency communication networks for govern7 ment agencies and non-government entities and 

8 to improve communications between such net9 works during disaster response and recovery, 

10 including cyber-security during disaster situa11 tions and the ability to improve damage assess12 ments during storms. 

13 (I) EVACUATION PLANNING.—Research to 

14 improve the manner in which hurricane-related 

15 information is provided to, and utilized by, the 

16 public and government officials, including re17 search to assist officials of State or local gov18 ernment in determining the circumstances in 

19 which evacuations are required and in carrying 

20 out such evacuations. 

21 (J) COMPUTATIONAL CAPABILITY.—Re22 search to improve understanding of the efficient 

23 utility of multiple models requiring sharing and 

24 inter-operability of databases, computing envi25 ronments, networks, visualization tools, and 


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1 analytic systems beyond what is currently avail2 able for transitioning hurricane research assets 

3 into operational practice and to provide access 

4 to robust computational facilities beyond the fa5 cilities normally accessible by the civilian re6 search community for the hurricane research 

7 enterprise, including data acquisition and mod8 eling capability during hurricane events. 

9 (c) COOPERATION WITH OTHER AGENCIES.—The 

10 Under Secretary and the Director shall cooperate with the 

11 head of each appropriate Federal agency or department, 

12 research institute, university, and disaster-response or 

13 nongovernmental organization to utilize the expertise and 

14 capabilities of such entity to carry out the purposes of the 

15 National Hurricane Research Initiative, including co16 operation with the heads of the following entities: 

17 (1) The National Aeronautics and Space Ad18 ministration. 

19 (2) The National Institute of Standards and 

20 Technology. 

21 (3) The Department of Homeland Security, in22 cluding the Federal Emergency Management Agen23 cy. 

24 (4) The Department of Energy. 


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1 (5) The Defense Advanced Research Project 

2 Agency. 

3 (6) The Environmental Protection Agency. 

4 (7) The United States Geological Survey. 

5 (8) The Army Corps of Engineers. 

6 (d) COORDINATION.—The White House Office of 

7 Science and Technology Policy, through the National 

8 Science and Technology Council, shall coordinate the ac9 tivities carried out by the United States related to the Na10 tional Hurricane Research Initiative as a formal program 

11 with a well defined organizational structure and execution 

12 plan. 

13 (e) GRANTS.— 

14 (1) AUTHORITY.—The Undersecretary and the 

15 Director may award grants to appropriate State and 

16 local governmental agencies or departments, re17 search universities or nongovernmental entities to 

18 carry out the purposes described in subsection (b). 

19 (2) BEST PRACTICES.—The Under Secretary 

20 and the Director shall develop and make available to 

21 the public a description of best practices to be used 

22 to carry out a project with a grant awarded under 

23 this subsection. 

24 (f) RESEARCH SEMINARS AND FORUMS.—The Under 

25 Secretary and the Director shall carry out a series of naVerDate Aug 31 2005 19:21 May 26, 2007 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2407.IH H2407

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1 tional seminars and forums that assemble a broad collec2 tion of scientific disciplines to direct researchers to work 

3 collaboratively to carry out the purposes described in sub4 section (b). 

5 (g) INITIAL RESEARCH TO DEVELOP IMPROVED

6 HURRICANE INTENSITY FORECASTS AND IMPACT PRO7 JECTIONS.—The Undersecretary and the Director shall 

8 within 120 days after the enactment of this Act issue a 

9 request for proposals to undertake the basic and applied 

10 research with an annual budget in the amounts as deemed 

11 appropriate by the Under Secretary and the Director to 

12 accomplish the desired research results during a 10-year 

13 term. 

14 (h) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is 

15 authorized to be appropriated $285,000,000 for each of 

16 the fiscal years 2008 through 2018 to carry out this sec17 tion. 

18 SEC. 4. NATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE DATABASE. 

19 (a) REQUIREMENT TO ESTABLISH.—The Under Sec20 retary and the Director shall establish a National Infra21 structure Database for the purposes of— 

22 (1) cataloging and characterizing the physical, 

23 social, and natural infrastructure in order to provide 

24 a baseline for developing standards, measuring modi25 fication, and determining loss; 


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1 (2) providing information to Federal, State, and 

2 local government officials to improve information 

3 public policy related to hurricanes and tropical 

4 storms; and 

5 (3) providing data to researchers to improve 

6 their ability to measure hurricane impacts, separate 

7 such impacts from other effects, both natural and 

8 anthropogenic, make effective recommendations for 

9 improved building codes and urban planning prac10 tices, and develop effective procedures for respond11 ing to infrastructure disruption. 

12 (b) DATABASE REQUIREMENTS.—The National In13 frastructure Database shall be a virtual, cyber environ14 ment that uses existing capabilities and facilities, and es15 tablishes new capabilities and facilities, as appropriate, to 

16 provide an interoperable environment and the necessary 

17 metadata and other resources needed by users of that 

18 Database. 

19 (c) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is 

20 authorized to be appropriated $20,000,000 for each of the 

21 fiscal years 2008 through 2018 to carry out this section. 

22 SEC. 5. NATIONAL HURRICANE RESEARCH MODEL. 

23 (a) REQUIREMENT TO ESTABLISH.—The Under Sec24 retary and the Director shall develop a National Hurri25 cane Research Model to conduct integrative research and 


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1 to facilitate the transfer of research knowledge to oper2 ational applications, including linking relevant theoretical, 

3 physical, and computational models from atmospheric, 

4 oceanic, economic, sociological, engineered infrastructure, 

5 and ecologic fields, conducting experimental research to 

6 understand the extensive complexities of hurricanes, train7 ing of the next-generation hurricane researchers and fore8 casters, and obtaining measurable results in a comprehen9 sive framework suitable for testing end-to-end integrative 

10 systems. 

11 (b) SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS.—The National Hurri12 cane Research Model shall be a physically distributed and 

13 highly coordinated working environment in which research 

14 from the National Hurricane Research Initiative can be 

15 experimentally substantiated using suitable quantitative 

16 metrics, and where a culture of interaction and collabora17 tion can further be promoted, including in the areas of— 

18 (1) facilities and cyber infrastructure; 

19 (2) software integration; and 

20 (3) fixed mobile data collection platforms and 

21 data provisioning systems. 

22 (c) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is 

23 authorized to be appropriated $130,000,000 for each of 


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1 the fiscal years 2008 through 2018 to carry out this sec2 tion. 

Æ 


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