II 

110TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 931 

To establish the National Hurricane Research Initiative to improve hurricane 

preparedness, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MARCH 20, 2007 

Mr. MARTINEZ (for himself, Mr. NELSON of Florida, Mrs. DOLE, and Ms. 

LANDRIEU) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation 

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: 

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

9 the Director of the National Science Foundation. 


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

2 Secretary’’ means the Under Secretary for Oceans 

3 and Atmosphere of the Department of Commerce. 

4 SEC. 3. NATIONAL HURRICANE RESEARCH INITIATIVE. 

5 (a) REQUIREMENT TO ESTABLISH.—The Under Sec6 retary and the Director shall establish an initiative known 

7 as the National Hurricane Research Initiative for the pur8 poses described in subsection (b). 

9 (b) PURPOSES.—The purposes of the National Hurri10 cane Research Initiative shall be to set research objectives 

11 based on the findings of the January 12, 2007, National 

12 Science Board report entitled ‘‘Hurricane Warning: The 

13 Critical Need for National Hurricane Initiative’’— 

14 (1) to make recommendations to the National 

15 Science Board based on such research; 

16 (2) to assemble the expertise of the science and 

17 engineering capabilities of the United States through 

18 a multi-agency effort that is focused on— 

19 (A) improving a better understanding of 

20 hurricane prediction, intensity, and mitigation 

21 on coastal populations; 

22 (B) infrastructure; and 

23 (C) the natural environment; and 

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

25 out research in the following areas: 


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1 (A) PREDICTING HURRICANE INTENSIFICA2 TION.—Research to improve understanding 

3 of— 

4 (i) rapid intensity change in storms, 

5 relationships among storm size, motion, 

6 and intensity; 

7 (ii) the internal dynamics of hurri8 canes; and 

9 (iii) the manner in which hurricanes 

10 interact with the environment. 

11 (B) UNDERSTANDING AIR-SEA INTER12 ACTIONS.—Research to improve understanding 

13 of theories of air-sea interaction that are com14 mon to the strong wind and high wave condi15 tions associated with hurricanes, and cases in 

16 which the air-sea interface beneath hurricanes 

17 vanishes and is replaced by an emulsion, includ18 ing theoretical theories, observational theories, 

19 and modeling. 

20 (C) PREDICTING STORM SURGE, RAINFALL, 

21 AND INLAND FLOODING FROM HURRICANES

22 AND TROPICAL STORMS.—Research to under23 stand and model rainfall and flooding from hur24 ricanes, including probabilistic modeling and 

25 mapping of storm surge risk. 


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1 (D) HURRICANE MODIFICATION.—Basic 

2 research for modifying hurricanes to reduce the 

3 intensity or alter the movement of hurricanes 

4 by human intervention, including research to 

5 improve understanding of the potential effects 

6 of hurricane modification on precipitation and 

7 fresh water supply, as well as on climate. 

8 (E) IMPROVED OBSERVATION OF HURRI9 CANES AND TROPICAL STORMS.—Research to 

10 improve hurricane and tropical storm observa11 tion through mobile radars, Global Positioning 

12 System technology, unmanned aerial vehicles, 

13 and ground-based and aerial wireless sensors to 

14 improve understanding of the complex nature of 

15 storms. 

16 (F) ASSESSING VULNERABLE INFRASTRUC17 TURE.—Research to develop a national engi18 neering assessment of coastal infrastructure, in19 cluding infrastructure related to levees, sea20 walls, drainage systems, bridges, water and 

21 sewage utilities, power, and communications, to 

22 determine the level of vulnerability of such in23 frastructure to damage from a hurricane. 

24 (G) INTERACTION OF HURRICANES WITH

25 ENGINEERED STRUCTURES.—Research to imVerDate Aug 31 2005 21:31 Mar 21, 2007 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S931.IS S931

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1 prove understanding of the impacts of hurri2 canes and tropical storms on buildings, struc3 tures, and housing combined with modeling es4 sential for guiding the creation of improved 

5 building designs and construction codes in loca6 tions particularly vulnerable to hurricanes. 

7 (H) RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HURRI8 CANES, CLIMATE, AND NATURAL ECO9 SYSTEMS.—Research to improve the under10 standing of the complex relationships between 

11 hurricanes and climate, including research to 

12 determine the most effective methods to use ob13 servational information to examine the impacts 

14 on ecosystems over long- and short-periods of 

15 time. 

16 (I) TECHNOLOGIES FOR DISASTER RE17 SPONSE AND RECOVERY.—Research to improve 

18 emergency communication networks for govern19 ment agencies and non-government entities and 

20 to improve communications between such net21 works during disaster response and recovery, 

22 including cyber-security during disaster situa23 tions and the ability to improve damage assess24 ments during storms. 


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1 (J) EVACUATION PLANNING.—Research to 

2 improve the manner in which hurricane-related 

3 information is provided to, and utilized by, the 

4 public and government officials, including re5 search to assist officials of State or local gov6 ernment in determining the circumstances in 

7 which evacuations are required and in carrying 

8 out such evacuations. 

9 (K) COMPUTATIONAL CAPABILITY.—Re10 search to improve understanding of the efficient 

11 utility of multiple models requiring sharing and 

12 inter-operability of databases, computing envi13 ronments, networks, visualization tools, and 

14 analytic systems beyond what is currently avail15 able for transitioning hurricane research assets 

16 into operational practice and to provide access 

17 to robust computational facilities beyond the fa18 cilities normally accessible by the civilian re19 search community for the hurricane research 

20 enterprise, including data acquisition and mod21 eling capability during hurricane events. 

22 (c) COOPERATION WITH OTHER AGENCIES.—The 

23 Under Secretary and the Director shall cooperate with the 

24 head of each appropriate Federal agency or department, 

25 research institute, university, and disaster-response or 


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1 nongovernmental organization to utilize the expertise and 

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

3 National Hurricane Research Initiative, including co4 operation with the heads of the following entities: 

5 (1) The National Aeronautics and Space Ad6 ministration. 

7 (2) The National Institute of Standards and 

8 Technology. 

9 (3) The Department of Homeland Security, in10 cluding the Federal Emergency Management Agen11 cy. 

12 (4) The Department of Energy. 

13 (5) The Defense Advanced Research Project 

14 Agency. 

15 (6) The Environmental Protection Agency. 

16 (7) The United States Geological Survey. 

17 (8) The Army Corps of Engineers. 

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

19 Science and Technology Policy, through the National 

20 Science and Technology Council, shall coordinate the ac21 tivities carried out by the United States related to the Na22 tional Hurricane Research Initiative as a formal program 

23 with a well defined organizational structure and execution 

24 plan. 

25 (e) GRANTS.— 


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1 (1) AUTHORITY.—The Under Secretary and the 

2 Director may award grants to appropriate govern3 ment agencies or departments or nongovernmental 

4 entities to carry out the purposes described in sub5 section (b). 

6 (2) BEST PRACTICES.—The Under Secretary 

7 and the Director shall develop and make available to 

8 the public a description of best practices to be used 

9 to carry out a project with a grant awarded under 

10 this subsection. 

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

12 Secretary and the Director shall carry out a series of na13 tional seminars and forums that assemble a broad collec14 tion of scientific disciplines to direct researchers to work 

15 collaboratively to carry out the purposes described in sub16 section (b). 

17 (g) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is 

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

19 the fiscal years 2008 through 2018 to carry out this sec20 tion. 

21 SEC. 4. NATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE DATABASE. 

22 (a) REQUIREMENT TO ESTABLISH.—The Under Sec23 retary and the Director shall establish a National Infra24 structure Database for the purposes of— 


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1 (1) cataloging and characterizing the physical, 

2 social, and natural infrastructure in order to provide 

3 a baseline for developing standards, measuring modi4 fication, and determining loss; 

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

6 local government officials to improve information 

7 public policy related to hurricanes and tropical 

8 storms; and 

9 (3) providing data to researchers to improve 

10 their ability to measure hurricane impacts, separate 

11 such impacts from other effects, both natural and 

12 anthropogenic, make effective recommendations for 

13 improved building codes and urban planning prac14 tices, and develop effective procedures for respond15 ing to infrastructure disruption. 

16 (b) DATABASE REQUIREMENTS.—The National In17 frastructure Database shall be a virtual, cyber environ18 ment that uses existing capabilities and facilities, and es19 tablishes new capabilities and facilities, as appropriate, to 

20 provide an interoperable environment and the necessary 

21 metadata and other resources needed by users of that 

22 Database. 

23 (c) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is 

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

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


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1 SEC. 5. NATIONAL HURRICANE RESEARCH MODEL. 

2 (a) REQUIREMENT TO ESTABLISH.—The Under Sec3 retary and the Director shall develop a National Hurri4 cane Research Model to conduct integrative research and 

5 to facilitate the transfer of research knowledge to oper6 ational applications, including linking relevant theoretical, 

7 physical, and computational models from atmospheric, 

8 oceanic, economic, sociological, engineered infrastructure, 

9 and ecologic fields, conducting experimental research to 

10 understand the extensive complexities of hurricanes, and 

11 obtaining measurable results in a comprehensive frame12 work suitable for testing end-to-end integrative systems. 

13 (b) SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS.—The National Hurri14 cane Research Model shall be a physically distributed and 

15 highly coordinated working environment in which research 

16 from the National Hurricane Research can be experi17 mentally substantiated using suitable quantitative metrics, 

18 and where a culture of interaction and collaboration can 

19 further be promoted, including in the areas of— 

20 (1) facilities and cyberinfrastructure; 

21 (2) software integration; and 

22 (3) fixed mobile data collection platforms and 

23 data provisioning systems. 

24 (c) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is 

25 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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