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[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2306 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2306

To provide for the establishment of a National Climate Service, and for 
                            other purposes.

_______________________________________________________________________

                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 7, 2009

  Mr. Dicks introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                  Committee on Science and Technology

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL

 
To provide for the establishment of a National Climate Service, and for 
                            other purposes.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``National Climate Service Act of 
2009''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds the following:
            (1) Weather, climate change, and climate variability affect 
        public safety, environmental services and security, human 
        health, agriculture, energy use, water resources, and other 
        factors vital to national security and human welfare.
            (2) Climate forecasts create opportunities for society to 
        prepare, potentially reducing the costs of climate-related 
        events, as well as serving national needs related to enhancing 
        economic growth, managing risk, protecting life and property, 
        and promoting environmental stewardship.
            (3) Information on predicted climate and climate impacts is 
        not being fully disseminated or used well, despite the 
        increasing predictability of climate.
            (4) The United States lacks adequate research, 
        infrastructure, and coordinated outreach and communication 
        mechanisms to meet national climate monitoring, prediction, and 
        decision support needs for adapting to and mitigating the 
        impacts of climate change and climate variability.
            (5) Increasing societal resilience to climate impacts 
        requires understanding climate trends and variations as well as 
        possible, understanding the impacts of climate on human and 
        nonhuman systems, providing decision-relevant tools based on 
        that information, and increasing society's capacity to act on 
        that information.

SEC. 3. PURPOSE.

    It is the purpose of this Act to establish a National Climate 
Service that will assist the Nation and the world in understanding, 
anticipating, and responding to climate, climate change, and climate 
variability and their impacts and implications. The Service shall 
inform the public through the sustained production and delivery of 
authoritative, timely, useful information about impacts on local, 
State, regional, tribal, national, and global scales. The Service shall 
be user-centric, by ensuring that the information is accessible, 
consistent with users' ability to respond, and based on user needs and 
limitations. The Service shall provide such usable information through 
a sustained network of observations, modeling, and research activities.

SEC. 4. NATIONAL CLIMATE SERVICE.

    (a) Establishment.--
            (1) In general.--The Secretary of Commerce shall establish 
        within the Climate Program Office of the National Oceanic and 
        Atmospheric Administration a National Climate Service (in this 
        Act referred to as the ``Service'') not later than one year 
        after the date of enactment of this Act. The Service shall 
        include a national center and a network of regional and local 
        facilities for operational climate observation, modeling, and 
        research.
            (2) General purpose.--The Service shall inform the public 
        through the sustained production and delivery of authoritative, 
        timely, useful information about impacts on local, State, 
        regional, tribal, national, and global scales.
            (3) Specific services.--The Service, at minimum, shall--
                    (A) serve as a clearinghouse and technical access 
                point to stakeholders for regionally and nationally 
                relevant information on climate, climate impacts, and 
                adaptation, developing comprehensive databases of 
                information relevant to specific regional and national 
                stakeholder needs;
                    (B) provide education on climate impacts, 
                vulnerabilities, and application of climate information 
                in decisionmaking;
                    (C) design decision-support tools that facilitate 
                use of climate information in stakeholders' near-term 
                operations and long-term planning
                    (D) facilitate user access to climate and climate 
                impacts experts for technical assistance in use of 
                climate information and to inform the climate forecast 
                community of their information needs;
                    (E) provide researcher, modeler, and observations 
                experts access to users to help guide direction of 
                research, modeling, and observation activities; and
                    (F) propose and evaluate adaptation strategies for 
                climate variability and change.
            (4) Specific functions.--The Service, at minimum, shall--
                    (A) integrate global, national, and regional 
                observations to produce information and assessments of 
                use to stakeholders and researchers;
                    (B) develop climate models for decision support;
                    (C) perform basic and applied research on climate 
                dynamics and impacts relevant to stakeholder interests;
                    (D) create and maintain an operational delivery 
                system and facilitate transition of new climate 
                applications products to Service member agencies;
                    (E) establish an atmospheric monitoring and 
                verification program utilizing aircraft, satellite, 
                ground sensors, ocean and coastal observing systems, 
                and modeling capabilities to monitor, measure, and 
                verify greenhouse gas concentrations and emissions 
                throughout the global oceans and atmosphere;
                    (F) develop and maintain a dialog among research 
                teams, Federal agencies, and stakeholders for 
                developing information relevant for planning and 
                decisionmaking;
                    (G) identify climate-related vulnerabilities and 
                build national capacity to increase resilience;
                    (H) articulate regional and national climate issues 
                and concerns in regional and national policy arenas and 
                facilitate regional-national communications on Service 
                needs and performance; and
                    (I) outreach to stakeholder groups.
    (b) Action Plan.--Within 1 year after the date of enactment of this 
Act, the Secretary of Commerce shall submit to the Committee on 
Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate and the Committee 
on Science and Technology of the House of Representatives a plan of 
action for the National Climate Service. The plan, at a minimum, 
shall--
            (1) provide for the interpretation and communication of 
        climate data, conditions, predictions, projections, and risks 
        on an ongoing basis to decision and policy makers at the local, 
        regional, and national levels;
            (2) design, deploy, and operate a national climate 
        observing system that closes gaps in existing coverage;
            (3) support infrastructure and ability to archive and 
        ensure the quality of climate data, and make federally funded 
        model simulations and other relevant climate information 
        available from Global Change Research Program activities and 
        other sources (and related data from paleoclimate studies);
            (4) include a program for long-term stewardship, quality 
        control, development of relevant climate products, and 
        efficient access to all relevant climate data, products, and 
        model simulations;
            (5) establish a national coordinated modeling strategy, 
        including a national climate modeling center to provide a 
        dedicated capability for modeling and forecasting scenarios, 
        and a regular schedule of projections on long-term and short-
        term time horizons over a range of scales, including regional 
        scales;
            (6) improve integrated modeling, assessment, and predictive 
        capabilities needed to document and forecast climate changes 
        and impacts, and to guide national, regional, and local 
        planning and decisionmaking;
            (7) provide a system of regular consultation and 
        coordination with Federal agencies, States, tribes, 
        nongovernmental organizations, the private sector, and the 
        academic community to ensure--
                    (A) that the information requirements of these 
                groups are well incorporated; and
                    (B) timely and full sharing, dissemination and use 
                of climate information and services in risk 
                preparedness, planning, decisionmaking, and early 
                warning and natural resources management, both 
                domestically and internationally;
            (8) develop standards, evaluation criteria, and performance 
        objectives to ensure that the Service meets the evolving 
        information needs of the public, policy makers, and 
        decisionmakers in the face of a changing climate;
            (9) develop funding estimates to implement the plan; and
            (10) support competitive research programs that will 
        improve elements of the Service described in this Act through 
        the Climate Program Office within the Service headquarter 
        function.
    (c) Director.--The Administrator shall appoint a Director of the 
Service, who shall oversee all processes associated with managing the 
organization and executing the functions and actions described in this 
Act.
    (d) National Climate Service Advisory Council.--The Administrator 
shall, in consultation with the Chairmen and ranking minority members 
of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate 
and the Committee on Science and Technology of the House of 
Representatives, and the National Academy of Sciences, appoint the 
membership of a National Climate Service Advisory Council, with members 
serving 4-year terms, that shall include a diverse membership from 
appropriate Federal, State, and local government, universities, and 
nongovernment and private sectors who use climate information and cover 
a range of sectors, such as water, drought, fisheries, coasts, 
agriculture, health, natural resources, transportation, and insurance. 
The Council shall advise the Director of the Service of key priorities 
in climate-related issues that require the attention of the Service. 
The Council shall be responsible for promoting coordination across 
regional, national, and international concerns and the assessment of 
evolving information needs.

SEC. 5. CONTRACT AND GRANT AUTHORITY.

    Functions vested in any Federal officer or agency by this Act or 
under the program established under this Act may be exercised through 
the facilities and personnel of the agency involved or, to the extent 
provided or approved in advance in appropriation Acts, by other persons 
or entities under contracts or grant arrangements entered into by such 
officer or agency.

SEC. 6. ANNUAL REPORT.

    The Secretary of Commerce shall prepare and submit to the President 
and the Congress, not later than March 31 of each year, a report on the 
activities conducted pursuant to this Act during the preceding fiscal 
year, including--
            (1) a summary of the achievements of the National Climate 
        Service during the previous fiscal year; and
            (2) an analysis of the progress made toward achieving the 
        goals and objectives of the Service.

SEC. 7. DEFINITIONS.

            (1) Administrator.--The term ``Administrator'' means the 
        Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
        Administration.
            (2) Advisory council.--The term ``Advisory Council'' refers 
        to the National Climate Service Advisor Council.
            (3) Climate change.--The term ``climate change'' means any 
        change in climate over time, whether due to natural variability 
        or as a result of human activity.
            (4) Director.--The term ``Director'' means the director of 
        the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National 
        Climate Service.
            (5) Secretary.--The term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary 
        of Commerce.
            (6) Service.--The term ``Service'' means the National 
        Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Climate 
        Service.

SEC. 8. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

    There are authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary to carry 
out this Act--
            (1) $300,000,000 for fiscal year 2011.
            (2) $350,000,000 for fiscal year 2012.
            (3) $400,000,000 for fiscal year 2013.
            (4) $450,000,000 for fiscal year 2014.
            (5) $500,000,000 for fiscal year 2015.
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