II 

118TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 4901 

To require the Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere 

to maintain the National Mesonet Program, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JULY 31, 2024 

Mr. SCHATZ (for himself and Mr. MARSHALL) introduced the following bill; 

which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, 

Science, and Transportation 

A BILL 

To require the Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans 

and Atmosphere to maintain the National Mesonet Program, 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 ‘‘Improving Flood and 

5 Agricultural Forecasts Act of 2024’’. 

6 SEC. 2. NATIONAL MESONET PROGRAM. 

7 (a) PROGRAM.—The Under Secretary of Commerce 

8 for Oceans and Atmosphere shall maintain the National 


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1 Mesonet Program (referred to in this section as the ‘‘Pro2 gram’’), which shall— 

3 (1) obtain observations to improve under4 standing of and forecast capabilities for atmospheric, 

5 drought, fire, and water events, with a prioritization 

6 on leveraging available commercial, academic, and 

7 other non-Federal Government environmental data 

8 to enhance coordination across the private, public, 

9 and academic sectors of the weather enterprise in 

10 the United States; 

11 (2) establish means to integrate greater density 

12 and more types of environmental observations into 

13 the Program on an annual basis, including by en14 couraging local and regional networks of environ15 mental monitoring stations, in situ sensor networks, 

16 including soil moisture and stream gage networks, 

17 and satellite constellations, to participate in the Pro18 gram; and 

19 (3) establish memoranda of understanding with 

20 networks outside of the scope of the Program in fur21 therance of this section. 

22 (b) PROGRAM ELEMENTS.—In carrying out the Pro23 gram, the Under Secretary shall— 

24 (1) increase data density by— 


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1 (A) improving and increasing the quantity 

2 and density of environmental observations used 

3 by the Administration and the National Weath4 er Service to support baseline forecasts, includ5 ing nowcasts, warnings, and hyper local fore6 casts that protect individuals, businesses, agri7 cultural production, food security, military, and 

8 government agencies in the United States, and 

9 enabling such individuals and entities to operate 

10 in a safe, efficient, and orderly manner; 

11 (B) yielding increased quantities of bound12 ary-layer data to improve numerical weather 

13 prediction performance, including in subsea14 sonal to seasonal timescales; 

15 (C) identifying available terrestrial or ma16 rine environmental data, or quantifiable gaps in 

17 such data, to improve the understanding of air18 sea interactions; and 

19 (D) supporting the National Weather Serv20 ice in reaching its target of a 30-minute warn21 ing time for severe weather through better pre22 dictive model algorithms driven by increasingly 

23 effective observations; 

24 (2) monitor local meteorological conditions by— 


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1 (A) acquiring soil and moisture data to 

2 monitor soil moisture, vegetation water content, 

3 and moisture loss from evaporation, in support 

4 of operational forecasting, the National Inte5 grated Drought Information System, and local 

6 commercial, agricultural, and emergency man7 agement needs; 

8 (B) supporting the National Coordinated 

9 Soil Moisture Monitoring Network in acquiring 

10 soil moisture and related data to support the 

11 development of decision-support products and 

12 other information services; and 

13 (C) expanding and enhancing environ14 mental observational networks in the roadway 

15 environment to provide real-time road weather 

16 and surface conditions for surface transpor17 tation and related economic sectors; and 

18 (3) administer the Program by— 

19 (A) obtaining data in furtherance of this 

20 section only when demonstrably cost effective 

21 and meeting or exceeding data quality stand22 ards available to the National Oceanic and At23 mospheric Administration (referred to in this 

24 section as the ‘‘Administration’’); 


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1 (B) subject to the requirement in subpara2 graph (A), leveraging existing networks of envi3 ronmental monitoring stations, including sup4 plemental radar systems, to increase the quan5 tity and density of environmental observations 

6 and data available to the Administration; 

7 (C) providing the critical technical and ad8 ministrative infrastructure needed to facilitate 

9 rapid integration and sustained use of new and 

10 emerging networks of environmental monitoring 

11 stations anticipated in coming years from non12 Federal Government sources; 

13 (D) coordinating with existing data devel14 oped by the Administration and used for fore15 casts, including data from the National Envi16 ronmental Satellite, Data, and Information 

17 Service, the Integrated Ocean Observing Sys18 tem, the Global Ocean Monitoring and Observ19 ing Program, the National Data Buoy Center, 

20 and the National Ocean Service; and 

21 (E) identifying and communicating to the 

22 Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research 

23 and other partners priorities of research and 

24 development needed to advance observations in 

25 the Program. 


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1 (c) FINANCIAL AND TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE.— 

2 (1) IN GENERAL.—In furtherance of the Pro3 gram, in a fiscal year, the Under Secretary may 

4 award not less than 15 percent of the amount appro5 priated for the Program for that fiscal year for fi6 nancial assistance to State, Tribal, private, and aca7 demic entities seeking to build, expand, or upgrade 

8 equipment and capacity of mesonet systems. 

9 (2) OTHER FEDERAL AWARDS.—Financial as10 sistance under this subsection may be made in co11 ordination with and in addition to awards from 

12 other Federal agencies. 

13 (3) AGREEMENTS.—Before receiving financial 

14 assistance under paragraph (1), the State, Tribal, 

15 private, or academic entity seeking financial assist16 ance under this subsection shall enter into an agree17 ment with the Under Secretary to provide data to 

18 the Program, subject to verification by the Program 

19 of the relative operational value and evaluation of 

20 the cost of such data, for use in weather prediction, 

21 severe weather warnings, and emergency response. 

22 (4) ASSISTANCE AND OTHER SUPPORT.—The 

23 Under Secretary may provide— 

24 (A) technical assistance, project implemen25 tation support, and guidance to State, Tribal, 


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1 private, and academic entities seeking financial 

2 assistance under this subsection; and 

3 (B) technical and financial assistance for 

4 maintenance of monitoring stations in under5 represented or remote areas of the country 

6 where it is financially unfeasible for 1 entity to 

7 operate such stations without such assistance. 

8 (5) TERMS.—In providing financial assistance 

9 under this subsection, the Under Secretary shall es10 tablish terms to ensure that each State, Tribal, pri11 vate, or academic entity that receives financial as12 sistance under this subsection receives a level of sup13 port commensurate with the quality and other char14 acteristics of the data to be provided. 

15 (6) DETERMINATION.—A State, Tribal, private, 

16 or academic entity may only receive financial assist17 ance under this subsection if the Under Secretary 

18 determines such entity will provide sufficient finan19 cial support from non-Federal Government sources 

20 and fully maintain the quality of the mesonet system 

21 and associated data standards required by the Pro22 gram for a period of not less than 5 years. 

23 (7) PRIORITY.—The Under Secretary shall 

24 prioritize providing assistance under paragraph (1) 


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1 to not fewer than 1 entity in an underrepresented or 

2 remote area. 

3 (d) ADVISORY COMMITTEE.— 

4 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Under Secretary shall 

5 ensure the Program has an active advisory com6 mittee of subject matter experts to make rec7 ommendations to the Administration on the identi8 fication, implementation, procurement, and tracking 

9 of data needed to supplement the Program, and rec10 ommend improvements, expansions, and acquisitions 

11 of available data. 

12 (2) DESIGNATION OF EXISTING COMMITTEE.— 

13 The Under Secretary may designate an existing ad14 visory committee, subcommittee, or working group of 

15 the Federal Government, including the Science Advi16 sory Board of the Administration, to carry out the 

17 requirement under paragraph (1). 

18 (3) ACADEMIC EXPERTISE.—The advisory com19 mittee under paragraph (1), in consultation with the 

20 Program, shall include expertise from 1 or more in21 stitutions of higher education (as defined in section 

22 101 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 

23 U.S.C. 1001)) to assist the advisory committee to 

24 identify, evaluate, and recommend potential partner25 ships, regional or subregional consortia, and collaboVerDate Sep 11 2014 21:08 Aug 29, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4901.IS S4901

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1 rative methods that would expand the number of 

2 participants and volume of data in the Program. 

3 (e) REGULAR BRIEFINGS.— 

4 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Under Secretary shall 

5 provide regular briefings, not less frequently than 

6 twice annually, to the Committee on Commerce, 

7 Science, and Transportation of the Senate and the 

8 Committee on Science, Space, and Technology of the 

9 House of Representatives on all activities under the 

10 Program. 

11 (2) BRIEFING CONTENT.—Each briefing re12 quired under paragraph (1) shall include informa13 tion relating to the following: 

14 (A) Efforts to implement the activities de15 scribed in subsection (b). 

16 (B) Any financial or technical assistance 

17 provided pursuant to subsection (c). 

18 (C) Efforts to address recommendations 

19 received from the advisory committee under 

20 subsection (d), if any. 

21 (D) The potential need and associated ben22 efits of a coastal and ocean mesonet, or other 

23 emerging areas of weather data needs. 


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1 (E) Progress toward eliminating gaps in 

2 weather observation data in States and regions 

3 of the United States. 

4 (F) Any other topic the Under Secretary 

5 determines relevant. 

6 (f) DEFINITIONS.—In this section, the terms ‘‘sea7 sonal’’, ‘‘State’’, ‘‘subseasonal’’, ‘‘Under Secretary’’, and 

8 ‘‘weather enterprise’’ have the meanings given those terms 

9 in section 2 of the Weather Research and Forecasting In10 novation Act of 2017 (15 U.S.C. 8501). 

11 (g) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 

12 are authorized to be appropriated to the Under Secretary 

13 to carry out this section— 

14 (1) $50,000,000 for fiscal year 2025; 

15 (2) $55,000,000 for fiscal year 2026; 

16 (3) $61,000,000 for fiscal year 2027; 

17 (4) $68,000,000 for fiscal year 2028; and 

18 (5) $70,000,000 for fiscal year 2029. 

Æ 


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