II 

113TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 106 

To provide for the establishment, on-going validation, and use of an official 

set of data on the historical temperature record, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JANUARY 23 (legislative day, JANUARY 3), 2013 

Mr. VITTER introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred 

to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation 

A BILL 

To provide for the establishment, on-going validation, and 

use of an official set of data on the historical temperature record, 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 ‘‘Public Access to His5 torical Records Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. OFFICIAL DATASET ON HISTORICAL TEMPERATURE 

7 RECORD. 

8 (a) ESTABLISHMENT OF OFFICIAL DATASET BY

9 NASA.—The Administrator of the National Aeronautics 


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1 and Space Administration shall establish an official 

2 dataset on the historical temperature record. 

3 (b) REQUIREMENTS FOR DATASET.— 

4 (1) USE OF RAW DATA.—In establishing the 

5 dataset required by this section, the Administrator 

6 shall use the raw data relating to temperature col7 lected by each applicable station and vessel and 

8 shall, for that purpose, reexamine applicable records 

9 collected by such stations and vessels and accurately 

10 quantify the statistical uncertainty (including esti11 mates of random and bias errors) of each tempera12 ture observation and any subsequent products based 

13 on such observation. 

14 (2) CLEAR AND FULL IDENTIFICATION OF GAPS

15 IN DATA.—In establishing the dataset, the Adminis16 trator shall clearly and fully identify each gap that 

17 exists in temperature station data and temperature 

18 reading data. 

19 (3) FILL-IN DATA.—If in establishing the 

20 dataset the Administrator supplies or fills in data to 

21 address a gap in temperature station data or tem22 perature reading data, or for any other reason, the 

23 Administrator shall— 

24 (A) clearly and fully identify the data so 

25 supplied or filled in as fill-in data; and 


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1 (B) clearly and fully explain the rationale 

2 for supplying or filling in such data. 

3 (c) PANEL ON USE OF DATA FOR ESTABLISHMENT

4 OF DATASET.— 

5 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Administrator shall es6 tablish a panel to assist the Administrator in the es7 tablishment of the dataset required by this section. 

8 (2) MEMBERS.—The panel shall consist of 

9 seven individuals appointed by the Administrator 

10 from among individuals in the private sector with ac11 knowledged expertise in meteorology and statistics 

12 who— 

13 (A) do not have a significant financial in14 terest in taking a position on the matter of 

15 global climate change; and 

16 (B) have not received funding from any de17 partment, agency, or entity of the Federal Gov18 ernment for activities relating to global climate 

19 research within the past five years. 

20 (3) DUTIES.—The panel shall assist the Admin21 istrator in establishing the dataset required by this 

22 section by— 

23 (A) determining which land surface, sea 

24 surface, and satellite records shall be used in 

25 the establishment of the dataset; 


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1 (B) establishing standards and criteria for 

2 determining confidence levels for the interpola3 tion and extrapolation of historical average 

4 global temperatures over successive 25-year pe5 riods in the past; and 

6 (C) establishing a rationale for an average 

7 historical global temperature and a means of 

8 analysis for assessing the accuracy of such av9 erage. 

10 (d) INDEPENDENT VERIFICATION AND VALIDATION

11 OF DATASET.— 

12 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not less often than once 

13 every three years, the Administrator shall enter into 

14 a contract with an appropriate entity that is inde15 pendent of the Federal Government to perform a 

16 verification and validation of the dataset established 

17 under this section. 

18 (2) APPROPRIATE ENTITIES.—An entity with 

19 which the Administrator enters into a contract 

20 under this subsection shall be an entity with per21 sonnel having the skills and expertise appropriate for 

22 the verification or validation (as the case may be) of 

23 the dataset, including the following: 

24 (A) For the verification, personnel with 

25 skills and expertise relating to computer proVerDate Mar 15 2010 02:32 Jan 31, 2013 Jkt 029200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S106.IS S106

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1 gramming and computer software development 

2 (including error handling). 

3 (B) For the validation, personnel with ex4 pertise in statistics and meteorology. 

5 (3) RESPONSIBILITIES.—In carrying out the 

6 verification or validation of the dataset under a con7 tract under this subsection, an entity shall carry out 

8 such activities with respect to the dataset as the Ad9 ministrator shall specify in the contract, including a 

10 review of any data interpolation codes for purposes 

11 of identifying and eliminating bias. 

12 (4) PUBLICATION.—Any algorithms used, and 

13 any determinations made, in the verification and val14 idation of the dataset pursuant to this subsection 

15 shall be made available to the public. 

16 SEC. 3. USE OF DATASET IN GLOBAL CLIMATE RESEARCH. 

17 (a) USE AS SOLE SOURCE OF DATA.—Upon the com18 pletion of the establishment of the dataset on the historical 

19 temperature record required by section 2, any person or 

20 entity engaged in global climate research that is funded 

21 in whole or in part with funds from the Federal Govern22 ment shall use the dataset as the source of data on the 

23 historical temperature record. 

24 (b) USE AMONG MULTIPLE SOURCES OF DATA.—In 

25 publishing any findings or hypothesis on global climate 


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1 change, any person or entity engaged in global climate re2 search that is funded in whole or in part with funds from 

3 the Federal Government shall use the dataset described 

4 in subsection (a) as the primary source, or at least one 

5 of the primary sources, for historical global temperatures 

6 if such person or entity elects to consider multiple sources 

7 of such data. 

8 SEC. 4. PUBLIC RELEASE OF TEMPERATURE STATION 

9 DATA. 

10 (a) RELEASE OF RAW DATA REQUIRED.—The Sec11 retary of Commerce shall provide for the immediate re12 lease to the public, in unadjusted form, of all raw tempera13 ture station data from cooperative observers and auto14 mated stations collected by the National Climatic Data 

15 Center as of the date of the enactment of this Act. The 

16 data shall be released to the public in a digital electronic 

17 format. 

18 (b) RELEASE OF CERTAIN ANALYSES.—The Sec19 retary shall provide for the immediate release to the public 

20 of an analysis of the differences between the raw tempera21 ture datasets and the final temperature datasets collected 

22 and administered by the National Climatic Data Center 

23 as of the date of the enactment of this Act. The analysis 

24 shall be released to the public in digital numerical tabular 

25 form and in graphical form. One such graph shall show 


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1 the raw temperature dataset line overlain with the final 

2 temperature dataset line over time. 

3 SEC. 5. ACCURACY OF DATA PROCESSING AND DATA AD4 JUSTMENT. 

5 (a) DATA PROCESSING.— 

6 (1) RELEASE TO PUBLIC.—The applicable Fed7 eral official shall publish on the Internet website of 

8 the agency concerned that is available to the public 

9 any coding or other algorithm used by such official 

10 in processing data for purposes of complying with 

11 the requirements of section 2 or 4, as the case may 

12 be, together with a notice of the availability of the 

13 review and correction of such coding or algorithm 

14 for quality, objectivity, utility, and integrity by such 

15 agency pursuant to the administrative mechanisms 

16 applicable to such agency under section 

17 515(b)(2)(B) of the Information Quality Act. 

18 (2) REVIEW.—Any request for the correction of 

19 coding or other algorithm under paragraph (1) shall 

20 be processed in accordance with the guidelines of the 

21 Information Quality Act applicable to the agency 

22 concerned not later than 30 days after receipt of 

23 such request by such agency. 

24 (b) DATA ADJUSTMENT.— 


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1 (1) METHODS TO COMPLY WITH INFORMATION

2 QUALITY ACT.—The applicable Federal official may 

3 not use a method for the adjustment of data for 

4 purposes of complying with the requirements of sec5 tion 2 or 4, as the case may be, unless such official 

6 ensures and certifies that such method complies with 

7 the guidelines of the Information Quality Act, in8 cluding, but not limited to, requirements as follows: 

9 (A) To make available to the public (in10 cluding through the Internet website of the 

11 agency concerned that is available to the public) 

12 the computer coding and a detailed explanation 

13 of the processes used in such adjustment of 

14 data. 

15 (B) To make available to the public (in16 cluding through such Internet website) all peer 

17 review comments relating to the data being ad18 justed and the processes and algorithms used in 

19 such adjustment of data. 

20 (C) To make available to the public (in21 cluding through such Internet website) a de22 scription of any previous changes in the data 

23 being adjusted and of the effect of such changes 

24 on trends, averages, and other statistical cat25 egories of such data. 


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1 (D) To cite all applicable studies, reports, 

2 and peer reviewed papers using the data being 

3 adjusted or any earlier iterations of such data. 

4 (E) To use in such adjustment of data 

5 only data and adjustment processes and algo6 rithms that are non-proprietary in nature. 

7 (F) To require that any agents and con8 tractors relied upon in such adjustment of data 

9 are subject to section 552 of title 5, United 

10 States Code (commonly referred to as the 

11 ‘‘Freedom of Information Act’’), regarding their 

12 activities in such adjustment of data. 

13 (2) AVAILABILITY UPON REQUEST.—Not later 

14 than 10 days after the date of receipt of a request 

15 therefor, the applicable Federal official shall make 

16 available the certification with respect to a method 

17 for the adjustment of data under paragraph (1), to18 gether with a description of such method sufficient 

19 to permit independent replication of the adjustment 

20 made by such method. 

21 (c) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

22 (1) The term ‘‘applicable Federal official’’ 

23 means the following: 


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1 (A) The Administrator of the National 

2 Aeronautics and Space Administration for pur3 poses of actions under section 2. 

4 (B) The Secretary of Commerce for pur5 poses of actions under section 4. 

6 (2) The term ‘‘Information Quality Act’’ means 

7 section 515 of the Treasury and General Govern8 ment Appropriations Act, 2001 (as enacted into law 

9 by the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2001 (Pub10 lic Law 106–554; 114 Stat. 2763A–153)). 

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