II 

Calendar No. 596 

117TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 3053 

To amend the Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017 

to require the Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration to develop a plan and national guidance document to 

improve precipitation estimates, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

OCTOBER 21, 2021 

Mr. BOOKER (for himself and Mr. WICKER) introduced the following bill; 

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

Science, and Transportation 

DECEMBER 7, 2022 

Reported by Ms. CANTWELL, with an amendment 

[Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic] 

A BILL 

To amend the Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation 

Act of 2017 to require the Administrator of the National 

Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to develop a 

plan and national guidance document to improve precipitation estimates, 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, 


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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Providing Research 

3 and Estimates of Changes In Precipitation Act’’ or the 

4 ‘‘PRECIP Act’’. 

5 SEC. 2. AMENDMENT TO THE WEATHER RESEARCH AND 

6 FORECASTING INNOVATION ACT OF 2017 TO 

7 IMPROVE FEDERAL PRECIPITATION INFOR8 MATION. 

9 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Weather Research and Fore10 casting Innovation Act of 2017 (15 U.S.C. 8501 et seq.) 

11 is amended by adding at the end the following: 

12 ‘‘TITLE VI—IMPROVEMENT OF 

13 FEDERAL PRECIPITATION IN14 FORMATION 

15 ‘‘SEC. 601. STUDY ON PRECIPITATION ESTIMATION. 

16 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 90 days after the 

17 date of the enactment of the PRECIP Act, the Adminis18 trator, in consultation with other Federal agencies as ap19 propriate, shall seek to enter an agreement with the Na20 tional Academies under which the National Academies 

21 shall— 

22 ‘‘(1) conduct a study on the state of practice 

23 and research needs for precipitation estimation, in24 cluding probable maximum precipitation estimation; 

25 and 


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1 ‘‘(2) not later than 2 years after the date on 

2 which such agreement is finalized— 

3 ‘‘(A) submit to the Committee on Com4 merce, Science, and Transportation of the Sen5 ate and the Committee on Science, Space, and 

6 Technology of the House of Representatives a 

7 report on the results of the study conducted 

8 under paragraph (1); and 

9 ‘‘(B) make the report submitted under 

10 subparagraph (A) publicly available on a 

11 website. 

12 ‘‘(b) REPORT ON STUDY.—The report submitted 

13 under subsection (a)(2)(A) shall include the following: 

14 ‘‘(1) An examination of the current state of 

15 practice for precipitation estimation at scales appro16 priate for the needs of decisionmakers, and rationale 

17 for further evolution of that field. 

18 ‘‘(2) An evaluation of best practices for precipi19 tation estimation that— 

20 ‘‘(A) are based on the best available 

21 science, including assumptions of non-station22 arity; and 

23 ‘‘(B) can be utilized by the user commu24 nity. 

25 ‘‘(3) A framework for— 


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1 ‘‘(A) the development of a national guid2 ance document for estimating extreme precipi3 tation; and 

4 ‘‘(B) evaluation of the strengths and chal5 lenges of the full spectrum of approaches for 

6 such estimation, including for probable max7 imum precipitation studies. 

8 ‘‘(4) A description of existing research needs in 

9 the field of precipitation estimation in order to mod10 ernize current methodologies and incorporate the 

11 best available science. 

12 ‘‘(5) A description of in-situ, airborne, and 

13 space-based observation requirements that could en14 hance precipitation estimation and development of 

15 models, including an examination of the use of geo16 graphic information systems and geospatial tech17 nology for integration, analysis, and visualization of 

18 precipitation data. 

19 ‘‘(6) A recommended plan for a Federal re20 search and development program, including speci21 fications for costs, timeframes, and responsible agen22 cies for addressing identified research needs. 

23 ‘‘(7) An analysis of the respective roles in pre24 cipitation estimation of various Federal agencies, 


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1 academia, State, tribal, territorial, and local govern2 ments, and other public and private stakeholders. 

3 ‘‘(8) Recommendations for data management to 

4 promote long-term needs such as enabling retrospec5 tive analyses and data discoverability, interoper6 ability, and reuse. 

7 ‘‘(9) Recommendations for how data and serv8 ices from the entire enterprise can be best leveraged 

9 by the Federal Government. 

10 ‘‘(10) Such other topics as the Administrator or 

11 the National Academies consider appropriate. 

12 ‘‘(c) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 

13 is authorized to be appropriated to the National Oceanic 

14 and Atmospheric Administration $1,500,000 to carry out 

15 the study under this section. 

16 ‘‘SEC. 602. IMPROVING PROBABLE MAXIMUM PRECIPITA17 TION ESTIMATES. 

18 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 90 days after the 

19 date on which the National Academies makes publicly 

20 available the report under section 601, the Administrator, 

21 shall, in consideration of the recommendations included in 

22 the report and in consultation with relevant partners, in23 cluding users of the data, develop a plan to— 

24 ‘‘(1) not later than 6 years after the completion 

25 of the report submitted under section 601 and not 


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1 less frequently than once every 10 years thereafter, 

2 update probable maximum precipitation estimates 

3 for the United States, such that each update in4 cludes estimates that incorporate assumptions of 

5 non-stationarity; 

6 ‘‘(2) coordinate with partners to conduct re7 search in the field of extreme precipitation esti8 mation, in accordance with the research needs iden9 tified in the report submitted under section 601; 

10 ‘‘(3) make publicly available, in a searchable, 

11 interoperable format, all probable maximum precipi12 tation studies developed by the National Oceanic and 

13 Atmospheric Administration that the Administrator 

14 has the legal right to redistribute and considers to 

15 be at an appropriate state of development on an 

16 internet website of the National Oceanic and Atmos17 pheric Administration; and 

18 ‘‘(4) ensure all probable maximum precipitation 

19 estimate data, products, and supporting documenta20 tion and metadata developed by the National Oce21 anic and Atmospheric Administration are preserved, 

22 curated, and served by the National Oceanic and At23 mospheric Administration, as appropriate. 

24 ‘‘(b) NATIONAL GUIDANCE DOCUMENT FOR THE DE25 VELOPMENT OF PROBABLE MAXIMUM PRECIPITATION


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1 ESTIMATES.—The Administrator, in collaboration with 

2 Federal agencies, State, territorial, tribal and local gov3 ernments, academia, and other partners the Administrator 

4 considers appropriate, shall develop a national guidance 

5 document that— 

6 ‘‘(1) provides best practices that can be fol7 lowed by Federal and State regulatory agencies, pri8 vate meteorological consultants, and other users that 

9 perform probable maximum precipitation studies; 

10 ‘‘(2) considers the recommendations included in 

11 the report submitted under section 601; 

12 ‘‘(3) facilitates review of probable maximum 

13 precipitation studies by regulatory agencies; 

14 ‘‘(4) provides confidence in regional and site15 specific probable maximum precipitation estimates; 

16 and 

17 ‘‘(5) includes such other topics as the Adminis18 trator considers appropriate. 

19 ‘‘(c) PUBLICATION.—Not later than 2 years after the 

20 date on which the National Academies makes publicly 

21 available the report under section 601, the Administrator 

22 shall make publicly available the national guidance docu23 ment developed under subsection (b) on an internet 

24 website of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Admin25 istration. 


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1 ‘‘(d) UPDATES.—The Administrator shall update the 

2 national guidance document developed under subsection 

3 (b) not less frequently than once every 10 years after the 

4 publication of the document under subsection (c) and 

5 make such updates publicly available in accordance with 

6 such subsection. 

7 ‘‘(e) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 

8 are authorized to be appropriated to the National Oceanic 

9 and Atmospheric Administration to carry out this section 

10 amounts as follows: 

11 ‘‘(1) $13,000,000 for fiscal year 2022. 

12 ‘‘(2) $14,000,000 for fiscal year 2023. 

13 ‘‘(3) $14,000,000 for fiscal year 2024. 

14 ‘‘(4) $2,000,000 for fiscal year 2025. 

15 ‘‘(5) $2,000,000 for fiscal year 2026. 

16 ‘‘(6) $2,000,000 for fiscal year 2027. 

17 ‘‘SEC. 603. DEFINITIONS. 

18 ‘‘In this title: 

19 ‘‘(1) ADMINISTRATOR.—The term ‘Adminis20 trator’ means the Under Secretary of Commerce for 

21 Oceans and Atmosphere and the Administrator of 

22 the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administra23 tion. 


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1 ‘‘(2) NATIONAL ACADEMIES.—The term ‘Na2 tional Academies’ means the National Academies of 

3 Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 

4 ‘‘(3) UNITED STATES.—The term ‘United 

5 States’ means, collectively, each State of the United 

6 States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth 

7 of Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the Com8 monwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the 

9 Virgin Islands of the United States, and any other 

10 territory or possession of the United States.’’. 

11 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—The table of con12 tents in section 1(b) of the Weather Research and Fore13 casting Innovation Act of 2017 (Public Law 115–25; 131 

14 Stat. 91) is amended by adding at the end the following: 

‘‘TITLE VI—IMPROVEMENT OF FEDERAL PRECIPITATION 

INFORMATION 

‘‘Sec. 601. Study on precipitation estimation. 

‘‘Sec. 602. Improving probable maximum precipitation estimates. 

‘‘Sec. 603. Definitions.’’. 

15 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

16 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Providing Research and 

17 Estimates of Changes In Precipitation Act’’ or the 

18 ‘‘PRECIP Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. AMENDMENT TO THE WEATHER RESEARCH AND 

2 FORECASTING INNOVATION ACT OF 2017 RE3 LATING TO IMPROVING FEDERAL PRECIPITA4 TION INFORMATION. 

5 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Weather Research and Fore6 casting Innovation Act of 2017 (15 U.S.C. 8501 et seq.) is 

7 amended by adding at the end the following: 

8 ‘‘TITLE VI—IMPROVING FEDERAL 

9 PRECIPITATION INFORMATION 

10 ‘‘SEC. 601. STUDY ON PRECIPITATION ESTIMATION. 

11 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 90 days after the 

12 date of enactment of the PRECIP Act, the Administrator, 

13 in consultation with other Federal agencies as appropriate, 

14 shall seek to enter an agreement with the National Acad15 emies— 

16 ‘‘(1) to conduct a study on the state of practice 

17 and research needs for precipitation estimation, in18 cluding probable maximum precipitation estimation; 

19 and 

20 ‘‘(2) to submit, not later than 24 months after 

21 the date on which such agreement is finalized, to the 

22 Committee on Science, Space, and Technology of the 

23 House of Representatives and the Committee on Com24 merce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate, 

25 and make publicly available on a website, a report on 

26 the results of the study under paragraph (1). 


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1 ‘‘(b) STUDY.—The report under subsection (a) shall in2 clude the following: 

3 ‘‘(1) An examination of the current state of prac4 tice for precipitation estimation at scales appropriate 

5 for decisionmaker needs, and rationale for further evo6 lution of this field. 

7 ‘‘(2) An evaluation of best practices for precipi8 tation estimation that are based on the best-available 

9 science, include considerations of non-stationarity, 

10 and can be utilized by the user community. 

11 ‘‘(3) A framework for— 

12 ‘‘(A) the development of a National Guid13 ance Document for estimating extreme precipita14 tion in future conditions; and 

15 ‘‘(B) evaluation of the strengths and chal16 lenges of the full spectrum of approaches, includ17 ing for probable maximum precipitation studies. 

18 ‘‘(4) A description of existing research needs in 

19 the field of precipitation estimation in order to mod20 ernize current methodologies and consider non21 stationarity. 

22 ‘‘(5) A description of in-situ, airborne, and 

23 space-based observation requirements, that could en24 hance precipitation estimation and development of 

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1 graphic information systems and geospatial tech2 nology for integration, analysis, and visualization of 

3 precipitation data. 

4 ‘‘(6) A recommended plan for a Federal research 

5 and development program, including specifications 

6 for costs, timeframes, and responsible agencies for ad7 dressing identified research needs. 

8 ‘‘(7) An analysis of the respective roles in pre9 cipitation estimation of various Federal agencies, 

10 academia, State, tribal, territorial, and local govern11 ments, and other public and private stakeholders. 

12 ‘‘(8) Recommendations for data management to 

13 promote long-term needs such as enabling retrospec14 tive analyses and data discoverability, interoper15 ability, and reuse. 

16 ‘‘(9) Recommendations for how data and services 

17 from the entire enterprise can be best leveraged by the 

18 Federal Government. 

19 ‘‘(10) A description of non-Federal precipitation 

20 data, its accessibility by the Federal Government, and 

21 ways for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Admin22 istration to improve or expand such datasets. 

23 ‘‘(c) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is 

24 authorized $1,500,000 to the National Oceanic and Atmos25 pheric Administration to carry out this study. 


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1 ‘‘SEC. 602. IMPROVING PROBABLE MAXIMUM PRECIPITA2 TION ESTIMATES. 

3 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 90 days after the 

4 date on which the National Academies makes public the re5 port under section 601, the Administrator, in consideration 

6 of the report recommendations, shall consult with relevant 

7 partners, including users of the data, on the development 

8 of a plan to— 

9 ‘‘(1) not later than 6 years after the completion 

10 of such report and not less than every 10 years there11 after, update probable maximum precipitation esti12 mates for the United States, such that each update 

13 considers non-stationarity; 

14 ‘‘(2) coordinate with partners to conduct re15 search in the field of extreme precipitation esti16 mation, in accordance with the research needs identi17 fied in such report; 

18 ‘‘(3) make publicly available, in a searchable, 

19 interoperable format, all probable maximum precipi20 tation studies developed by the National Oceanic and 

21 Atmospheric Administration that the Administrator 

22 has the legal right to redistribute and deemed to be 

23 at an appropriate state of development on an internet 

24 website of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Ad25 ministration; and 


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1 ‘‘(4) ensure all probable maximum precipitation 

2 estimate data, products, and supporting documenta3 tion and metadata developed by the National Oceanic 

4 and Atmospheric Administration are preserved, 

5 curated, and served by the National Oceanic and At6 mospheric Administration, as appropriate. 

7 ‘‘(b) NATIONAL GUIDANCE DOCUMENT FOR THE DE8 VELOPMENT OF PROBABLE MAXIMUM PRECIPITATION ESTI9 MATES.—The Administrator, in collaboration with Federal 

10 agencies, State, territorial, Tribal and local governments, 

11 academia, and other partners the Administrator deems ap12 propriate, shall develop a National Guidance Document 

13 that— 

14 ‘‘(1) provides best practices that can be followed 

15 by Federal and State regulatory agencies, private me16 teorological consultants, and other users that perform 

17 probable maximum precipitation studies; 

18 ‘‘(2) considers the recommendations provided in 

19 the National Academies study under section 601; 

20 ‘‘(3) facilitates review of probable maximum pre21 cipitation studies by regulatory agencies; and 

22 ‘‘(4) provides confidence in regional and site-spe23 cific probable maximum precipitation estimates. 

24 ‘‘(c) PUBLICATION.—Not later than 2 years after the 

25 date on which the National Academies makes public the reVerDate Sep 11 2014 23:52 Dec 07, 2022 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00014 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6203 E:\BILLS\S3053.RS S3053

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1 port under section 601, the Administrator shall make pub2 licly available the National Guidance Document under sub3 section (b) on an internet website of the National Oceanic 

4 and Atmospheric Administration. 

5 ‘‘(d) UPDATES.—The Administrator shall update the 

6 National Guidance Document not less than once every 10 

7 years after the publication of the National Guidance Docu8 ment under subsection (c) and publish such updates in ac9 cordance with such subsection. 

10 ‘‘(e) FUNDING.—Amounts available to carry out this 

11 section shall be derived from existing funds otherwise appro12 priated to the Administrator. 

13 ‘‘SEC. 603. DEFINITIONS. 

14 ‘‘ In this title: 

15 ‘‘(1) ADMINISTRATOR.—The term ‘Adminis16 trator’ means the Under Secretary of Commerce for 

17 Oceans and Atmosphere and Administrator of the Na18 tional Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 

19 ‘‘(2) NATIONAL ACADEMIES.—The term ‘National 

20 Academies’ means the National Academies of 

21 Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 

22 ‘‘(3) UNITED STATES.—The term ‘United States’ 

23 means, collectively, each State of the United States, 

24 the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puer25 to Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth 


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1 of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Virgin Islands 

2 of the United States, and any other territory or pos3 session of the United States.’’. 

4 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—Section 1(b) of the 

5 Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017 

6 (15 U.S.C. 8501 note) is amended in the table of contents 

7 by adding at the end the following: 

‘‘TITLE VI—IMPROVING FEDERAL PRECIPITATION INFORMATION 

‘‘Sec. 601. Study on precipitation estimation. 

‘‘Sec. 602. Improving probable maximum precipitation estimates. 

‘‘Sec. 603. Definitions.’’. 


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Calendar No. 596 

117TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 3053 

A BILL 

To amend the Weather Research and Forecasting 

mates, and for other purposes. guidance document to improve precipitation estiAdministration to develop a plan and national trator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Innovation Act of 2017 to require the AdminisDECEMBER 7, 2022 

Reported with an amendment 


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