In the Senate of the United States, 

November 17, 2022. 

Resolved, That the bill from the House of Representatives (H.R. 1437) entitled ‘‘An Act to amend the Weather 

Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017 to direct 

the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to provide comprehensive and regularly updated Federal precipitation information, and for other purposes.’’, do pass with the 

following 

AMENDMENT: 

Strike all after the enacting clause and insert the 

following: 

1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

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

3 Estimates of Changes In Precipitation Act’’ or the 

4 ‘‘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 

25 models, including an examination of the use of geo-
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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 re-
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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 may only come from within amounts authorized to 

12 be appropriated 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.’’. 

Attest: 

Secretary. 

117TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H.R. 1437 

AMENDMENT