IIB 

118TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 6093 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MAY 1, 2024 

Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, 

and Transportation 

AN ACT 

To improve the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s weather research, support improvements in 

weather forecasting and prediction, expand commercial 

opportunities for the provision of weather data, 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; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

2 (a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 

3 ‘‘Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Reauthor4 ization Act of 2023’’ or the ‘‘Weather Act Reauthorization 

5 Act of 2023’’. 

6 (b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents for 

7 this Act is as follows: 

Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. 

Sec. 2. Definitions. 

TITLE I—REAUTHORIZATION OF THE WEATHER RESEARCH AND 

FORECASTING INNOVATION ACT OF 2017 

Sec. 101. Public safety priority. 

Sec. 102. United States weather research and forecasting. 

Sec. 103. Verification of the Origins of Rotation in Tornadoes Experiment 

(VORTEX). 

Sec. 104. Hurricane forecast improvement program. 

Sec. 105. Tsunami Warning and Education Act reauthorization. 

Sec. 106. Observing system planning. 

Sec. 107. Observing system simulation experiments. 

Sec. 108. Computing resources prioritization. 

Sec. 109. Earth prediction innovation center. 

Sec. 110. Satellite architecture planning. 

Sec. 111. Improving uncrewed activities. 

Sec. 112. Interagency Council for Advancing Meteorological Services. 

Sec. 113. Ocean observations. 

Sec. 114. Consolidation of reports. 

Sec. 115. National Landslide Preparedness Act reauthorization. 

Sec. 116. Amendments to Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research and 

Control Act of 1998. 

TITLE II—ENHANCING FEDERAL WEATHER FORECASTING AND 

INNOVATION 

Sec. 201. Weather innovation for the next generation. 

Sec. 202. Next generation radar. 

Sec. 203. Data voids in highly vulnerable areas of the United States. 

Sec. 204. Atmospheric rivers forecast improvement program. 

Sec. 205. Coastal flooding and storm surge forecast improvement program. 

Sec. 206. Aviation weather and data innovation. 

Sec. 207. NESDIS joint venture partnership transition program. 

Sec. 208. Advanced weather interactive processing system. 

Sec. 209. Reanalysis and reforecasting. 

Sec. 210. National Weather Service workforce. 

TITLE III—COMMERCIAL WEATHER AND ENVIRONMENTAL 

OBSERVATIONS 


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Sec. 301. Commercial Data Program. 

Sec. 302. Commercial Data Pilot Program. 

Sec. 303. Contracting authority and avoidance of duplication. 

Sec. 304. Data assimilation, management, and sharing practices. 

Sec. 305. Clerical amendment. 

TITLE IV—COMMUNICATING WEATHER TO THE PUBLIC 

Sec. 401. Definitions. 

Sec. 402. Hazardous weather or water event risk communication. 

Sec. 403. Hazard communication research and engagement. 

Sec. 404. National Weather Service communications improvement. 

Sec. 405. NOAA Weather Radio modernization. 

Sec. 406. Post-storm surveys and assessments. 

Sec. 407. Government Accountability Office report on alert dissemination for 

hazardous weather or water events. 

Sec. 408. Data collection management and protection. 

TITLE V—IMPROVING WEATHER INFORMATION FOR 

AGRICULTURE AND WATER MANAGEMENT 

Sec. 501. Weather and climate information in agriculture and water management. 

Sec. 502. National Integrated Drought Information System. 

Sec. 503. National Mesonet Program. 

Sec. 504. National Coordinated Soil Moisture Monitoring Network. 

Sec. 505. National water center. 

Sec. 506. Satellite transfers report. 

Sec. 507. Precipitation forecast improvement program. 

1 SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 

2 (a) IN GENERAL.—In this Act, the terms ‘‘seasonal’’, 

3 ‘‘State’’, ‘‘subseasonal’’, ‘‘Under Secretary’’, ‘‘weather en4 terprise’’, ‘‘weather data’’, and ‘‘weather industry’’ have 

5 the meanings given such terms in section 2 of the Weather 

6 Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017 (15 

7 U.S.C. 8501). 

8 (b) WEATHER DATA DEFINED.—Section 2 of the 

9 Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 

10 2017 (15 U.S.C. 8501) is amended— 

11 (1) by redesignating paragraph (5) as para12 graph (6); and 


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1 (2) by inserting after paragraph (4) the fol2 lowing new paragraph: 

3 ‘‘(5) WEATHER DATA.—The term ‘weather 

4 data’ means information used to track and predict 

5 weather conditions and patterns, including forecasts, 

6 observations, and derivative products from such in7 formation.’’. 

8 TITLE I—REAUTHORIZATION OF 

9 THE WEATHER RESEARCH 

10 AND FORECASTING INNOVA11 TION ACT OF 2017 

12 SEC. 101. PUBLIC SAFETY PRIORITY. 

13 Section 101 of the Weather Research and Fore14 casting Innovation Act of 2017 (15 U.S.C. 8511) is 

15 amended by adding at the end the following new sentence: 

16 ‘‘The Under Secretary shall ensure the National Oceanic 

17 and Atmospheric Administration remains focused on pro18 viding accurate and timely weather forecasts that protect 

19 lives and property and enhance the national economy by 

20 disseminating to the public and core partners through 

21 nimble, flexible, and mobile methods critical weather infor22 mation and impact-based decision support services.’’. 


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1 SEC. 102. UNITED STATES WEATHER RESEARCH AND FORE2 CASTING. 

3 Section 110 of the Weather Research and Fore4 casting Innovation Act of 2017 (15 U.S.C. 8519) is 

5 amended to read as follows: 

6 ‘‘SEC. 110. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 

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

8 are authorized to be appropriated to the Office of Oceanic 

9 and Atmospheric Research to carry out this title the fol10 lowing: 

11 ‘‘(1) $155,000,000 for fiscal year 2024, of 

12 which— 

13 ‘‘(A) $90,000,000 is authorized for weath14 er laboratories and cooperative institutes; 

15 ‘‘(B) $30,000,000 is authorized for the 

16 United States Weather Research Program; 

17 ‘‘(C) $20,000,000 is authorized for tor18 nado, severe storm, and next generation radar 

19 research; and 

20 ‘‘(D) $15,000,000 is authorized for the 

21 joint technology transfer initiative described in 

22 section 102(b)(4) of this title. 

23 ‘‘(2) $156,550,000 for fiscal year 2025, of 

24 which— 

25 ‘‘(A) $90,900,000 is authorized for weath26 er laboratories and cooperative institutes; 


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1 ‘‘(B) $30,300,000 is authorized for the 

2 United States Weather Research Program; 

3 ‘‘(C) $20,200,000 is authorized for tor4 nado, severe storm, and next generation radar 

5 research; and 

6 ‘‘(D) $15,150,000 is authorized for the 

7 joint technology transfer initiative described in 

8 section 102(b)(4) of this title. 

9 ‘‘(3) $158,116,000 for fiscal year 2026, of 

10 which— 

11 ‘‘(A) $91,809,000 is authorized for weath12 er laboratories and cooperative institutes; 

13 ‘‘(B) $30,603,000 is authorized for the 

14 United States Weather Research Program; 

15 ‘‘(C) $20,402,000 is authorized for tor16 nado, severe storm, and next generation radar 

17 research; and 

18 ‘‘(D) $15,302,000 is authorized for the 

19 joint technology transfer initiative described in 

20 section 102(b)(4) of this title. 

21 ‘‘(4) $159,697,000 for fiscal year 2027, of 

22 which— 

23 ‘‘(A) $92,727,000 is authorized for weath24 er laboratories and cooperative institutes; 


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1 ‘‘(B) $30,909,000 is authorized for the 

2 United States Weather Research Program; 

3 ‘‘(C) $20,606,000 is authorized for tor4 nado, severe storm, and next generation radar 

5 research; and 

6 ‘‘(D) $15,455,000 is authorized for the 

7 joint technology transfer initiative described in 

8 section 102(b)(4) of this title. 

9 ‘‘(5) $161,294,000 for fiscal year 2028, of 

10 which— 

11 ‘‘(A) $93,654,000 is authorized for weath12 er laboratories and cooperative institutes; 

13 ‘‘(B) $31,218,000 is authorized for the 

14 United States Weather Research Program; 

15 ‘‘(C) $20,812,000 is authorized for tor16 nado, severe storm, and next generation radar 

17 research; and 

18 ‘‘(D) $15,609,000 is authorized for the 

19 joint technology transfer initiative described in 

20 section 8512(b)(4) of this title. 

21 ‘‘(b) LIMITATION.—No additional funds are author22 ized to carry out this title or the amendments made by 

23 this title.’’. 


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1 SEC. 103. VERIFICATION OF THE ORIGINS OF ROTATION IN 

2 TORNADOES EXPERIMENT (VORTEX). 

3 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 103 of the Weather Re4 search and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017 (15 U.S.C. 

5 8513) is amended to read as follows: 

6 ‘‘SEC. 103. VERIFICATION OF THE ORIGINS OF ROTATION IN 

7 TORNADOES EXPERIMENT (VORTEX). 

8 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The Under Secretary, in collabo9 ration with the United States weather industry and aca10 demic partners, shall maintain a program for rapidly im11 proving tornado forecasts, predictions, and warnings, in12 cluding forecaster training in radar interpretation and in13 formation integration from new sources. 

14 ‘‘(b) GOAL.—The goal of the program under sub15 section (a) shall be to develop and extend accurate tornado 

16 forecasts, predictions, and warnings in order to reduce the 

17 loss of life or property related to tornadoes, with a focus 

18 on the following: 

19 ‘‘(1) Improving the effectiveness and timeliness 

20 of tornado forecasts, predictions, and warnings. 

21 ‘‘(2) Optimizing lead time and providing action22 able information beyond one hour in advance. 

23 ‘‘(3) Transitioning from warn-on-detection to 

24 warn-on-forecast. 

25 ‘‘(c) INNOVATIVE OBSERVATIONS.—The Under Sec26 retary shall ensure the program under subsection (a) periVerDate Sep 11 2014 02:14 May 02, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6093.RFS H6093

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1 odically examines, tests, and evaluates the value of incor2 porating innovative observations, such as novel sensor 

3 technologies, observation tools or networks, crewed or 

4 uncrewed systems, and hosted instruments on commercial 

5 aircrafts, vessels, and satellites, with respect to the im6 provement of tornado forecasts, predictions, and warnings. 

7 ‘‘(d) ACTIVITIES.—The Under Secretary shall award 

8 grants for research, including relating to the following: 

9 ‘‘(1) Implementing key goals and achieving pro10 gram milestones to the maximum extent practicable 

11 as outlined by the National Oceanic and Atmos12 pheric Administration’s 2019 report, ‘Tornado 

13 Warning Improvement and Extension Program 

14 Plan’. 

15 ‘‘(2) In coordination with the National Science 

16 and Technology Council’s Social and Behavioral 

17 Sciences Subcommittee, improving the social, behav18 ioral, risk, communication, and economic sciences re19 garding vulnerabilities, risk communication, and de20 livery of information critical for reducing the loss of 

21 life or property related to tornadoes. 

22 ‘‘(3) Improving the physical sciences, computer 

23 modeling, and tools related to tornado formation, the 

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1 ronment, and the interaction of tornadoes and hurri2 canes. 

3 ‘‘(e) WARNINGS.—In carrying out subsection (a), the 

4 Under Secretary, in coordination with the program estab5 lished under section 406, shall— 

6 ‘‘(1) conduct and transition to operations the 

7 research necessary to develop and deploy prob8 abilistic weather forecast guidance technology for 

9 tornadoes and related weather phenomena; 

10 ‘‘(2) incorporate into tornado modeling and 

11 forecasting, as appropriate, social, behavioral, risk, 

12 communication, and economic sciences; 

13 ‘‘(3) enhance workforce training on radar inter14 pretation and use of tornado warning systems; and 

15 ‘‘(4) expand computational resources to support 

16 higher-resolution modeling to advance the capability 

17 for warn-on-forecast. 

18 ‘‘(f) TORNADO RATING SYSTEM.—The Under Sec19 retary, in collaboration with local communities and emer20 gency managers, shall— 

21 ‘‘(1) evaluate the system used as of the date of 

22 the enactment of this section to rate the severity of 

23 tornadoes; 


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1 ‘‘(2) determine whether updates to such system 

2 are required to ensure such ratings accurately reflect 

3 the severity of tornados; and 

4 ‘‘(3) if determined necessary, update such sys5 tem. 

6 ‘‘(g) ANNUAL BUDGET.—The Under Secretary shall, 

7 not less frequently than annually, submit to Congress a 

8 proposed budget corresponding with carrying out this sec9 tion.’’. 

10 (b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of contents 

11 in section 1(b) of the Weather Research and Forecasting 

12 Innovation Act of 2017 is amended by amending the item 

13 relating to section 103 to read as follows: 

‘‘Sec. 103. Verification of the Origins of Rotation in Tornadoes Experiment 

(VORTEX).’’. 

14 SEC. 104. HURRICANE FORECAST IMPROVEMENT PRO15 GRAM. 

16 Section 104 of the Weather Research and Fore17 casting Innovation Act of 2017 (15 U.S.C. 8514) is 

18 amended to read as follows: 

19 ‘‘SEC. 104. HURRICANE FORECAST IMPROVEMENT PRO20 GRAM. 

21 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The Under Secretary, in collabo22 ration with the United States weather industry and aca23 demic partners, shall maintain a program to improve hur24 ricane forecasting, predictions, and warnings. 


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1 ‘‘(b) GOAL.—The goal of the program under sub2 section (a) shall be to develop and extend accurate hurri3 cane forecasts, predictions, and warnings in order to re4 duce the loss of life or property related to hurricanes, with 

5 a focus on the following: 

6 ‘‘(1) Improving the understanding and pre7 diction of rapid intensity change and projected path 

8 of hurricanes, including probabilistic methods for 

9 hurricane hazard mapping. 

10 ‘‘(2) Improving the forecast and impact-based 

11 communication of inland flooding, compound flood12 ing, and storm surges from hurricanes, in coordina13 tion with the program established under section 205 

14 of the Weather Act Reauthorization Act of 2023. 

15 ‘‘(3) Incorporating social, behavioral, risk, com16 munication, and economic sciences to clearly inform 

17 response to prevent the loss of life or property, such 

18 as evacuation or shelter in place. 

19 ‘‘(4) Evaluating and incorporating, as appro20 priate, innovative observations, such as novel sensor 

21 technologies, observation tools or networks, crewed 

22 or uncrewed systems, and hosted instruments on 

23 commercial aircrafts, vessels, and satellites. 

24 ‘‘(c) ACTIVITIES.—The Under Secretary shall award 

25 grants for research, including relating to the following: 


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1 ‘‘(1) Implementing key strategies and following 

2 priorities and objectives outlined by the National 

3 Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s 2019 re4 port ‘Hurricane Forecast Improvement Program’. 

5 ‘‘(2) In coordination with the National Science 

6 and Technology Council’s Social and Behavioral 

7 Sciences Subcommittee and other relevant inter8 agency committees, improving the social, behavioral, 

9 risk, communications, and economic sciences related 

10 to vulnerabilities, risk communication, and delivery 

11 of information critical for reducing the loss of life or 

12 property related to hurricanes. 

13 ‘‘(3) Improving the physical sciences, oper14 ational modeling, and tools related to hurricane for15 mation, the impacts of wind and water-based hurri16 cane hazards on the built and natural environment, 

17 and the interaction of hurricanes and tornadoes. 

18 ‘‘(d) WARNINGS.—In carrying out subsection (a), the 

19 Under Secretary, in coordination with the program estab20 lished under section 406, shall— 

21 ‘‘(1) conduct and transition to operations the 

22 research necessary to develop and deploy prob23 abilistic weather forecast guidance technology relat24 ing to hurricanes and related weather phenomena; 


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1 ‘‘(2) incorporate into hurricane modeling and 

2 forecasting, as appropriate, social, behavioral, risk, 

3 communication, and economic sciences research; and 

4 ‘‘(3) expand computational resources to support 

5 and improve higher-resolution operational modeling 

6 of hurricanes and related weather phenomena. 

7 ‘‘(e) ANNUAL BUDGET.—The Under Secretary shall, 

8 not less frequently than annually, submit to Congress a 

9 proposed budget corresponding with carrying out this sec10 tion.’’. 

11 SEC. 105. TSUNAMI WARNING AND EDUCATION ACT REAU12 THORIZATION. 

13 (a) TITLE HEADING.—The Tsunami Warning and 

14 Education Act (enacted as title VIII of the Magnuson-Ste15 vens Fishery Conservation and Management Reauthoriza16 tion Act of 2006 (Public Law 109–479)) is amended in 

17 the title heading, by inserting ‘‘RESEARCH,’’ after 

18 ‘‘WARNING,’’. 

19 (b) PURPOSES.—Section 803 of the Tsunami Warn20 ing and Education Act (33 U.S.C. 3202) is amended— 

21 (1) in paragraph (2), by inserting ‘‘timeliness 

22 and’’ before ‘‘accuracy’’; 

23 (2) in paragraph (7), by striking ‘‘and’’ after 

24 the semicolon; 


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1 (3) in paragraph (8), by striking the period and 

2 inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 

3 (4) by adding at the end the following new 

4 paragraph: 

5 ‘‘(9) to ensure data and metadata are managed, 

6 archived, and made available for operations, re7 search, education, and mitigation activities in ac8 cordance with section 305 of the Weather Research 

9 and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017.’’. 

10 (c) TSUNAMI FORECASTING AND WARNING PRO11 GRAM.—Section 804 of the Tsunami Warning and Edu12 cation Act (33 U.S.C. 3203) is amended— 

13 (1) in subsection (b)— 

14 (A) in paragraph (4), by inserting ‘‘, using 

15 industry and scientific best practices,’’ after 

16 ‘‘operational condition’’; 

17 (B) in paragraph (5)— 

18 (i) in subparagraph (C), by striking 

19 ‘‘global seismic network’’ and inserting 

20 ‘‘Global Seismic Network’’; 

21 (ii) by redesignating subparagraphs 

22 (D), (E), (F), and (G), as subparagraphs 

23 (E), (F), (G), and (H), respectively; and 

24 (iii) by inserting after subparagraph 

25 (C) the following new subparagraph: 


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1 ‘‘(D) the global navigation satellite system 

2 (GNSS) network;’’; 

3 (C) by amending paragraph (6) to read as 

4 follows: 

5 ‘‘(6) ensure data quality and management sys6 tems, support data and metadata access and 

7 archiving, and support the requirements of the pro8 gram pursuant to the Foundations for Evidence9 Based Policymaking Act of 2018 (Public Law 115– 

10 435) and chapter 31 of title 44, United States 

11 Code;’’; 

12 (D) in paragraph (7)— 

13 (i) by amending the matter preceding 

14 subparagraph (A) to read as follows: ‘‘in15 clude a cooperative effort among the Ad16 ministration, the United States Geological 

17 Survey (USGS), the National Aeronautics 

18 and Space Administration (NASA), and 

19 the National Science Foundation (NSF) 

20 under which the Director of USGS, the Di21 rector of the NSF, and the Administrator 

22 of NASA shall—’’; 

23 (ii) in subparagraph (A), by striking 

24 ‘‘and’’ at the end; and 


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1 (iii) by adding at the end the fol2 lowing new subparagraphs: 

3 ‘‘(C) provide reliable and real-time support 

4 for the GNSS network data streams from NSF, 

5 NASA, and USGS maintained networks, and 

6 supplement instrumentation coverage for rapid 

7 earthquake assessment; 

8 ‘‘(D) assess the data and information re9 lating to warning systems of collaborating agen10 cies for potential utilization in NOAA’s warning 

11 system, taking into consideration advancement 

12 in research and technology; 

13 ‘‘(E) incorporate, as practicable, tsunami 

14 notifications and warnings in the USGS Earth15 quake Early Warning System; and 

16 ‘‘(F) incorporate, as practicable, prelimi17 nary analysis or data from the National Earth18 quake Information Center regarding the source 

19 and magnitude of an offshore earthquake with20 in five minutes of detection;’’; 

21 (E) in paragraph (8)— 

22 (i) by inserting ‘‘ and decision support 

23 aides’’ after ‘‘graphical warning prod24 ucts,’’; and 


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1 (ii) by inserting ‘‘-prone’’ after ‘‘tsu2 nami’’; 

3 (F) in paragraph (9), by striking ‘‘and’’ 

4 after the semicolon; 

5 (G) in paragraph (10), by striking the pe6 riod and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 

7 (H) by adding at the end the following new 

8 paragraph: 

9 ‘‘(11) update tsunami inundation maps, models, 

10 or other geographic products, in order to best sup11 port, as appropriate, relevant agencies with tsunami 

12 mitigation and recovery activities.’’; 

13 (2) in subsection (c)— 

14 (A) by striking paragraph (1) and redesig15 nating paragraphs (2) and (3) as paragraphs 

16 (1) and (2), respectively; and 

17 (B) in paragraph (1), as so redesignated— 

18 (i) by striking ‘‘the Atlantic Ocean, 

19 including the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of 

20 Mexico, that are determined—’’ and insert21 ing ‘‘the Pacific, Arctic, and Atlantic 

22 Oceans, including the Caribbean Sea and 

23 Gulf of Mexico, that are determined to 

24 pose significant risks of tsunami for States 


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1 and United States territories along the 

2 coastal areas of such regions; and’’; and 

3 (ii) by striking subparagraphs (A) and 

4 (B); 

5 (3) by redesignating subsections (d), (e), (f), 

6 and (g) as subsections (e), (f), (g), and (h), respec7 tively; 

8 (4) by inserting after subsection (c) the fol9 lowing new subsection: 

10 ‘‘(d) TSUNAMI WARNING ALERT LEVEL EVALUA11 TION.—The Administrator, in collaboration with social sci12 entists, emergency personnel, and high-risk communities, 

13 shall— 

14 ‘‘(1) evaluate tsunami alert levels terminology, 

15 timing, and effectiveness; 

16 ‘‘(2) determine if such alerts produce the de17 sired response and understanding from possible tsu18 nami-prone communities; and 

19 ‘‘(3) if necessary, update the alert level system 

20 for increased effectiveness.’’; 

21 (5) in subsection (e), as so redesignated— 

22 (A) in paragraph (1)— 

23 (i) in the matter preceding subpara24 graph (A), by inserting ‘‘responsible for 

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1 waii, United States territories, and inter2 national entities the Administrator deter3 mines appropriate’’ before the period; 

4 (ii) in subparagraph (A), by striking 

5 ‘‘which is primarily responsible for Alaska 

6 and the continental United States’’; and 

7 (iii) in subparagraph (B), by striking 

8 ‘‘, which is primarily responsible for Ha9 waii, the Caribbean, and other areas of the 

10 Pacific not covered by the National Cen11 ter’’; 

12 (B) in paragraph (2)— 

13 (i) in subparagraph (A), by inserting 

14 ‘‘current,’’ after ‘‘sea level,’’; 

15 (ii) in subparagraph (B), by striking 

16 ‘‘and volcanic eruptions’’ and inserting 

17 ‘‘volcanic eruptions, or other sources’’; 

18 (iii) in subparagraph (C), by striking 

19 ‘‘buoy data and tidal’’ and inserting ‘‘and 

20 coastal’’; 

21 (iv) in subparagraph (E), by striking 

22 ‘‘Integrated Ocean Observing System of 

23 the Administration’’ and inserting ‘‘United 

24 States and global ocean and coastal observ25 ing system’’; 


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1 (v) in subparagraph (H), by inserting 

2 ‘‘monitoring needs,’’ after ‘‘response,’’; and 

3 (vi) by amending subparagraph (I) to 

4 read as follows: 

5 ‘‘(I) Providing a Tsunami Warning Coordi6 nator to coordinate with partners and stake7 holders products and services of the centers 

8 supported or maintained under paragraph (1).’’; 

9 (C) by amending paragraph (3) to read as 

10 follows: 

11 ‘‘(3) FAIL-SAFE WARNING CAPABILITY.—The 

12 Administrator shall support and maintain fail-safe 

13 warning capability for the tsunami warning centers 

14 supported or maintained under paragraph (1), and 

15 such centers shall conduct at least one service back 

16 up drill biannually.’’; 

17 (D) in paragraph (4)— 

18 (i) by amending the matter preceding 

19 subparagraph (A) to read as follows: ‘‘The 

20 Administrator shall coordinate with the 

21 weather forecast offices of the National 

22 Weather Service, the centers supported or 

23 maintained under paragraph (1), and such 

24 national and regional program offices of 

25 the Administration as the Administrator or 


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1 the coordinating committee, as established 

2 in section 805(b), consider appropriate to 

3 ensure that regional and local weather 

4 forecast offices—’’; 

5 (ii) in subparagraph (B), by striking 

6 ‘‘and’’ after the semicolon; 

7 (iii) in subparagraph (C), by striking 

8 the period and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 

9 (iv) by adding at the end the following 

10 new subparagraph: 

11 ‘‘(D) conduct education and outreach ef12 forts to help prepare coastal communities for 

13 tsunami hazards.’’; 

14 (E) in paragraph (5)— 

15 (i) in the section heading, by striking 

16 ‘‘UNIFORM’’ and inserting ‘‘STANDARD17 IZED’’; 

18 (ii) in subparagraph (A), by striking 

19 ‘‘uniform’’ and inserting ‘‘standardized’’; 

20 (iii) in subparagraph (C)(ii), by strik21 ing ‘‘uniform’’ and inserting ‘‘standard22 ized’’; 

23 (iv) in subparagraph (D), by striking 

24 ‘‘and’’ after the semicolon; 


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1 (v) in subparagraph (E), by striking 

2 the period and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 

3 (vi) by adding at the end the following 

4 new subparagraph: 

5 ‘‘(F) align the analytic techniques and 

6 methodologies of the existing tsunami warning 

7 centers supported or maintained under para8 graph (1) to ensure seamless continuity of oper9 ations and mitigate risk of operational failure 

10 by prioritizing investments that include— 

11 ‘‘(i) replacing end of life equipment; 

12 ‘‘(ii) ensuring product consistency; 

13 ‘‘(iii) enabling consistent operational 

14 process for backup capabilities; 

15 ‘‘(iv) mitigating existing operational 

16 security risks; and 

17 ‘‘(v) meeting information security re18 quirements specified in chapter 35 of title 

19 44, United States Code.’’; and 

20 (F) by adding at the end the following new 

21 paragraph: 

22 ‘‘(7) REPORTING.—Not later than 180 days 

23 after the date of the enactment of this paragraph 

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1 trator shall provide to the Committee on Science, 

2 Space, and Technology of the House of Representa3 tives and the Committee on Commerce, Science, and 

4 Transportation of the Senate an update briefing on 

5 the progress of the following: 

6 ‘‘(A) Standardizing products and proce7 dures under paragraph (5), including tsunami 

8 assessments, forecast guidance, and related 

9 products. 

10 ‘‘(B) Migrating the message generation 

11 systems of the centers supported or maintained 

12 under paragraph (1) to the Advanced Weather 

13 Information Processing Systems, or successor 

14 systems. 

15 ‘‘(C) The structural reorganization effort, 

16 if necessary, to align such centers’ organiza17 tional charts. 

18 ‘‘(D) The expected timeline for the full 

19 completion of standardizing such centers’ prod20 ucts and procedures.’’; 

21 (6) in subsection (f), as so redesignated— 

22 (A) in paragraph (1)— 

23 (i) in the matter preceding subpara24 graph (A), by inserting ‘‘detect, measure, 

25 and’’ after ‘‘used to’’; 


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1 (ii) in subparagraph (B), by striking 

2 ‘‘and’’ after the semicolon; 

3 (iii) in subparagraph (C), by striking 

4 ‘‘and the Advanced National Seismic Sys5 tem’’ and inserting ‘‘the Advanced Na6 tional Seismic System, and the global navi7 gation satellite system (GNSS); and’’; and 

8 (iv) by adding at the end the following 

9 new subparagraph: 

10 ‘‘(D) ensure research is coordinated with 

11 tsunami warning operations;’’; and 

12 (B) in paragraph (3), by inserting ‘‘accord13 ing to industry best practices’’ before the pe14 riod; and 

15 (7) in subsection (h)(2)(A), as so redesignated, 

16 by striking ‘‘accuracy of the tsunami model used’’ 

17 and inserting ‘‘timeliness and accuracy of the fore18 cast used to issue the warning’’. 

19 (d) NATIONAL TSUNAMI HAZARD MITIGATION PRO20 GRAM.—Section 805(c) of the Tsunami Warning and Edu21 cation Act (33 U.S.C. 3204(c)) is amended— 

22 (1) in paragraph (5)— 

23 (A) by redesignating subparagraphs (B), 

24 (C), (D), (E), (F), and (G) as subparagraphs 

25 (C), (D), (E), (F), (G), and (H), respectively; 


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1 (B) by inserting after subparagraph (A) 

2 the following new subparagraph: 

3 ‘‘(B) Coastal digital elevation models 

4 (DEMs) to support the development of inunda5 tion maps.’’; and 

6 (C) by adding at the end the following new 

7 subparagraphs: 

8 ‘‘(I) Evaluation of the variation of inunda9 tion impact resulting from tsunami-driven sedi10 ment transport. 

11 ‘‘(J) Evaluation of tsunami debris impact 

12 on critical infrastructure (as such term is de13 fined in section 1016(e) of Public Law 107–56 

14 (42 U.S.C. 5195c(e))) and lifelines. 

15 ‘‘(K) High-resolution and high-quality dig16 ital elevation models needed for at-risk coast17 lines, ports, and harbors, particularly for re18 gions not covered by existing inundation 

19 maps.’’; and 

20 (2) in paragraph (7)(C), by inserting ‘‘and be21 havioral’’ after ‘‘social’’; 

22 (e) TSUNAMI RESEARCH PROGRAM.—Section 806 of 

23 the Tsunami Warning and Education Act (33 U.S.C. 

24 3205) is amended— 

25 (1) in subsection (a)— 


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1 (A) by striking ‘‘section 805(d)’’ and in2 serting ‘‘section 805(b)’’; and 

3 (B) by inserting ‘‘and management’’ after 

4 ‘‘data collection’’; 

5 (2) in subsection (b)— 

6 (A) in paragraph (1), by inserting ‘‘deploy7 ment and’’ after ‘‘may include’’; 

8 (B) in paragraph (3), by striking ‘‘social 

9 science research’’ and inserting ‘‘social and be10 havioral science research, including data collec11 tion,’’; 

12 (C) in paragraph (4), by striking ‘‘and’’ 

13 after the semicolon; 

14 (D) by redesignating paragraph (5) as 

15 paragraph (7); and 

16 (E) by inserting after paragraph (4) the 

17 following new paragraphs: 

18 ‘‘(5) develop decision support tools; 

19 ‘‘(6) leverage and prioritize research opportuni20 ties; and’’; and 

21 (3) by adding at the end the following new sub22 section: 

23 ‘‘(c) RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT PLAN.—Not 

24 later than 12 months after the date of the enactment of 

25 this subsection and not less frequently than every 36 


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1 months thereafter, the Administrator, in consultation with 

2 the Interagency Council for Advancing Meteorological 

3 Services, shall develop a research and development and re4 search to operations plan to improve tsunami detection 

5 and forecasting capabilities that— 

6 ‘‘(1) identifies and prioritizes research and de7 velopment priorities to satisfy section 804; 

8 ‘‘(2) identifies key research needs for better de9 tecting tsunamis that may occur in open ocean and 

10 along the coastlines of the United States and its ter11 ritories, improve forecasting of tsunamis that are 

12 not seismically driven, and other opportunities deter13 mined appropriate; 

14 ‘‘(3) develops plans for transitioning research to 

15 operations; and 

16 ‘‘(4) identifies collaboration opportunities that 

17 may further and align tsunami research, develop18 ment, warnings, and operations between the centers 

19 supported or maintained under section 804, the Na20 tional Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program, the Na21 tional Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Cen22 ter for Tsunami Research, the National Science 

23 Foundation, the United States Geological Survey, 

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1 tutions of higher education, private entities, stake2 holders, and others determined appropriate.’’; 

3 (f) GLOBAL TSUNAMI WARNING AND MITIGATION

4 NETWORK.—Section 807(d) of the Tsunami Warning and 

5 Education Act (33 U.S.C. 3206(d)) is amended by insert6 ing ‘‘and management’’ after ‘‘data sharing’’; 

7 (g) TSUNAMI SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY ADVISORY

8 PANEL.—Section 808(b)(1) of the Tsunami Warning and 

9 Education Act (33 U.S.C. 3206a(b)(1)) is amended by in10 serting ‘‘and behavioral’’ after ‘‘social’’; 

11 (h) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—Section 

12 809 of the Tsunami Warning and Education Act (33 

13 U.S.C. 3207) is amended to read as follows: 

14 ‘‘SEC. 809. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 

15 ‘‘There are authorized to be appropriated to the Ad16 ministrator to carry out this title $30,000,000 for each 

17 of fiscal years 2024 through 2028, of which— 

18 ‘‘(1) not less than 27 percent of the amount ap19 propriated for each fiscal year shall be for activities 

20 conducted at the State level under the national tsu21 nami hazard mitigation program under section 805; 

22 and 

23 ‘‘(2) not less than 8 percent of the amount ap24 propriated shall be for the tsunami research pro25 gram under section 806.’’. 


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1 SEC. 106. OBSERVING SYSTEM PLANNING. 

2 Section 106 of the Weather Research and Fore3 casting Innovation Act of 2017 (15 U.S.C. 8516) is 

4 amended— 

5 (1) in paragraph (3)— 

6 (A) by inserting ‘‘Federal’’ before ‘‘observ7 ing capabilities’’; and 

8 (B) by striking ‘‘and’’ after the semicolon; 

9 (2) in paragraph (4)— 

10 (A) by inserting ‘‘, including private sector 

11 partnerships or commercial acquisition,’’ after 

12 ‘‘options’’; and 

13 (B) by striking the period and inserting a 

14 semicolon; and 

15 (3) by adding at the end the following new 

16 paragraphs: 

17 ‘‘(5) compare costs and schedule, including 

18 cost-benefit analysis, of Federal and private sector 

19 supplemental options to fill the observation data re20 quirements under paragraph (1) and gaps identified 

21 pursuant to paragraph (3); and 

22 ‘‘(6) not later than one year after the date of 

23 the enactment of this paragraph, submit to Congress 

24 a report that provides an analysis of the technical, 

25 schedule, cost, and cost benefit analyses to place an 

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1 pability in the early morning orbit to support the 

2 weather enterprise and the Administration’s mis3 sion.’’. 

4 SEC. 107. OBSERVING SYSTEM SIMULATION EXPERIMENTS. 

5 Section 107 of the Weather Research and Fore6 casting Innovation Act of 2017 (15 U.S.C. 8517) is 

7 amended— 

8 (1) in subsection (b)(3), by striking ‘‘providing 

9 data’’ and inserting ‘‘comparison to current or ex10 perimental commercial system capabilities that pro11 vide data’’; 

12 (2) in subsection (c)(1), by striking ‘‘, including 

13 polar-orbiting and geostationary satellite systems,’’; 

14 (3) by striking subsection (d); and 

15 (4) by redesignating subsection (e) as sub16 section (d). 

17 SEC. 108. COMPUTING RESOURCES PRIORITIZATION. 

18 Section 108 of the Weather Research and Fore19 casting Innovation Act of 2017 (15 U.S.C. 8518) is 

20 amended by striking subsection (a)(3)(C) and all that fol21 lows through subsection (b)(7) and inserting the following 

22 new subsections: 

23 ‘‘(b) COMPUTING RESEARCH INITIATIVE.— 

24 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Under Secretary, in 

25 collaboration with the Secretary of Energy, shall 


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1 carry out an initiative, which may leverage Depart2 ment of Energy high performance computers, cloud 

3 computing, or expertise, to run advanced coupled 

4 models in order to conduct proof of concept sce5 narios in comparison with current issued forecasts 

6 and models. The Under Secretary and Secretary of 

7 Energy shall carry out the initiative through a com8 petitive, merit-reviewed process, and consider appli9 cations from Federal agencies, National Labora10 tories, institutions of higher education (as such term 

11 is defined in section 101 of the Higher Education 

12 Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001)), nonprofit institu13 tions, and other appropriate entities (or a consortia 

14 thereof). 

15 ‘‘(2) COMPONENTS.—In carrying out the initia16 tive under paragraph (1), the Under Secretary shall 

17 prevent duplication and coordinate research efforts 

18 in artificial intelligence, high performance com19 puting, cloud computing, quantum computing, mod20 eling and simulation, machine learning, data assimi21 lation, large scale data analytics, and predictive 

22 analysis across the National Oceanic and Atmos23 pheric Administration, and may— 

24 ‘‘(A) conduct research to compare National 

25 Weather Service forecast and model outputs to 


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1 predictions and model outputs developed 

2 through such initiative; 

3 ‘‘(B) share relevant modeling system and 

4 applications innovations developed through such 

5 initiative, including Unified Forecast System6 based applications, through community-based 

7 activities, in accordance with section 10601 of 

8 the James M. Inhofe National Defense Author9 ization Act for Fiscal Year 2023 (15 U.S.C. 

10 8512a); 

11 ‘‘(C) leverage coordinating activities man12 aged by the National Science and Technology 

13 Council, the Interagency Council for Advancing 

14 Meteorological Services, and other relevant 

15 interagency entities; 

16 ‘‘(D) provide sufficient capacity for long17 term archive and access of model output to sup18 port research and long-term study; 

19 ‘‘(E) determine computing decisions based 

20 on an agile requirements framework; and 

21 ‘‘(F) support the training, recruitment, 

22 and retention of the next generation weather, 

23 water, and climate computing workforce 

24 through incentives and pathways for career de25 velopment and employment opportunities. 


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1 ‘‘(3) RESEARCH SECURITY.—The activities au2 thorized under this section shall be applied in a 

3 manner consistent with subtitle D of title VI of the 

4 Research and Development, Competition, and Inno5 vation Act (enacted as division B of Public Law 

6 117–167; 42 U.S.C. 19231 et seq.). 

7 ‘‘(4) TERMINATION.—The authority under this 

8 subsection shall terminate five years after the date 

9 of the enactment of this subsection. 

10 ‘‘(c) ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE INVESTMENTS.— 

11 The Under Secretary shall leverage artificial intelligence 

12 and machine learning technologies to facilitate, optimize, 

13 and further leverage advanced computing to accomplish 

14 critical missions of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

15 Administration by enhancing existing and forthcoming 

16 high-performance and cloud computing infrastructure or 

17 systems. 

18 ‘‘(d) CENTERS OF EXCELLENCE.—The Under Sec19 retary may expand, and where applicable establish, centers 

20 of excellence to aid the adoption of next-generation artifi21 cial intelligence and machine learning enabled advanced 

22 computing capabilities. Each such center may carry out 

23 activities that include the following: 

24 ‘‘(1) Leveraging robust public-private partner25 ship models to provide access to training, experience, 


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1 and long-term development of workforce and infra2 structure. 

3 ‘‘(2) Developing and optimizing tools, libraries, 

4 algorithms, data structures, and other supporting 

5 software necessary for specific applications on high 

6 performance computing systems. 

7 ‘‘(3) Applying modern artificial intelligence, 

8 deep machine-learning, and advanced data analysis 

9 technologies to address current and future mission 

10 challenges. 

11 ‘‘(4) To the maximum extent practicable, ex12 plore quantum computing and related application 

13 partnerships with public, private, and academic enti14 ties to improve the accuracy and resolution of weath15 er predictions. 

16 ‘‘(e) MULTI-YEAR CONTRACTS.—The Under Sec17 retary may enter into multi-year contracts in accordance 

18 with section 3903 of title 41, United States Code, and 

19 shall ensure compliance with all clauses provided in such 

20 section to support operations, research, and development 

21 related to high performance and cloud computing infra22 structure or systems with an unfunded contingent liability 

23 in the event of cancellation. 

24 ‘‘(f) REPORT.—Not later than two years after the 

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1 retary shall submit to the Committee on Science, Space, 

2 and Technology of the House of Representatives and the 

3 Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation 

4 and the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources of 

5 the Senate a report evaluating the following: 

6 ‘‘(1) The effectiveness of the initiative required 

7 under subsection (b), including applied research dis8 coveries and advanced modeling improvements 

9 achieved. 

10 ‘‘(2) A best estimate of the overall value of 

11 high-resolution probabilistic forecast guidance for 

12 hazardous weather or water events (as such term is 

13 defined in section 406) using a next-generation 

14 weather forecast and warning framework. 

15 ‘‘(3) The needs for cloud computing, quantum 

16 computing, or high-performance computing, visual17 ization, and dissemination collaboration between the 

18 Department of Energy and the National Oceanic 

19 and Atmospheric Administration. 

20 ‘‘(4) A timeline and guidance for implementa21 tion of the following: 

22 ‘‘(A) High-resolution numerical weather 

23 prediction models. 

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1 ance computing, visualization, and dissemina2 tion needs identified under paragraph (3).’’. 

3 SEC. 109. EARTH PREDICTION INNOVATION CENTER. 

4 Paragraph (5) of section 102(b) of the Weather Re5 search and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017 (15 U.S.C. 

6 8512(b)) is amended— 

7 (1) in subparagraph (D), by striking ‘‘and’’ 

8 after the semicolon; and 

9 (2) by striking subparagraph (E) and inserting 

10 the following new subparagraphs: 

11 ‘‘(E) developing community weather re12 search modeling systems that— 

13 ‘‘(i) are accessible by the public in ac14 cordance with section 10601 of the James 

15 M. Inhofe National Defense Authorization 

16 Act for Fiscal Year 2023 (15 U.S.C. 

17 8512a) and available for archive and long18 term study; 

19 ‘‘(ii) meet basic end-user requirements 

20 for running on public computers and net21 works located outside of secure National 

22 Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 

23 information and technology systems; 

24 ‘‘(iii) utilize, whenever appropriate 

25 and cost-effective, innovative strategies and 


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1 methods, including cloud-based computing 

2 capabilities, for hosting and management 

3 of part or all of the system described in 

4 this subparagraph; 

5 ‘‘(iv) utilize modeling systems that 

6 allow for interoperability with new model 

7 components, modules, and next-generation 

8 software and coding languages; 

9 ‘‘(v) allow for open testing and inte10 gration of promising operational model im11 provements from the broader community; 

12 ‘‘(vi) access as close to a real-time 

13 basis as possible operational data and 

14 metadata, including commercially pur15 chased data for use in Earth Prediction 

16 Innovation Center research and develop17 ment testing grounds pursuant to redis18 tribution restrictions, licensing agreements, 

19 and applicable existing laws and regula20 tions; and 

21 ‘‘(vii) provide supported and portable 

22 versions of the unified forecast system, in23 cluding applications for hurricane, space 

24 weather, ocean, cryosphere, air quality, 

25 and coastal models, that can reproduce 


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1 current operational global and regional 

2 model prediction; and 

3 ‘‘(F) establishing a National Oceanic and 

4 Atmospheric Administration Data Lake, to be 

5 maintained by the Administration, a commercial 

6 partner, or non-profit entity, that consolidates 

7 and maintains a publicly available and continu8 ously updated collection of data and metadata 

9 used in numerical weather prediction for use in 

10 the Earth Prediction Innovation Center’s model 

11 testing, pursuant to redistribution restrictions, 

12 licensing agreements, and applicable existing 

13 laws and regulations.’’. 

14 SEC. 110. SATELLITE ARCHITECTURE PLANNING. 

15 Section 301 of the Weather Research and Fore16 casting Innovation Act of 2017 (15 U.S.C. 8531) is 

17 amended— 

18 (1) in subsection (a), by striking paragraph (1) 

19 and redesignating paragraphs (2), (3), and (4) as 

20 paragraphs (1), (2), and (3), respectively; 

21 (2) by amending subsection (b) to read as fol22 lows: 

23 ‘‘(b) NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMIN24 ISTRATION SATELLITE SYSTEMS AND DATA.— 


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

2 maintain a fleet of Administration space-based ob3 servation platforms that provide critical operations4 focused data and information to support the Na5 tional Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s 

6 mission to monitor the global environment in order 

7 to protect lives and property from extreme weather 

8 and other natural phenomena. 

9 ‘‘(2) COLLABORATION.—The Under Secretary 

10 shall implement recommendations from the NOAA 

11 Observing Systems Council to ensure an appropriate 

12 mix of government, academic, commercial sector, 

13 and international partnerships in the provision of 

14 data and information, including a broadened effort 

15 on data acquisition through the Commercial Data 

16 Program under section 302 when cost effective and 

17 beneficial to the Administration. 

18 ‘‘(3) PRIORITY.—The Under Secretary shall en19 sure that Administration platforms maintained 

20 under paragraph (1) prioritize the development of 

21 products and services that are tailored to meet the 

22 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s 

23 mission. 

24 ‘‘(4) NATIONAL CENTERS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL

25 INFORMATION.—The Under Secretary shall maintain 


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1 the National Centers for Environmental Information 

2 to provide a long-term archive and access to the Ad3 ministration’s national and global data and 

4 metadata.’’; and 

5 (3) in subsection (f)(1), by striking ‘‘2023’’ and 

6 inserting ‘‘2030’’. 

7 SEC. 111. IMPROVING UNCREWED ACTIVITIES. 

8 Subparagraph (G) of section 102(b)(3) of the Weath9 er Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017 (15 

10 U.S.C. 8512(b)(3)) is amended by striking ‘‘, including 

11 commercial observing systems’’ and inserting ‘‘, including 

12 stationary and mobile commercial observing systems, such 

13 as uncrewed aircraft and marine systems, to provide ob14 servations of the atmosphere and ocean, and other obser15 vations, in cooperation with the Office of Marine and Avia16 tion Operations’’. 

17 SEC. 112. INTERAGENCY COUNCIL FOR ADVANCING METE18 OROLOGICAL SERVICES. 

19 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 402 of the Weather Re20 search and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017 (15 U.S.C. 

21 8542) is amended— 

22 (1) in subsection (a)— 

23 (A) by striking ‘‘Advancing Weather Serv24 ices’’ and inserting ‘‘Advancing Meteorological 


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1 Services (in this section referred to as the 

2 ‘Interagency Council’)’’; and 

3 (B) by striking ‘‘Committee’’ each place it 

4 appears and inserting ‘‘Council’’; 

5 (2) by amending subsections (b) and (c) to read 

6 as follows: 

7 ‘‘(b) CO-CHAIRS.—The Director of the Office of 

8 Science and Technology Policy and the Under Secretary 

9 shall serve as co-chairs of the Interagency Council. The 

10 Under Secretary shall serve as the Federal Coordinator 

11 for Meteorology. 

12 ‘‘(c) FURTHER COORDINATION.—The Director of the 

13 Office of Science and Technology Policy shall take such 

14 steps as are necessary to coordinate the activities of the 

15 Federal Government with stakeholders in the United 

16 States weather industry, academic partners, State govern17 ments, and emergency managers, including by imple18 menting mechanisms to encourage and enable the partici19 pation of non-Federal employees in the functions of the 

20 Interagency Council.’’; 

21 (3) by adding at the end the following new sub22 sections: 

23 ‘‘(d) FUNCTIONS.—The Interagency Council shall be 

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1 icy and practices to ensure United States global leadership 

2 in meteorological services. In doing so, the Interagency 

3 Council shall review programs and support relevant weath4 er research and forecast innovation activities, as well as 

5 other related implementation activities, related to Federal 

6 meteorological services, including by carrying out the fol7 lowing: 

8 ‘‘(1) Identifying and helping prioritize meteoro9 logical research and service delivery needs, including 

10 relating to observations, operational systems, com11 munications, and infrastructure. 

12 ‘‘(2) Providing recommendations to streamline 

13 or consolidate activities and develop greater effi14 ciencies in cross-agency activities. 

15 ‘‘(3) Leveraging Earth system science research 

16 outcomes of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

17 Administration, the National Aeronautics and Space 

18 Administration, and other relevant Federal depart19 ments and agencies, including research outcomes re20 lated to the relevant recommended key science and 

21 applications questions and priorities in the National 

22 Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s 

23 2018 report ‘Thriving on Our Changing Planet: A 

24 Decadal Strategy for Earth Observation from 


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1 Space’, to understand and predict high-impact 

2 weather phenomena. 

3 ‘‘(4) Facilitating the expansion and strength4 ening of partnerships with private sector entities to 

5 advance meteorological research, communications, 

6 and computing in collaboration with the Earth sys7 tem science, service, and stakeholder communities. 

8 ‘‘(5) Sharing information regarding meteorolog9 ical research improvement needs and science oppor10 tunities across relevant Federal departments and 

11 agencies. 

12 ‘‘(6) Providing advice to all relevant Federal de13 partments and agencies regarding potential collabo14 rations and expected level of resources needed to 

15 maintain and operate the Interagency Council. 

16 ‘‘(7) Enhancing communication and coordina17 tion and promoting sharing within relevant Federal 

18 departments and agencies and across the Inter19 agency Council. 

20 ‘‘(8) Developing, recruiting, and sustaining a 

21 professional and diverse workforce for meteorological 

22 research and services. 

23 ‘‘(e) DATA INVENTORY.—The Interagency Council, in 

24 coordination and avoidance of duplication with the United 

25 States Group on Earth Observations, shall promote data 


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1 and metadata access and archive activities to increase ac2 cessibility, interoperability, and reusability by maintaining 

3 a data inventory of meteorological observations. Not less 

4 frequently than annually for a period of five years begin5 ning on the date of the enactment of this subsection, the 

6 Interagency Council shall solicit updated information from 

7 private sector entities identifying current and near future 

8 sources of such data. Such data shall be made available 

9 to member departments and agencies under subsection 

10 (a). 

11 ‘‘(f) COORDINATION OFFICE.—The Interagency Me12 teorological Coordination Office shall provide to the Inter13 agency Council such administrative and logistical support 

14 as the Interagency Council may require, as determined by 

15 the co-chairs. 

16 ‘‘(g) COST SHARE.—Member departments and agen17 cies of the Interagency Council under subsection (a) may 

18 provide reimbursable financial support to the Interagency 

19 Meteorological Coordinating Office to enhance cost-shar20 ing and collaboration related to weather research and fore21 cast innovation activities. 

22 ‘‘(h) REPORT.—Not later than one year after the 

23 date of the enactment of this subsection and annually 

24 thereafter, the Interagency Council shall publish a report 

25 which identifies among member agencies the following: 


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1 ‘‘(1) Federal programs that use meteorological 

2 observations, data sources, and capabilities. 

3 ‘‘(2) Federal programs that acquire such data 

4 from private sector entities. 

5 ‘‘(3) Advancements in meteorological data col6 lection, assimilation, and forecasting that could im7 prove Federal programmatic operational capabilities. 

8 ‘‘(4) Barriers to acquiring meteorological obser9 vations, data sources, and capabilities that could be 

10 used to better meet Federal programmatic needs.’’. 

11 (b) REFERENCES.—Any reference to the Interagency 

12 Committee for Advancing Weather Services in any law, 

13 rule, regulation, paper, record, map, or other such docu14 ment of the United States shall be deemed to be a ref15 erence to the Interagency Council for Advancing Meteoro16 logical Services. 

17 SEC. 113. OCEAN OBSERVATIONS. 

18 Subsection (b) of section 12304 of the Integrated 

19 Coastal and Ocean Observation System Act of 2009 (33 

20 U.S.C. 3603) is amended by adding at the end the fol21 lowing new paragraph: 

22 ‘‘(5) SHIPS OF OPPORTUNITY PILOT PRO23 GRAM.— 

24 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The Administrator, in 

25 coordination with the heads of relevant Federal 


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1 departments and agencies, shall, subject to rel2 evant regulations and certifications, maintain 

3 pilot programs or projects to contract with re4 search or commercial ship operators for data 

5 collection and assess the potential costs, bene6 fits, and viability of a global network of ocean 

7 and atmospheric observing instruments oper8 ating on research or commercial ocean vessels, 

9 including in the Arctic, in order to supplement 

10 the Integrated Coastal, Great Lakes, and Ocean 

11 Observation System in improving understanding 

12 of coastal and ocean systems and their relation13 ships to human activities. 

14 ‘‘(B) STANDARDS AND SPECIFICATIONS.— 

15 The Administrator shall ensure that data ac16 quired through the pilot program established 

17 pursuant to subparagraph (A) meets the most 

18 recent standards and specifications required for 

19 observation services and data as published pur20 suant to subsection (c) of section 302 of the 

21 Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation 

22 Act of 2017. 

23 ‘‘(C) REPORT.—Not later than five years 

24 after the date of the enactment of this para25 graph, the Administrator, in consultation with 


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1 the Secretary of Transportation, shall submit to 

2 Congress a report on the requirements for a 

3 global network of ocean and atmospheric instru4 ments operating on research or commercial 

5 ocean vessels for measurement and data trans6 mission. 

7 ‘‘(D) SUNSET.—This paragraph shall ter8 minate on the earlier of— 

9 ‘‘(i) September 30, 2029; or 

10 ‘‘(ii) one year after the date on which 

11 the report required under subparagraph 

12 (B) is submitted by the Administrator.’’. 

13 SEC. 114. CONSOLIDATION OF REPORTS. 

14 (a) WEATHER RESEARCH AND FORECASTING INNO15 VATION ACT OF 2017.— 

16 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Weather Research and 

17 Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017 is amended— 

18 (A) in section 102 (15 U.S.C. 8512), by 

19 striking subsection (d); 

20 (B) by amending section 105 (15 U.S.C. 

21 8515) to read as follows: 

22 ‘‘SEC. 105. WEATHER RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT PLAN23 NING. 

24 ‘‘Not later than two years after the date of the enact25 ment of this section and not less frequently than semiVerDate Sep 11 2014 02:14 May 02, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00048 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6093.RFS H6093

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1 annually thereafter, the Under Secretary, acting through 

2 the Assistant Administrator for Oceanic and Atmospheric 

3 Research, and in coordination with the Director of the Na4 tional Weather Service and the Assistant Administrator 

5 for Satellite and Information Services, shall issue a re6 search and development and research to operations plan 

7 to maintain United States leadership in numerical weather 

8 prediction and forecasting that— 

9 ‘‘(1) describes the forecasting skill and tech10 nology goals, objectives, expected budget, and 

11 progress of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

12 Administration in carrying out the program con13 ducted under section 102; 

14 ‘‘(2) identifies and prioritizes specific research 

15 and development activities, data collection and anal16 ysis, predictive modeling, demonstration of potential 

17 operational forecast application, education, training, 

18 and performance metrics, weighted to meet the oper19 ational weather and flood-event mission of the Na20 tional Weather Service to achieve a weather-ready 

21 Nation; 

22 ‘‘(3) describes how the program conducted 

23 under section 102 will collaborate with Federal 

24 agencies and departments, international partners, 

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1 er industry and academic partners, and the role of 

2 each in advancing weather forecasting and commu3 nication; 

4 ‘‘(4) identifies, through consultation with the 

5 National Science Foundation, the United States 

6 weather industry, and academic partners, research 

7 necessary to advance the scientific understanding of 

8 weather processes and provide information to im9 prove weather warning and forecast systems in the 

10 United States most effectively; and 

11 ‘‘(5) describes how the National Oceanic and 

12 Atmospheric Administration is advancing community 

13 weather modeling.’’; 

14 (C) in section 403 (15 U.S.C. 8543)— 

15 (i) in subsection (a), by inserting 

16 ‘‘the’’ after ‘‘Director of’’; and 

17 (ii) by amending subsection (d) to 

18 read as follows: 

19 ‘‘(d) ANNUAL BRIEFING.—Not less frequently than 

20 once each year, the Under Secretary shall brief the Com21 mittee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the 

22 Senate and the Committee on Science, Space, and Tech23 nology of the House of Representatives on participation 

24 in the program under subsection (a) and shall highlight 


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1 any innovations that come from the interaction described 

2 in subsection (b).’’; and 

3 (D) by striking sections 408 through 411 

4 and section 414 and redesignating sections 412 

5 and 413 as sections 408 and 409, respectively. 

6 (2) CLERICAL AMENDMENTS.—The table of 

7 contents in section 1(b) of the Weather Research 

8 and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017 is amended 

9 by striking the items relating to sections 408 

10 through 414 and inserting the following new items: 

‘‘Sec. 408. Weather enterprise outreach. 

‘‘Sec. 409. Hurricane hunter aircraft.’’. 

11 (b) NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMIN12 ISTRATION AUTHORIZATION ACT OF 1992.—The National 

13 Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Authorization 

14 Act of 1992 (Public Law 102–567) is amended— 

15 (1) in section 106, by striking subsection (c) 

16 (15 U.S.C. 1537); and 

17 (2) in section 108 (15 U.S.C. 8520)— 

18 (A) by striking subsection (b); and 

19 (B) by redesignating subsection (c) as sub20 section (b). 

21 SEC. 115. NATIONAL LANDSLIDE PREPAREDNESS ACT RE22 AUTHORIZATION. 

23 The National Landslide Preparedness Act (43 U.S.C. 

24 3101 et seq.) is amended— 


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1 (1) in section 3 (43 U.S.C. 3102)— 

2 (A) in subsection (a)(3), by striking ‘‘pro3 tect’’ and inserting ‘‘contribute to protecting’’; 

4 (B) in subsection (b)(1)(C)(ii), by striking 

5 ‘‘implement’’ and inserting ‘‘disseminate’’; 

6 (C) in subsection (c)(2), by adding at the 

7 end the following: 

8 ‘‘(J) The Administrator of the National 

9 Aeronautics and Space Administration.’’; and 

10 (D) in subsection (h), by striking ‘‘2024’’ 

11 and inserting ‘‘2029’’; and 

12 (2) in section 5 (43 U.S.C. 3104)— 

13 (A) in subsection (a)— 

14 (i) in paragraph (1)(A), by inserting 

15 ‘‘and derivative’’ after ‘‘3D elevation’’; and 

16 (ii) in paragraph (2)(B)(i), by insert17 ing ‘‘, process, and integrate’’ after ‘‘ac18 quire’’; 

19 (B) in subsection (b)(3)— 

20 (i) by redesignating subparagraphs 

21 (D) and (E) as subparagraphs (E) and 

22 (F), respectively; and 

23 (ii) by inserting after subparagraph 

24 (C) the following: 


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1 ‘‘(D) the 3D Hydrography Program Work2 ing Group;’’; 

3 (C) in subsection (d)(3), by striking ‘‘pub4 lically’’ and inserting ‘‘publicly’’; and 

5 (D) in subsection (e), by striking ‘‘2024’’ 

6 and inserting ‘‘2029’’. 

7 SEC. 116. AMENDMENTS TO HARMFUL ALGAL BLOOM AND 

8 HYPOXIA RESEARCH AND CONTROL ACT OF 

9 1998. 

10 (a) ASSESSMENTS.—Section 603 of the Harmful 

11 Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control Act of 

12 1998 (33 U.S.C. 4001) is amended— 

13 (1) in subsection (a)— 

14 (A) by redesignating paragraphs (13) and 

15 (14) as paragraphs (14) and (15); and 

16 (B) by inserting after paragraph (12) the 

17 following new paragraph: 

18 ‘‘(13) the Department of Energy;’’; 

19 (2) by striking subsections (b), (c), (d), (e), (h), 

20 and (i) and redesignating subsections (f) and (g) as 

21 subsections (b) and (c), respectively; 

22 (3) in subsection (b), as so redesignated— 

23 (A) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘coastal 

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1 ing ‘‘marine, estuarine, and freshwater sys2 tems’’; and 

3 (B) in paragraph (2)— 

4 (i) by amending subparagraph (A) to 

5 read as follows: 

6 ‘‘(A) examine the causes and ecological con7 sequences of hypoxia on marine and aquatic species 

8 in their natural environments, and socio-cultural or 

9 economic costs of hypoxia, including impacts on food 

10 safety and security;’’; 

11 (ii) by redesignating subparagraphs 

12 (B) through (D) as subparagraphs (D) 

13 through (F), respectively; 

14 (iii) by inserting after subparagraph 

15 (A) the following new subparagraphs: 

16 ‘‘(B) examine the effect of other environmental 

17 stressors on hypoxia; 

18 ‘‘(C) evaluate alternatives for reducing, miti19 gating, and controlling hypoxia and its environ20 mental impacts;’’; 

21 (iv) in subparagraph (D), as so redes22 ignated, by inserting ‘‘, social,’’ after ‘‘eco23 logical’’; and 

24 (v) in subparagraph (E), as so redes25 ignated, by striking ‘‘hypoxia modeling and 


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1 monitoring data’’ and inserting ‘‘hypoxia 

2 modeling, forecasting, and monitoring and 

3 observation data’’; and 

4 (4) in subsection (c), as so redesignated, to 

5 read as follows: 

6 ‘‘(c) ACTION STRATEGY AND SCIENTIFIC ASSESS7 MENT FOR MARINE AND FRESHWATER HARMFUL ALGAL

8 BLOOMS.— 

9 ‘‘(1) Not less often than once every 5 years, the 

10 Task Force shall complete and submit to Congress 

11 an action strategy, including a scientific assessment, 

12 of harmful algal blooms in the United States (in this 

13 Act referred to as the ‘Action Strategy’). Each such 

14 Action Strategy, including scientific assessment, 

15 shall examine both marine and freshwater harmful 

16 algal blooms, including those in the Great Lakes and 

17 upper reaches of estuaries, those in freshwater lakes 

18 and rivers, and those that originate in freshwater 

19 lakes or rivers and migrate to coastal waters. 

20 ‘‘(2) Each Action Strategy under this sub21 section shall— 

22 ‘‘(A) examine the causes and ecological 

23 consequences, and the socio-cultural or eco24 nomic costs, including impacts food safety and 

25 security, of harmful algal blooms; 


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1 ‘‘(B) examine the effect of other environ2 mental stressors on harmful algal blooms; 

3 ‘‘(C) examine potential methods to prevent, 

4 control, and mitigate harmful algal blooms and 

5 the potential ecological, social, cultural, and 

6 economic costs and benefits of such methods; 

7 ‘‘(D) identify priorities for research needed 

8 to advance techniques and technologies to de9 tect, predict, monitor, respond to, and minimize 

10 the occurrence, duration, and severity of harm11 ful algal blooms, including recommendations to 

12 eliminate significant gaps in harmful algal 

13 bloom forecasting, monitoring, and observation 

14 data; 

15 ‘‘(E) evaluate progress made by, and the 

16 needs of, Task Force activities and actions to 

17 prevent, control, and mitigate harmful algal 

18 blooms; 

19 ‘‘(F) identify ways to improve coordination 

20 and prevent unnecessary duplication of effort 

21 among Federal departments and agencies with 

22 respect to research on harmful algal blooms; 

23 ‘‘(G) include regional chapters relating to 

24 the requirements described in this paragraph in 

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1 logically diverse locations with significant eco2 logical, social, cultural, and economic impacts 

3 from harmful algal blooms; and 

4 ‘‘(H) define methodology used to determine 

5 ecological, social, cultural and economic impacts 

6 from harmful algal blooms and hypoxia.’’. 

7 (b) CONSULTATIONS.—Section 102 of the Harmful 

8 Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Amendments Act of 2004 (33 

9 U.S.C. 4001a) is amended— 

10 (1) by striking ‘‘the coastal’’; 

11 (2) by inserting ‘‘and’’ after ‘‘Indian tribes,’’; 

12 (3) by inserting ‘‘and’’ after ‘‘local govern13 ments,’’; and 

14 (4) by striking ‘‘with expertise in coastal zone 

15 science and management’’ and inserting ‘‘with rel16 evant expertise’’. 

17 (c) NATIONAL HARMFUL ALGAL BLOOM AND HY18 POXIA PROGRAM.—Section 603A of the Harmful Algal 

19 Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control Act of 1998 

20 (33 U.S.C. 4002) is amended— 

21 (1) in subsection (a)— 

22 (A) in paragraph (1)— 

23 (i) by striking ‘‘predicting,’’ and in24 serting ‘‘monitoring, observing, fore25 casting,’’; and 


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1 (ii) by striking ‘‘and’’ after the semi2 colon; 

3 (B) in paragraph (2)— 

4 (i) by striking ‘‘comprehensive re5 search plan and action strategy under sec6 tion 603B’’ and inserting ‘‘Action Strat7 egy, including scientific assessment, under 

8 section 603(c)’’; and 

9 (ii) by striking the period and insert10 ing ‘‘; and’’; and 

11 (C) by adding at the end the following new 

12 paragraph: 

13 ‘‘(3) the scientific assessment under section 

14 603(b).’’; 

15 (2) in subsection (c)— 

16 (A) in paragraph (3), by striking ‘‘ocean 

17 and Great Lakes’’ and inserting ‘‘marine, estu18 arine, and freshwater systems’’; and 

19 (B) in paragraph (5), by inserting ‘‘while 

20 recognizing each agency is acting under its own 

21 independent mission and authority’’ before the 

22 semicolon; 

23 (3) in subsection (d), by striking ‘‘Except as 

24 provided in subsection (h), the’’ and inserting 

25 ‘‘The’’; 


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1 (4) in subsection (e)— 

2 (A) by amending paragraph (2) to read as 

3 follows: 

4 ‘‘(2) examine, in collaboration with State and 

5 local entities and Indian Tribes, including island 

6 communities, low-population rural communities, In7 digenous communities, subsistence communities, 

8 fisheries, and recreation industries that are most de9 pendent on coastal and water resources that may be 

10 impacted by marine and freshwater harmful algal 

11 blooms and hypoxia, the causes, ecological con12 sequences, cultural impacts, and social and economic 

13 costs of harmful algal blooms and hypoxia;’’; 

14 (B) by striking paragraph (3); 

15 (C) by redesignating paragraphs (4), (5), 

16 and (6) as paragraphs (3), (4), and (5), respec17 tively; 

18 (D) in paragraph (3), as so redesignated— 

19 (i) by striking ‘‘to, regional’’ and in20 serting ‘‘to regional’’; and 

21 (ii) by striking ‘‘agencies’’ and insert22 ing ‘‘entities, and regional coastal observ23 ing systems (as such term is defined in 

24 section 12330(6) of the Integrated Coastal 


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1 and Ocean Observation System Act of 

2 2009 (33 U.S.C. 3602(6)))’’; 

3 (E) in paragraph (5), as so redesignated, 

4 by inserting ‘‘and communities’’ after ‘‘eco5 systems’’; 

6 (F) by inserting after paragraph (5) the 

7 following new paragraph: 

8 ‘‘(6) support sustained observations, including 

9 through peer-reviewed, merit-based, competitive 

10 grant funding, to provide State and local entities, 

11 Indian Tribes, and others access to real-time or near 

12 real-time observation data for decision-making to 

13 protect human and ecological health and local econo14 mies;’’; 

15 (G) in paragraph (8), by striking ‘‘State 

16 and local’’ and inserting ‘‘State, local, and Trib17 al’’; and 

18 (H) in paragraph (9)(A), by striking ‘‘trib19 al’’ and inserting ‘‘Tribal’’; 

20 (5) by amending subsections (f) and (g) to read 

21 as follows: 

22 ‘‘(f) COOPERATIVE EFFORTS.—The Under Secretary 

23 shall work cooperatively with and avoid duplication of ef24 fort of other agencies on the Task Force, and with and 

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1 tions concerned with marine and freshwater issues, and 

2 shall coordinate harmful algal bloom and hypoxia and re3 lated activities and research. 

4 ‘‘(g) FRESHWATER AND ESTUARINE PROGRAM DU5 TIES.— 

6 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Administrator shall— 

7 ‘‘(A) with respect to freshwater aspects of 

8 the Program, in coordination with the Task 

9 Force, carry out the duties under subsection (e) 

10 through the activities required under section 

11 603C; and 

12 ‘‘(B) with respect to estuarine aspects of 

13 the Program, coordinate with the Under Sec14 retary to carry out activities required under this 

15 section. 

16 ‘‘(2) NONDUPLICATION.—The Administrator 

17 shall ensure that activities carried out under this 

18 subsection focus on new approaches to addressing 

19 freshwater harmful algal blooms and are not dupli20 cative of existing research and development pro21 grams authorized under this Act or any other law.’’; 

22 and 

23 (6) by amending subsection (h) to read as fol24 lows: 


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1 ‘‘(h) ANTI-DEFICIENCY ACT APPLIED TO HARMFUL

2 ALGAL BLOOM SERVICES.—Any services by an officer or 

3 employee under this title relating to the immediate devel4 opment and dissemination of the Harmful Algal Bloom 

5 Operational Forecast System of the National Centers for 

6 Coastal Ocean Science and the National Oceanic and At7 mospheric Administration shall be considered, for pur8 poses of section 1342 of title 31, United States Code, serv9 ices for emergencies involving the safety of human life or 

10 the protection of property. Such consideration shall only 

11 apply to areas with active harmful algal blooms during any 

12 lapse in appropriations beginning on or after the date of 

13 the enactment of this subsection.’’. 

14 (d) NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMIN15 ISTRATION ACTIVITIES.— 

16 (1) IN GENERAL.—Section 603B of the Harm17 ful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control 

18 Act of 1998 (33 U.S.C. 4003) is amended to read 

19 as follows: 

20 ‘‘SEC. 603B. NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC AD21 MINISTRATION ACTIVITIES. 

22 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The Under Secretary shall— 

23 ‘‘(1) carry out marine, coastal, and Great 

24 Lakes harmful algal bloom and hypoxia events re25 sponse activities; 


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1 ‘‘(2) develop and enhance operational harmful 

2 algal bloom observing and forecasting programs, in3 cluding operational observations and forecasting, 

4 monitoring, modeling, data management, and infor5 mation dissemination; 

6 ‘‘(3) maintain and enhance peer-reviewed, 

7 merit-based, competitive grant funding relating to 

8 harmful algal blooms and hypoxia to— 

9 ‘‘(A) maintain and enhance baseline moni10 toring programs established by the Program; 

11 ‘‘(B) support the projects maintained and 

12 established by the Program; 

13 ‘‘(C) address the research and manage14 ment needs and priorities identified in the Ac15 tion Strategy under section 603(c); 

16 ‘‘(D) accelerate the utilization of effective 

17 methods of intervention and mitigation to re18 duce the frequency, severity, and impacts of 

19 harmful algal bloom and hypoxia events; 

20 ‘‘(E) identify opportunities to improve 

21 monitoring of harmful algal bloom and hypoxia, 

22 with a particular focus on coastal waters that 

23 may affect fisheries, public health, or subsist24 ence harvest; 


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1 ‘‘(F) examine the effects of other environ2 mental stressors on harmful algal blooms and 

3 hypoxia; 

4 ‘‘(G) assess the effects of multiple environ5 mental stressors on living marine resources and 

6 coastal ecosystems; and 

7 ‘‘(H) evaluate adaptation and mitigation 

8 strategies to address the impacts of harmful 

9 algal blooms and hypoxia; 

10 ‘‘(4) enhance communication and coordination 

11 among Federal agencies carrying out marine and 

12 freshwater harmful algal bloom and hypoxia activi13 ties and research; 

14 ‘‘(5) to the greatest extent practicable, leverage 

15 existing resources and expertise available from local 

16 research universities and institutions; and 

17 ‘‘(6) use cost effective methods in carrying out 

18 this section. 

19 ‘‘(b) INTEGRATED COASTAL AND OCEAN OBSERVA20 TION SYSTEM.—The collection of monitoring and observ21 ing data under this section shall comply with all data 

22 standards and protocols developed pursuant to the Inte23 grated Coastal and Ocean Observation System Act of 

24 2009 (33 U.S.C. 3601 et seq.). Such data shall be made 

25 available through the system established under that Act.’’. 


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1 (2) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of con2 tents in section 2 of the Coast Guard Authorization 

3 Act of 1998 (Public Law 105–383) is amended by 

4 amending the item relating to section 603B to read 

5 as follows: 

‘‘Sec. 603B. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration activities.’’. 

6 (e) ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY ACTIVI7 TIES.— 

8 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Harmful Algal Bloom 

9 and Hypoxia Research and Control Act of 1998 (33 

10 U.S.C. 4001 et seq.) is amended by inserting after 

11 section 603B of that Act (33 U.S.C. 4003), as 

12 amended by subsection (d), the following new sec13 tion: 

14 ‘‘SEC. 603C. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY AC15 TIVITIES. 

16 ‘‘The Administrator shall— 

17 ‘‘(1) carry out research on the ecology and 

18 human health impacts of freshwater harmful algal 

19 blooms; 

20 ‘‘(2) develop and maintain forecasting and mon21 itoring of, and event response to, freshwater harmful 

22 algal blooms in lakes, reservoirs, rivers, and estu23 aries (including tributaries thereof); 

24 ‘‘(3) enhance communication and coordination 

25 among Federal agencies carrying out freshwater 


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1 harmful algal bloom and hypoxia activities and re2 search; 

3 ‘‘(4) to the greatest extent practicable, leverage 

4 existing resources and expertise available from local 

5 research universities and institutions; and 

6 ‘‘(5) use cost effective methods in carrying out 

7 this section.’’. 

8 (2) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of con9 tents in section 2 of the Coast Guard Authorization 

10 Act of 1998 (Public Law 105–383) is amended by 

11 inserting after the item relating to section 603B, as 

12 amended by subsection (e), the following new item: 

‘‘Sec. 603C. Environmental Protection Agency activities.’’. 

13 (f) NATIONAL HARMFUL ALGAL BLOOM AND HY14 POXIA OBSERVING NETWORK.— 

15 (1) IN GENERAL.—Section 606 of the Harmful 

16 Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control Act 

17 of 1998 (33 U.S.C. 4005) is amended to read as fol18 lows: 

19 ‘‘SEC. 606. NATIONAL HARMFUL ALGAL BLOOM OBSERVING 

20 NETWORK. 

21 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The Under Secretary, acting 

22 through the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science 

23 (referred to in this section as ‘NCCOS’) and the Inte24 grated Ocean Observing System (referred to in this section 

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1 ministration, shall integrate Federal, State, regional, and 

2 local observing capabilities to establish a national network 

3 of harmful algal bloom observing systems for the moni4 toring, detection, and forecasting of harmful algal blooms 

5 by leveraging the capacity of IOOS regional associations, 

6 including through the incorporation of emerging tech7 nologies and new data integration methods, such as artifi8 cial intelligence. 

9 ‘‘(b) COORDINATION.— In carrying out subsection 

10 (a), the IOOS Program Office shall— 

11 ‘‘(1) coordinate with NCCOS regarding obser12 vations, data integration, and information dissemi13 nation; and 

14 ‘‘(2) establish a Harmful Algal Bloom Data As15 sembly Center to integrate, disseminate, and provide 

16 a central architecture to support ecological fore17 casting.’’. 

18 (2) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of con19 tents in section 2 of the Coast Guard Authorization 

20 Act of 1998 (Public Law 105–383) is amended by 

21 amending the item relating to section 606 to read as 

22 follows: 

‘‘Sec. 606. National harmful algal bloom observing network.’’. 

23 (g) DEFINITIONS.—Section 609 of the Harmful Algal 

24 Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control Act of 1998 

25 (33 U.S.C. 4008) is amended— 


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1 (1) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘means the 

2 comprehensive research plan and action strategy es3 tablished under section 603B’’ and inserting ‘‘means 

4 the action strategy, including scientific assessment, 

5 for marine and freshwater harmful algal blooms es6 tablished under section 603(c)’’; 

7 (2) in paragraph (3), to read as follows: 

8 ‘‘(3) APPROPRIATE FEDERAL OFFICIAL.—The 

9 term ‘appropriate Federal official’ means— 

10 ‘‘(A) in the case of marine systems or 

11 Great Lakes hypoxia or harmful algal bloom 

12 event, including those in estuarine areas, the 

13 Under Secretary; and 

14 ‘‘(B) in the case of a freshwater hypoxia or 

15 harmful algal bloom event, the Administrator, 

16 in consultation with the Under Secretary.’’; 

17 (3) by striking paragraph (9); 

18 (4) by redesignating paragraphs (4), (5), (6), 

19 (7), and (8) as paragraphs (6), (7), (8), (10), and 

20 (11); 

21 (5) by inserting after paragraph (3) the fol22 lowing new paragraphs: 

23 ‘‘(4) HARMFUL ALGAL BLOOM; HARMFUL

24 ALGAL BLOOM AND HYPOXIA EVENT.— 


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1 ‘‘(A) HARMFUL ALGAL BLOOM.—The term 

2 ‘harmful algal bloom’ means marine or fresh3 water algae or macroalgae, including 

4 Sargassum, that proliferate to high concentra5 tions, resulting in nuisance conditions or harm6 ful impacts on marine and freshwater eco7 systems, communities, or human health through 

8 the production of toxic compounds or other bio9 logical, chemical, or physical impacts of the 

10 algae outbreak. 

11 ‘‘(B) HARMFUL ALGAL BLOOM AND HY12 POXIA EVENT.—The term ‘harmful algal bloom 

13 and hypoxia event’ means the occurrence of a 

14 harmful algal bloom or hypoxia as a result of 

15 a natural, anthropogenic, or undetermined 

16 cause. 

17 ‘‘(5) HARMFUL ALGAL BLOOM OR HYPOXIA

18 EVENT OF SIGNIFICANCE.—The term ‘harmful algal 

19 bloom or hypoxia event of significance’ means a 

20 harmful algal bloom or hypoxia event that has had 

21 or will likely have significant detrimental environ22 mental, economic, social, subsistence use, or public 

23 health impacts.’’; 

24 (6) in paragraph (6), as so redesignated— 


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1 (A) by striking ‘‘aquatic’’ and inserting 

2 ‘‘marine or freshwater’’; and 

3 (B) by striking ‘‘resident’’ and inserting 

4 ‘‘marine or freshwater’’; and 

5 (7) by inserting after paragraph (8), as so re6 designated, the following new paragraph: 

7 ‘‘(9) SUBSISTENCE USE.—The term ‘subsist8 ence use’ means the customary and traditional use 

9 of fish, wildlife, or other freshwater, coastal, or ma10 rine resources by any individual or community to 

11 meet personal or family needs, including essential 

12 economic, nutritional, or cultural applications.’’. 

13 (h) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—Section 

14 610 of the Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research 

15 and Control Act of 1998 (33 U.S.C. 4009) is amended— 

16 (1) in subsection (a), to read as follows: 

17 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—There is authorized to be appro18 priated to the Under Secretary to carry out this title 

19 $27,500,000 for each of fiscal years 2024 through 2028.’’; 

20 and 

21 (2) by adding at the end the following new sub22 section: 

23 ‘‘(c) TRANSFER AUTHORITY.—The Under Secretary 

24 is authorized to make a direct non-expenditure transfer 

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1 section (a) to the head of any Federal department or agen2 cy, with the concurrence of such head, to carry out, as 

3 appropriate, relevant provisions of this title.’’. 

4 (i) NATIONAL LEVEL INCUBATOR PROGRAM; HARM5 FUL ALGAL BLOOM OR HYPOXIA EVENT OF SIGNIFI6 CANCE.— 

7 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Harmful Algal Bloom 

8 and Hypoxia Research and Control Act of 1998 (33 

9 U.S.C. 4001 et seq.) is amended by adding at the 

10 end the following new section: 

11 ‘‘SEC. 611. NATIONAL LEVEL INCUBATOR PROGRAM. 

12 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The Under Secretary, in collabo13 ration with research universities and institutions, shall es14 tablish a national level incubator program to increase the 

15 number of available control strategies and technologies re16 lating to harmful algal blooms. Such incubator shall estab17 lish a framework for preliminary assessments of novel 

18 harmful algal bloom prevention, mitigation, and control 

19 technologies in order to determine the potential for effec20 tiveness and scalability. 

21 ‘‘(b) OPERATION.—The incubator established under 

22 subsection (a) shall provide merit-based funding for harm23 ful algal bloom control strategies and technologies that 

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1 ical means the levels of harmful algae and associated tox2 ins. 

3 ‘‘(c) DATABASE.—The incubator established under 

4 subsection (a) shall include a database to catalog the li5 censing and permitting requirements, economic costs, fea6 sibility, effectiveness, and scalability of both novel and es7 tablished prevention, control, and mitigation measures. 

8 ‘‘(d) PRIORITIZATION.—In carrying out the incubator 

9 established under subsection (a), the Under Secretary 

10 shall prioritize proposed activities that would, to the max11 imum extent practicable— 

12 ‘‘(1) protect key habitats for fish and wildlife; 

13 ‘‘(2) maintain biodiversity; 

14 ‘‘(3) protect public health; 

15 ‘‘(4) protect coastal resources of national, his16 torical, and cultural significance; or 

17 ‘‘(5) seek to partially or fully benefit commu18 nities of color, low-income communities, Indian 

19 Tribes or Indigenous communities, and rural com20 munities.’’. 

21 (2) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of con22 tents in section 2 of the Coast Guard Authorization 

23 Act of 1998 (Public Law 105–383) is amended by 

24 inserting after the item relating to section 610 the 

25 following new item: 

‘‘Sec. 611. National level incubator program.’’. 


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1 (j) HARMFUL ALGAL BLOOM OR HYPOXIA EVENT OF

2 SIGNIFICANCE.—Section 9(g) of the National Integrated 

3 Drought Information System Reauthorization Act of 2018 

4 (33 U.S.C. 4010(g)) is amended— 

5 (1) in paragraph (1)— 

6 (A) in subparagraph (B), by adding at the 

7 end the following new sentence: ‘‘The appro8 priate Federal official may waive the non-Fed9 eral share requirements of this subsection if 

10 such official determines no reasonable means 

11 are available through which the recipient of the 

12 Federal share can meet the non-Federal share 

13 requirement.’’; and 

14 (B) by adding at the end the following new 

15 subparagraph: 

16 ‘‘(D) CONTRACT, GRANT, AND COOPERA17 TIVE AGREEMENT AUTHORITY.—The Under 

18 Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmos19 phere may enter into agreements and grants 

20 with States, Indian Tribes, local governments, 

21 or other entities to pay for or reimburse costs 

22 incurred for the purposes of supporting the de23 termination of and assessing the environmental, 

24 economic, social, subsistence use, and public 


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1 health effects of a harmful algal bloom or hy2 poxia event of significance.’’; 

3 (2) in paragraph (2)(A), by inserting ‘‘, leader4 ship official of an affected Indian Tribe, the execu5 tive official of the District of Columbia, or a terri6 tory or possession of the United States, including 

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

9 Trust Territories of the Pacific Islands, and Amer10 ican Samoa, if affected’’ after ‘‘State’’; and 

11 (3) by adding at the end the following new 

12 paragraph: 

13 ‘‘(4) FUNDING AUTHORITY.—To carry out this 

14 subsection, notwithstanding any other provision of 

15 law, there is authorized to be appropriated from the 

16 amounts made available to the Under Secretary of 

17 Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere $2,000,000, 

18 to remain available until expended.’’. 

19 (k) PROTECT FAMILIES FROM TOXIC ALGAL

20 BLOOMS.—Section 128 of the Water Resources Develop21 ment Act of 2020 (33 U.S.C. 610 note) is amended— 

22 (1) by redesignating subsection (e) as sub23 section (f); and 

24 (2) by inserting after subsection (d) the fol25 lowing new subsection: 


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1 ‘‘(e) HARMFUL ALGAL BLOOM TECHNOLOGIES.—In 

2 carrying out the demonstration program under subsection 

3 (a), the Secretary may enter into agreements with water 

4 and irrigation districts located in the focus areas described 

5 in subsections (c) and (d) for the use or sale of any new 

6 technologies developed under the program to expedite the 

7 removal of harmful algal blooms in such areas.’’. 

8 TITLE II—ENHANCING FEDERAL 

9 WEATHER FORECASTING AND 

10 INNOVATION 

11 SEC. 201. WEATHER INNOVATION FOR THE NEXT GENERA12 TION. 

13 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days after the 

14 date of the enactment of this Act, the Under Secretary 

15 shall establish a Research, Development, Test, and Eval16 uation Program (in this section referred to as the ‘‘Pro17 gram’’) to ensure the continued performance of weather 

18 radar capabilities, including systems currently being devel19 oped, with interferences in the line of sight of such radar. 

20 (b) REQUIREMENTS.—In carrying out the Program, 

21 the Under Secretary, in consultation with the Interagency 

22 Council for Advancing Meteorological Services, shall— 

23 (1) partner with the private sector, academia, 

24 Federal, State, and local government entities, and 


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1 any other entity the Under Secretary considers ap2 propriate; 

3 (2) identify, evaluate, and test existing or near4 commercial technologies and solutions that improve 

5 radar coverage and performance, including by miti6 gating the potential impact of interferences on 

7 weather radar; 

8 (3) to the maximum extent practicable, research 

9 additional solutions that could mitigate the effects of 

10 interferences on weather radar, such as— 

11 (A) signal processing algorithms; 

12 (B) short-term forecasting algorithms to 

13 replace contaminated data; 

14 (C) the use of dual polarization character15 istics in mitigating the effects of wind turbines 

16 on weather radar; and 

17 (D) gap filling radars to provide supple18 mental or replacement observations in impacted 

19 areas; and 

20 (4) develop, support, or partner with developers 

21 to provide commercially viable technical mitigation 

22 solutions for interferences to weather radar capabili23 ties that are compatible with the operational require24 ments of the weather radar systems. 


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1 (c) PRIORITY.—In carrying out subsection (b), the 

2 Under Secretary shall prioritize consideration of the fol3 lowing technology-based mitigation solutions: 

4 (1) Phased array weather radar systems. 

5 (2) Supplementing or replacing contaminated 

6 data with commercial radar data. 

7 (3) The utilization of data from private sector 

8 associated meteorological towers or similar capabili9 ties. 

10 (4) The display on local forecasting equipment 

11 of wind farm boundaries and consolidated wind farm 

12 areas. 

13 (5) The installation and provision of access to 

14 rain gauges. 

15 (6) Any other technology-based mitigation solu16 tion the Under Secretary determines could improve 

17 radar coverage by overcoming interferences, beam 

18 blockage, or ghost echoes. 

19 (d) REPORT; RECOMMENDATION.— 

20 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than two years 

21 after the date of the enactment of this section and 

22 annually thereafter until the Program terminates 

23 pursuant to subsection (e), the Under Secretary 

24 shall submit to Congress a report on the implemen25 tation of the Program, including an evaluation of 


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1 each technology-based mitigation solution identified 

2 for priority consideration pursuant to subsection (c), 

3 and a recommendation regarding additional identi4 fication and testing of new technologies based on 

5 such consideration. 

6 (2) FINAL RECOMMENDATION.—Not later than 

7 five years after the date of the enactment of this 

8 section, the Under Secretary shall provide to Con9 gress a recommendation on whether additional re10 search, testing, and development through the Pro11 gram established under subsection (a) is needed, and 

12 a determination of whether a cessation of field re13 search, testing, development and evaluation is appro14 priate. 

15 (e) TERMINATION.—The authority of the Under Sec16 retary to carry out the Program shall terminate on the 

17 earlier of— 

18 (1) September 30, 2029; or 

19 (2) one year after the date on which the final 

20 recommendation required under subsection (d)(2) is 

21 submitted by the Under Secretary. 

22 (f) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

23 (1) BEAM BLOCKAGE.—The term ‘‘beam block24 age’’ means a signal that is partially or fully blocked 

25 due to an interference. 


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1 (2) GHOST ECHO.—The term ‘‘ghost echo’’ 

2 means radar signal reflectivity or velocity return er3 rors in radar data due to the proximity of an inter4 ference. 

5 (3) INTERFERENCE.—The term ‘‘interference’’ 

6 includes the following: 

7 (A) a wind turbine that could limit the ef8 fectiveness of a weather radar system; 

9 (B) any building that disrupts or limits the 

10 effectiveness of a weather radar system; or 

11 (C) any other natural or human built 

12 structure that affects a weather radar system. 

13 SEC. 202. NEXT GENERATION RADAR. 

14 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Under Secretary shall de15 velop a plan to replace the Next Generation Weather 

16 Radar of the National Weather Service (‘‘NEXRAD’’) 

17 system in existence as of the date of the enactment of this 

18 section. 

19 (b) PROCUREMENT DEADLINE.—The Under Sec20 retary shall take such actions as may be necessary to en21 sure the replacement described in subsection (a) is com22 pleted by not later than September 30, 2040. 

23 (c) ELEMENTS.—The plan developed pursuant to 

24 subsection (a) shall include the following: 


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1 (1) Estimates of quantifiable improvements in 

2 radar performance and service delivery, including 

3 coverage and accuracy, to be made from replacement 

4 of the NEXRAD system referred to in such sub5 section. 

6 (2) Development of a digital phased array radar 

7 test article designed to test and determine the speci8 fications and requirements for such replacement. 

9 (3) Establishment of a weather surveillance 

10 radar testbed for the following: 

11 (A) Evaluation of commercial radars with 

12 the potential to replace or supplement the 

13 NEXRAD system. 

14 (B) Providing technical assistance for com15 mercial replacement or supplemental radars, in16 cluding data void filling radars in regions where 

17 geographical topography prevents full utilization 

18 of conventional systems. 

19 (4) Consultation and input solicited from mete20 orologists, emergency managers, and public safety 

21 officials regarding the specifications and require22 ments for the replacement of the NEXRAD system 

23 referred in such subsection. 


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1 (5) Prioritized locations for initial deployment 

2 of the replacement system described in subsection 

3 (a) that will replace the NEXRAD system. 

4 (6) Expected locations of such replacement sys5 tem described in subsection (a), including sites lo6 cated more than 75 miles away from an existing 

7 NEXRAD station and additional appropriate loca8 tions. 

9 (d) RADAR-AS-A-SERVICE.— 

10 (1) IN GENERAL.—In order to supplement data 

11 voids in radar coverage in existence as of the date 

12 of the enactment of this section and ensure the con13 tinued performance of weather radar capabilities, 

14 the Under Secretary may utilize and contract with 

15 third party entities to fill such low-level and wide16 area radar data voids using diverse weather radars 

17 and data assimilation technologies to better detect 

18 significant precipitation and severe weather over a 

19 greater area across the population. 

20 (2) CONSIDERATIONS.—In carrying out the ac21 tivities under paragraph (1), the Under Secretary 

22 may consider— 

23 (A) utilizing and contracting with third24 party entities that have participated in the 

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1 section (c)(3), the National Mesonet Program, 

2 or Cooperative Research and Development 

3 Agreements; and 

4 (B) weather camera systems and services, 

5 including systems and services in consultation 

6 with the Federal Aviation Administration, as 

7 viable technologies to supplement weather fore8 casting and prediction needs. 

9 (e) UPDATES TO CONGRESS.—The Under Secretary 

10 shall provide to the Committee on Science, Space, and 

11 Technology of the House of Representatives and the Com12 mittee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the 

13 Senate periodic updates on the implementation of this sec14 tion. 

15 SEC. 203. DATA VOIDS IN HIGHLY VULNERABLE AREAS OF 

16 THE UNITED STATES. 

17 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Under Secretary, in coordi18 nation with the Director of the National Weather Service 

19 and the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Manage20 ment Agency, in consultation with the United States 

21 weather industry, academic partners, and in accordance 

22 with activities implemented through existing regional at23 mospheric, coastal, ocean, and Great Lakes observing sys24 tems, shall carry out activities to ensure equitable and 

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1 gency information sharing in the United States, including 

2 relating to the following: 

3 (1) Reviewing areas in the continental United 

4 States and the territories that are considered under5 observed, underserved, or highly vulnerable for 

6 weather phenomenon, including urban and offshore 

7 regions, and identifying associated challenges to pro8 viding such coverage. 

9 (2) Increasing weather observations and devel10 oping new weather observational capabilities, such as 

11 urban heat island mapping campaigns, with respect 

12 to under-observed, underserved, or highly vulnerable 

13 regions. 

14 (3) Establishing or supporting testbeds to de15 velop and integrate new weather, water, and climate 

16 observation or emergency information sharing tools, 

17 such as next generational or supplemental radars for 

18 weather observations, in under-observed, under19 served, or highly vulnerable regions. 

20 (4) To the maximum extent practicable, ad21 vancing weather and water forecasting and climate 

22 modeling capabilities for under-observed, under23 served, or highly vulnerable regions. 

24 (5) Undertaking workforce development efforts 

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1 gists in under-observed, underserved, or highly vul2 nerable areas, including urban regions, of the United 

3 States. 

4 (6) Using data void filling observations to bet5 ter resolve extreme rainfall in complex topography. 

6 (7) Contributing to a national integrated heat 

7 health information systems. 

8 (b) PILOT PROGRAM.—In carrying out this section, 

9 the Under Secretary, acting through the Director of the 

10 National Weather Service and the Administrator of the 

11 Federal Emergency Management Agency, shall establish 

12 an interagency partnership to support pilot projects that 

13 accelerate coordination and use of localized weather, 

14 water, and climate data and impact-based communications 

15 in infrastructure and emergency management decisions by 

16 Federal, State, and local officials. 

17 (c) PRIORITY.—At least one pilot project under sub18 section (b) shall address key science challenges to using 

19 mesonet data in local decision making and development 

20 of new tools and training for owners and operators of crit21 ical infrastructure (as such term is defined in section 

22 1016(e) of Public Law 107–56 (42 U.S.C. 5195c(e))), 

23 such as dams, energy generation and distribution facili24 ties, nuclear power plants, and transportation networks. 


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1 SEC. 204. ATMOSPHERIC RIVERS FORECAST IMPROVEMENT 

2 PROGRAM. 

3 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Under Secretary, in collabo4 ration with the United States weather industry and aca5 demic partners, shall establish an atmospheric river fore6 cast improvement program (in this section referred to as 

7 the ‘‘program’’). 

8 (b) GOAL.—The goal of the program shall be to re9 duce through the development and extension of accurate, 

10 effective, and actionable forecasts and warnings the loss 

11 of life or property from atmospheric rivers, including by— 

12 (1) establishing quantitative atmospheric river 

13 forecast skill metrics that include quantifying the 

14 benefits of dynamical modeling, data assimilation, 

15 and machine learning improvements in the prob16 abilistic forecasts of landfall location, extreme wind 

17 and precipitation, and cascading impacts; 

18 (2) developing an atmospheric river forecast 

19 system within the unified forecast system, and ad20 vancing next-generation coupled modeling systems, 

21 with the capability of providing seasonal to short22 range atmospheric river forecasts that include fore23 cast of snow accumulation and other hydrologic com24 ponents; 

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1 sonal precipitation and probabilistic predictions at 

2 subseasonal and seasonal scales; 

3 (4) developing tools and improved forecast 

4 products to predict periods of active or inactive at5 mospheric river landfalls and inland penetration over 

6 the western United States with a focus on address7 ing stakeholder and public needs related to per8 ceiving, comprehending, and responding to atmos9 pheric river forecast improvements; and 

10 (5) enhancing research transition to operations 

11 through the Administration’s testbeds, including the 

12 evaluation of physical and social science, technology, 

13 and other research to develop products and services 

14 for implementation and use by relevant stakeholders. 

15 (c) INNOVATIVE OBSERVATIONS AND MODELING.— 

16 The Under Secretary shall ensure the program periodically 

17 examines, tests, and evaluates the value of incorporating 

18 innovative observations, such as novel sensor technologies, 

19 observation networks, soil moisture monitoring systems, 

20 reservoir storage data, observations from crewed or 

21 uncrewed systems, and hosted instruments on commercial 

22 aircrafts, vessels, and satellites, and data assimilation 

23 tools, with respect to the improvement of atmospheric 

24 river forecasts, predictions, and warnings. 


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1 (d) PROGRAM PLAN.—Not later than 180 days after 

2 the date of the enactment of this Act, the Under Secretary 

3 shall develop a plan that details the specific research, de4 velopment, data acquisition, and technology transfer ac5 tivities, as well as corresponding resources, limitations, 

6 and timelines, necessary to achieve the goal of the pro7 gram under subsection (b). 

8 (e) ANNUAL BUDGET FOR PLAN SUBMITTAL.—After 

9 the development of the plan pursuant to subsection (d), 

10 the Under Secretary shall, not less frequently than annu11 ally, submit to Congress a proposed budget corresponding 

12 with the activities identified in such plan. 

13 SEC. 205. COASTAL FLOODING AND STORM SURGE FORE14 CAST IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM. 

15 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Under Secretary, in collabo16 ration with the Integrated Ocean Observing System, the 

17 United States weather industry, and academic partners, 

18 shall establish a coastal flooding and storm surge forecast 

19 improvement program (in this section referred to as the 

20 ‘‘program’’). 

21 (b) GOAL.—The goal of the program shall be to re22 duce through the development and extension of accurate, 

23 effective, actionable, and probable forecasts and warnings 

24 the loss of life or property from coastal flooding, including 

25 high tide flooding, and storm surge events. 


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1 (c) PRIORITY.—In implementing the program, the 

2 Under Secretary shall prioritize activities that carry out 

3 the following: 

4 (1) Improving understanding and capacity for 

5 real-time operational prediction of the ocean’s role in 

6 coastal flooding, including high tide flooding, and 

7 storm surge events. 

8 (2) Improving the capacity to mitigate or pre9 vent the impacts of coastal flooding, including high 

10 tide flooding, and storm surge events, including by 

11 improving the understanding and capacity of coastal 

12 communities to perceive, comprehend, and respond 

13 to forecast information. 

14 (3) Incorporating data from in situ distributed 

15 sensors into models. 

16 (4) Developing probabilistic coastal flooding, in17 cluding high tide flooding, and storm surge esti18 mates to complement worst-case scenario estimates, 

19 including for use in long-term planning and risk 

20 management by States, Tribal governments, local21 ities, and emergency managers in coordination with 

22 the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as ap23 propriate. 

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1 namical modeling, data assimilation, and machine 

2 learning improvements in the probabilistic forecast 

3 of coastal flooding, including high tide flooding, and 

4 storm surge risk and impacts. 

5 (6) Improving operational regional storm surge 

6 and wave prediction models to enhance probabilistic 

7 guidance and messaging. 

8 (d) INNOVATIVE OBSERVATIONS AND MODELING.— 

9 The Under Secretary shall ensure the program periodically 

10 examines, tests, and evaluates the value of incorporating 

11 enhanced model physics, hybrid dynamical or machine 

12 learning based prediction systems, and innovative observa13 tions, such as novel sensor technologies, observation net14 works, crewed or uncrewed systems, and hosted instru15 ments on commercial aircrafts, vessels, and satellites, with 

16 respect to the improvement of coastal flooding, including 

17 high tide flooding, and storm surge forecasts, predictions, 

18 and warnings. 

19 (e) PROGRAM PLAN.—Not later than 180 days after 

20 the date of the enactment of this Act, the Under Secretary 

21 shall develop a plan that details the specific research, de22 velopment, data acquisition, and technology transfer ac23 tivities, as well as corresponding resources and timelines, 

24 necessary to achieve the goal of the program under sub25 section (b). 


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1 (f) ANNUAL BUDGET FOR PLAN SUBMITTAL.—After 

2 the development of the plan pursuant to subsection (e), 

3 the Under Secretary shall, not less frequently than annu4 ally, submit to Congress a proposed budget corresponding 

5 with the activities identified in such plan. 

6 SEC. 206. AVIATION WEATHER AND DATA INNOVATION. 

7 (a) PROGRAM.—The Under Secretary shall maintain 

8 an airborne observation program (in this section referred 

9 to as the ‘‘program’’) for the acquisition of atmospheric 

10 sensor data and the deployment of critical atmospheric 

11 sensors, including in partnership with the weather enter12 prise. 

13 (b) ACTIVITIES.—The program shall include activi14 ties that carry out the following: 

15 (1) Procurement of weather data available from 

16 commercial aircraft, as determined by the Under 

17 Secretary. 

18 (2) Acquisition of additional vertical profile ob19 servations that provide spatial and temporal density, 

20 as determined by the Under Secretary. 

21 (3) Analysis of procured data when incor22 porated into the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

23 Administration’s unified forecast system in order to 

24 provide improved forecast information for aircraft. 


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1 (c) BUDGET.—The Under Secretary shall, not less 

2 frequently than annually, submit to Congress a proposed 

3 budget corresponding with the activities described in sub4 section (b), including and analysis of activities that can 

5 be complemented by National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

6 Administration aircraft. 

7 (d) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—From 

8 amounts made available to the Commercial Data Program 

9 under section 302 of the Weather Research and Fore10 casting Innovation Act of 2017, there is authorized to be 

11 appropriated up to $10,000,000 for each of fiscal years 

12 2024 through 2028 to carry out the program. 

13 (e) AVIATION WEATHER AND TURBULENCE FORE14 CASTING.—The Director of the National Weather Service 

15 shall include turbulence events, icing conditions, or other 

16 phenomena in the forecasting capabilities of the National 

17 Weather Service’s Aviation Weather Center, and deliver 

18 operational forecasts with consistent, timely, and accurate 

19 weather and turbulence information for the airspace sys20 tem and the protection of lives and property. 

21 (f) COORDINATION.—In carrying out subsection (e), 

22 the Director of the National Weather Service shall give 

23 consideration to recommendations from the Administrator 

24 of the Federal Aviation Administration in furtherance of 


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1 section 44720 of title 49, United States Code, and improve 

2 weather and turbulence forecasting capabilities by— 

3 (1) designating or establishing within the Fed4 eral Government an interagency working group to 

5 determine weather and environmental data or obser6 vation requirements, needs, and potential solutions 

7 related to aviation weather and turbulence modeling 

8 or forecasting; 

9 (2) identifying current and future potential 

10 data gaps related to turbulence events or phenomena 

11 that can— 

12 (A) identify or inform route specific flight 

13 planning; and 

14 (B) be supplemented or filled by commer15 cial aviation tools; 

16 (3) transitioning research initiatives and pilot 

17 programs, including a pilot program of instrumenta18 tion for observing greenhouse gases and other at19 mospheric factors deployed on commercial aircraft 

20 and supporting the evaluation of a sustained observ21 ing network using such platforms, into operations 

22 that improve the forecasting missions of the Aviation 

23 Weather Center; 


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1 (4) developing and deploying improved prob2 abilistic aviation weather forecast guidance tech3 nology; and 

4 (5) updating interagency agreements as appro5 priate, including to address reimbursable agree6 ments. 

7 (g) NEXT GENERATION AVIATION RESEARCH.— 

8 Paragraph (3) of section 102(b) of the Weather Research 

9 and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017 (15 U.S.C. 

10 8512(b)), is amended— 

11 (1) by redesignating subparagraphs (F) and 

12 (G) as subparagraphs (G) and (H), respectively; and 

13 (2) by inserting after subparagraph (E) the fol14 lowing new subparagraph: 

15 ‘‘(F) aviation weather phenomena, includ16 ing atmospheric composition and turbulence, to 

17 improve scientific understanding and forecast 

18 capabilities for the airspace system;’’. 

19 (h) AVIATION INFORMATION DISSEMINATION.—The 

20 Under Secretary shall ensure the Aviation Weather Center 

21 is able, to the maximum extent possible, to disseminate 

22 in a timely manner full resolution aviation weather data, 

23 forecasts, and information to meet the needs of aviation 

24 users. 


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1 SEC. 207. NESDIS JOINT VENTURE PARTNERSHIP TRANSI2 TION PROGRAM. 

3 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Assistant Administrator of 

4 the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Informa5 tion Service, in consultation with the Administrator of the 

6 National Aeronautics and Space Administration, shall ad7 minister broad agency announcements and other trans8 actional authority or contracting mechanisms, on an an9 nual or more frequent basis, to support a joint venture 

10 partnership program that allows the Service to prioritize 

11 engagement with the private sector, academia, and other 

12 Federal departments and agencies. 

13 (b) TRANSITION PROGRAM.—To support the develop14 ment of next-generation technologies, missions, data sys15 tems, spacecraft, and instrument design, the Assistant Ad16 ministrator of the National Environmental Satellite, Data, 

17 and Information Service, in consultation with the Admin18 istrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Adminis19 tration, shall maintain a program to transition selected 

20 awards from research and study phases into demonstra21 tion. In selecting awardees for demonstrations, the Assist22 ant Administrator shall consider technologies, missions, 

23 data systems, spacecraft, and instrument design that— 

24 (1) improve upon the National Oceanic and At25 mospheric Administration’s satellite architecture; 


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1 (2) have a direct impact on implementing the 

2 recommendations of the Administration’s 2018 Sat3 ellite Observing System Architecture Study, ‘‘Build4 ing a Plan for NOAA’s 21st Century Satellite Ob5 serving System’’; and 

6 (3) meet current or future mission require7 ments. 

8 (c) OPERATIONAL PLANNING.—In carrying out the 

9 transition program under subsection (b), the Assistant 

10 Administrator of the National Environmental Satellite, 

11 Data, and Information Service shall monitor demonstra12 tion phase progress and plan for promising results that 

13 meet mission requirements to be transitioned into Na14 tional Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s oper15 ational satellite architecture. 

16 (d) ANNUAL PLAN.—The Assistant Administrator of 

17 the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Informa18 tion Service shall submit to the Committee on Science, 

19 Space, and Technology, and the Committee on Commerce, 

20 Science, and Transportation an annual plan that outlines 

21 the progress made in the joint venture partnership pro22 gram under subsection (a), the transition program for 

23 demonstrations under section (b), and transition to oper24 ational architecture planning under subsection (c). 


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1 (e) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—From 

2 amounts authorized to be appropriated to the National 

3 Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service, 

4 there is authorized to be appropriated $20,000,000 for fis5 cal years 2024 through 2028 to carry out to this section. 

6 SEC. 208. ADVANCED WEATHER INTERACTIVE PROCESSING 

7 SYSTEM. 

8 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Under Secretary, acting 

9 through the Director of the National Weather Service, 

10 shall develop a strategy to transition operations of the Ad11 vanced Weather Interactive Processing System to an oper12 ational cloud-based environment in order to enable a more 

13 nimble, flexible, and mobile workforce. 

14 (b) SERVICES.—The Under Secretary shall ensure 

15 that the Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System 

16 in an operational cloud-based environment referred to in 

17 subsection (a) provides impact-based decision support 

18 services to emergency managers at the Federal, State, 

19 local, and Tribal levels, and continues to provide the fol20 lowing services: 

21 (1) Integrating and displaying forecast data, in22 cluding meteorological, hydrological, climate, ocean, 

23 satellite, and radar data, for National Weather Serv24 ice field offices and national centers. 


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1 (2) Acquiring and processing observational data 

2 from sensors and local sources. 

3 (3) Providing an interactive communications 

4 system, including the satellite broadcast network, to 

5 connect relevant National Weather Service employ6 ees and sites. 

7 (4) Initiating the dissemination of weather, 

8 water, marine, ecological, climate, aviation, and 

9 space warnings and forecasts in a rapid and highly 

10 reliable manner. 

11 (c) ELEMENTS.—The transition strategy developed 

12 pursuant to subsection (a) may include the following: 

13 (1) Establishment or support of testbeds, pilot 

14 projects, and functional testing activities to facilitate 

15 remote evaluation and automated testing. 

16 (2) Coordinated training efforts needed for 

17 Federal and non-Federal users and operators of the 

18 Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System in 

19 an operational cloud-based environment referred to 

20 in subsection (a). 

21 (3) Evaluation of bandwidth requirements to 

22 achieve a quality user experience. 

23 (4) Installation of circuits to reduce lapses in 

24 network operations and support backup functions. 


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1 (5) Establishment of a cloud-based, remotely 

2 accessible repository for data referred to in sub3 section (b)(2). 

4 (6) Development and deployment of virtualized 

5 systems to replace physical hardware at operational 

6 sites. 

7 (7) Evaluation of commercial cloud providers, 

8 including hybrid approaches, to meet mission needs. 

9 (8) Development, testing, demonstration, eval10 uation, and operationalization of forecast and warn11 ing products, consistent with the mission and sci12 entific expertise of the Administration. 

13 (d) TRANSITION DEADLINE.—The Under Secretary 

14 shall take such actions as may be necessary to ensure the 

15 transition strategy described in subsection (a) is completed 

16 by not later than September 30, 2030. 

17 (e) UPDATES TO CONGRESS.—The Under Secretary 

18 shall submit to the Committee on Science, Space, and 

19 Technology of the House of Representatives and the Com20 mittee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the 

21 Senate periodic updates on the implementation of this sec22 tion. 

23 (f) CONTINUED INNOVATION.—Nothing in this sec24 tion may be construed as prohibiting the development of 

25 new forecast capabilities, sub-systems, or implementing 


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1 modeling advancements on the operational computing sys2 tems of the Administration. 

3 SEC. 209. REANALYSIS AND REFORECASTING. 

4 The Under Secretary may support reanalysis and re5 forecasting activities within the National Oceanic and At6 mospheric Administration, including through the haz7 ardous weather testbed of the Administration, for improv8 ing weather forecasts, extreme weather predictions, and 

9 weather and climate datasets. 

10 SEC. 210. NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE WORKFORCE. 

11 (a) HIRING.—The Director of the National Weather 

12 Service shall annually submit to the Under Secretary and 

13 Congress an assessment of the milestones, timelines, and 

14 service level expectations required for the expeditious hir15 ing and timely on-boarding of employees of the National 

16 Weather Service. Each such assessment may include the 

17 following: 

18 (1) Recommendations to outsource hiring to 

19 any entity other than the National Weather Service 

20 in order to meet such milestones, timelines, and 

21 service level expectations. 

22 (2) Determinations of the number of staff and 

23 designated positions required at each forecasting of24 fice to provide services to protect lives and property 

25 in the geographic region of responsibility. 


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1 (b) HEALTH AND MORALE ASSESSMENT.—The Di2 rector of the National Weather Service shall contract or 

3 continue to partner with an entity other than the National 

4 Weather Service to conduct an assessment of medical im5 pacts, including stress and long-term health impacts, on 

6 National Weather Service employees related to required 

7 rotating shift work. Such assessment may include options 

8 for mitigating such impacts on employees and rec9 ommendations for improving benefits related to required 

10 rotating shift work. 

11 (c) DESIGNATION OF SERVICE HYDROLOGIST.— 

12 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Director of the National 

13 Weather Service may designate at least one service 

14 hydrologist at each Weather Forecast Office of the 

15 National Weather Service. 

16 (2) LIMITATION.—Nothing in this section may 

17 be construed to authorize or require a change in the 

18 authorized number of full time equivalent employees 

19 of the National Weather Service or otherwise result 

20 in the employment of any additional employees. 

21 (3) PERFORMANCE BY OTHER EMPLOYEES.— 

22 Notwithstanding paragraphs (4) and (5), the Direc23 tor of the National Weather Service may assign the 

24 performance of the responsibilities described in this 

25 subsection to such other staff of the National 


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1 Weather Service as the Director considers appro2 priate 

3 (4) RESPONSIBILITIES.—In order to increase 

4 impact-based decision support services, each service 

5 coordination hydrologist designated under paragraph 

6 (1) shall, with respect to hydrology, carry out the 

7 following: 

8 (A) Be responsible for providing service to 

9 the geographic area of responsibility covered by 

10 the Weather Forecast Office at which the serv11 ice coordination hydrologist is employed to help 

12 ensure that users of products and services of 

13 the National Weather Service can respond ef14 fectively to improve outcomes from flood events. 

15 (B) Liaise with users of products and serv16 ices of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

17 Administration, such as emergency managers, 

18 the public, academia, media outlets, users in the 

19 hydropower, transportation, recreation, and ag20 ricultural communities, and forestry, land, fish21 eries, and water management interests, to 

22 evaluate the adequacy and usefulness of the 

23 products and services referred to in subpara24 graph (A), including extended range streamflow 

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1 looks, flood inundation mapping, coastal inun2 dation, and flood warnings. 

3 (C) Collaborate with the National Water 

4 Center, River Forecast Centers, other Weather 

5 Forecast Offices, the National Integrate 

6 Drought Information System, Administration 

7 offices, and Federal, State, local, and Tribal 

8 government agencies, as the Director considers 

9 appropriate, in developing, proposing, and im10 plementing plans to develop, modify, or tailor 

11 such products and services to improve the use12 fulness of such products and services. 

13 (D) Engage in interagency partnerships 

14 with Federal, State, local, and Tribal govern15 ment agencies to explore the use of forecast-in16 formed reservoir operations to reduce flood risk 

17 and inform decisions related to water resources 

18 management. 

19 (E) Ensure the maintenance and accuracy 

20 of flooding and water resource management 

21 partner call lists, appropriate office hydrologic 

22 service policy or procedures, and other hydro23 logic information or dissemination methodolo24 gies or strategies. 


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1 (F) Work closely with Federal, State, local, 

2 and Tribal emergency and floodplain manage3 ment agencies, and other agencies relating to 

4 disaster management, to ensure a planned, co5 ordinated, and effective preparedness and re6 sponse effort. 

7 (5) ADDITIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES.—A service 

8 coordination hydrologist designated under this sub9 section may, with respect to hydrology— 

10 (A) work with a State agency to develop 

11 plans for promoting more effective use of prod12 ucts and services of the National Weather Serv13 ice throughout the State concerned; 

14 (B) identify priority community prepared15 ness objectives; 

16 (C) develop plans to carry out the respon17 sibilities described in paragraph (4); and 

18 (D) conduct flooding event preparedness 

19 planning and citizen education efforts with and 

20 through various State, local, and Tribal govern21 ment agencies and other disaster management22 related organizations. 


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1 TITLE III—COMMERCIAL WEATH2 ER AND ENVIRONMENTAL OB3 SERVATIONS 

4 SEC. 301. COMMERCIAL DATA PROGRAM. 

5 The Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation 

6 Act of 2017 is amended by striking section 302 (15 U.S.C. 

7 8532) and inserting the following new section: 

8 ‘‘SEC. 302. COMMERCIAL DATA PROGRAM. 

9 ‘‘(a) PROGRAM ESTABLISHMENT.—The Under Sec10 retary, in coordination with the heads of appropriate of11 fices of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminis12 tration, shall maintain a Commercial Data Program to co13 ordinate and execute acquisition of weather and environ14 mental data and services from private sector entities for 

15 operational use. 

16 ‘‘(b) PROGRAM ELEMENTS.—The Under Secretary 

17 shall acquire satellite, ground-based, airborne, or marine18 based in situ, remote sensing, or crowd-sourced data and 

19 services for operational use relating to weather and envi20 ronmental forecasting and modeling. The Under Secretary 

21 shall ensure the Commercial Data Program coordinates, 

22 collaborates, and ensures access to data across the Admin23 istration, including among the following: 

24 ‘‘(1) The National Mesonet Program. 

25 ‘‘(2) The Aircraft Based Observation Program. 


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1 ‘‘(3) The U.S. Integrated Ocean Observation 

2 Program, including existing regional associations. 

3 ‘‘(4) The National Integrated Drought Informa4 tion System, including the National Coordinated Soil 

5 Moisture Monitoring Network. 

6 ‘‘(5) The Global Ocean Monitoring and Observ7 ing Program. 

8 ‘‘(6) The National Data Buoy Center. 

9 ‘‘(7) The Uncrewed Systems Operation Center. 

10 ‘‘(8) The Ocean Exploration Program. 

11 ‘‘(9) Any other program or office the Under 

12 Secretary determines appropriate. 

13 ‘‘(c) STANDARDS AND SPECIFICATIONS.—Not later 

14 than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this sec15 tion and on a continuous basis thereafter, the Under Sec16 retary shall publish data, metadata, and service standards 

17 and specifications required for acquired observation serv18 ices and data for use, licensing, and attribution to ensure 

19 quality, impact, and compatibility of such services and 

20 data with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administra21 tion modeling capabilities, meteorological situational 

22 awareness, and forecasting. 

23 ‘‘(d) PRIORITIZATION.—In acquiring commercial 

24 data and services, the Under Secretary shall prioritize ob25 taining surface-based, airborne-based, space-based, and 


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1 coastal- and ocean-based data, metadata, and services for 

2 operational use that participate in the Commercial Data 

3 Pilot Program or other programs of the National Oceanic 

4 and Atmospheric Administration that acquire commercial 

5 data or observations. 

6 ‘‘(e) NOAA OBSERVING SYSTEMS AND FLEET COUN7 CILS.— 

8 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Under Secretary shall 

9 maintain the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Ad10 ministration Observing Systems Council and the 

11 NOAA Fleet Council (in this subsection referred to 

12 as the ‘Councils’) to provide strategic recommenda13 tions and guidance regarding the prioritization, de14 sign, development, acquisition, upgrading, lifecycle, 

15 performance monitoring, and retiring of major ob16 serving systems portfolio components, including re17 lated to the acquisition of commercial weather and 

18 environmental data and services. 

19 ‘‘(2) LINE OFFICE COORDINATION.—The Coun20 cils shall ensure coordination and adherence to uni21 form policies by providing guidance to all line offices 

22 of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminis23 tration engaged in observing systems portfolio de24 sign, technology, development, execution, and oper25 ation. 


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1 ‘‘(3) COMMITTEE.—The Under Secretary shall 

2 maintain a Committee within the Councils to develop 

3 and approve procedural directives, guides, or hand4 books relevant to management of data and informa5 tion, including commercial data, and coordinate data 

6 governance and management practices across the 

7 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 

8 to promote consistent processes. 

9 ‘‘(f) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.— 

10 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—There are authorized to be 

11 appropriated $100,000,000 for each of fiscal years 

12 2024 through 2028 to carry out this section. 

13 ‘‘(2) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of 

14 Congress that the Under Secretary should seek to 

15 enter into contracts or other appropriate agreements 

16 that enable the expenditure, to the maximum extent 

17 practicable, of amounts authorized to be appro18 priated or otherwise made available in a fiscal year 

19 to carry out this section. 

20 ‘‘(g) DATA AND HOSTED PAYLOADS.—Notwith21 standing any other provision of law, the Secretary of Com22 merce may enter into agreements relating to the following: 

23 ‘‘(1) The purchase of weather and environ24 mental data and services through contracts with 

25 commercial data and service providers. 


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1 ‘‘(2) The placement of weather instruments on 

2 co-hosted Federal, international, or private space, 

3 airborne, maritime, or ground platforms. 

4 ‘‘(h) OMBUDSMAN.—The Under Secretary shall es5 tablish or designate at least one Ombudsman position 

6 within the Commercial Data Program to implement the 

7 recommendations of the Observing System Council under 

8 subsection (e) related to commercial weather and environ9 mental data and services acquisitions. Such an Ombuds10 man shall act as the liaison between commercial data and 

11 service providers and the National Oceanic and Atmos12 pheric Administration with respect to receiving rec13 ommendations and resolving issues related to engagement, 

14 testing, contracting, or other areas related to the Adminis15 tration’s efforts to acquire commercial weather and envi16 ronmental data and services. 

17 ‘‘(i) REPORT.—Not later than two years after the 

18 date of the enactment of this section, the Under Secretary 

19 shall submit to the Committee on Science, Space, and 

20 Technology of the House of Representatives and the Com21 mittee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the 

22 Senate a report evaluating the activities and needed au23 thorities related to data governance and management 

24 practices, including acquisition, collection, documentation, 

25 quality control, validation, reprocessing, storage, retrieval, 


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1 dissemination, and long-term preservation activities across 

2 all National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration line, 

3 staff, and corporate offices.’’. 

4 SEC. 302. COMMERCIAL DATA PILOT PROGRAM. 

5 The Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation 

6 Act of 2017 is amended by striking section 303 (15 U.S.C. 

7 8533) and inserting the following new section: 

8 ‘‘SEC. 303. COMMERCIAL DATA PILOT PROGRAM. 

9 ‘‘(a) PROGRAM ESTABLISHMENT.—Within the Com10 mercial Data Program under section 302, there shall be 

11 a Commercial Data Pilot Program to engage with external 

12 partners and providers to test and develop shared stand13 ards and methodologies for quality, use, licensing, and at14 tribution of observation services and data, and to ensure 

15 quality, impact, and compatibility of such services and 

16 data with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administra17 tion modeling capabilities, meteorological situational 

18 awareness, and forecasting. The Program is authorized to 

19 test and evaluate all sources and types of observation serv20 ices, imagery, products, and data from private sector enti21 ties, including new and innovative surface-based, airborne22 based, space-based, and coastal- and ocean-based data, 

23 metadata, and model components. 

24 ‘‘(b) CRITERIA.—The Under Secretary shall ensure 

25 that data acquired through the Commercial Data Pilot 


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1 Program described in subsection (a) meets the most recent 

2 standards and specifications required for observation serv3 ices and data as published pursuant to section 302(c). 

4 ‘‘(c) PILOT CONTRACTS.—The Under Secretary shall, 

5 through an open competition, regularly enter into pilot 

6 contracts with private sector entities capable of providing 

7 observation services and data referred to in subsection (a) 

8 that meet the standards and specifications published pur9 suant to section 302(c) for so providing such services and 

10 data in a manner that allows the Under Secretary to cali11 brate and evaluate such services and data for use in Na12 tional Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration activities. 

13 ‘‘(d) ASSESSMENT OF VIABILITY.—The Under Sec14 retary shall annually assess and submit to the Committee 

15 on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate 

16 and the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology of 

17 the House of Representatives a summary of the pilot con18 tracts entered into pursuant to subsection (c), the extent 

19 to which such contracts meet the standards and specifica20 tions published pursuant to section 302(c), and any addi21 tional information determined necessary related to the fol22 lowing: 

23 ‘‘(1) The viability of assimilating observation 

24 services and data from private sector entities into 


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1 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 

2 forecasts and models. 

3 ‘‘(2) The expected value added or improvements 

4 from such services and data so assimilated into Na5 tional Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration fore6 casts and models. 

7 ‘‘(3) The accuracy, quality, timeliness, validity, 

8 reliability, usability, information technology security, 

9 and cost-effectiveness of obtaining observation serv10 ices and data from private sector entities. 

11 ‘‘(4) Steps to integrate within one year such 

12 services and data into operational use by the Na13 tional Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or 

14 any associated challenges in doing so. 

15 ‘‘(e) OBTAINING FUTURE DATA.—If an assessment 

16 under subsection (d) demonstrates the ability of commer17 cial services and data to meet the standards and specifica18 tions published pursuant to section 302(c), the Under Sec19 retary shall— 

20 ‘‘(1) when cost-effective and feasible, obtain ob21 servation services and data from private sector enti22 ties through the Commercial Data Program under 

23 section 302; 

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1 pheric Administration satellite system, determine 

2 whether there is a suitable, cost-effective, commer3 cial capability available or that will be available to 

4 meet applicable instrument, spacecraft, or system re5 quirements before completion of the critical design 

6 phase of such planned satellite system; 

7 ‘‘(3) if a suitable, cost-effective, commercial ca8 pability is or will be available as described in para9 graph (2), determine whether and how such capa10 bility is in the national interest if developed as a 

11 solely governmental system; and 

12 ‘‘(4) submit to the Committee on Commerce, 

13 Science, and Transportation of the Senate and the 

14 Committee on Science, Space, and Technology of the 

15 House of Representatives a report detailing any de16 terminations made under paragraphs (2) and (3). 

17 ‘‘(f) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—From 

18 amounts authorized to be appropriated pursuant to sec19 tion 302 to carry out such section, not less than 15 per20 cent of such amounts each fiscal year are authorized to 

21 be appropriated to carry out this section.’’. 


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1 SEC. 303. CONTRACTING AUTHORITY AND AVOIDANCE OF 

2 DUPLICATION. 

3 Title III of the Weather Research and Forecasting 

4 Innovation Act of 2017 is amended by adding at the end 

5 the following new section: 

6 ‘‘SEC. 304. CONTRACTING AUTHORITY AND AVOIDANCE OF 

7 DUPLICATION. 

8 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Consistent with other Federal 

9 agencies that contract and partner with private sector en10 tities, the Under Secretary is authorized to use con11 tracting mechanisms and enter into agreements that uti12 lize multiyear contract options. In carrying out sections 

13 302 and 303, the Under Secretary shall, to the greatest 

14 extent possible— 

15 ‘‘(1) enter into year-long or multiyear contract 

16 options using contracting mechanisms that foster re17 siliency of datatypes purchased; 

18 ‘‘(2) partner and contract with multiple obser19 vation service and data providers simultaneously to 

20 reduce risks of data gaps and improve mission 

21 robustness; and 

22 ‘‘(3) utilize authorities, such as additional 

23 forms of transaction agreements under section 301, 

24 that allow for innovative partnerships with private 

25 sector entities. 


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1 ‘‘(b) SAVINGS CLAUSE.—Nothing in this title may be 

2 construed as infringing on the acquisition authority or 

3 strategy of Federal entities authorized under title 10, 

4 United States Code. 

5 ‘‘(c) UNNECESSARY DUPLICATION.—In meeting the 

6 requirements under this title, the Under Secretary shall 

7 avoid unnecessary duplication between the National Oce8 anic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Aero9 nautics and Space Administration, other Federal depart10 ments and agencies, and private sector entities, including 

11 relating to corresponding expenditures of funds and em12 ployment of personnel by— 

13 ‘‘(1) coordinating existing activities with other 

14 civilian Federal departments and agencies which 

15 provide, contract, or partner with private sector enti16 ties to acquire, weather and environmental observa17 tions and data; and 

18 ‘‘(2) coordinating and soliciting weather and en19 vironmental observations and data requirements and 

20 needs from other civilian Federal departments and 

21 agencies to be acquired by the Commercial Data 

22 Program under section 302. 

23 ‘‘(d) FAIR COMPENSATION FOR INTERAGENCY

24 NEEDS.—The Under Secretary, to the maximum extent 

25 practicable, shall ensure that Federal departments and 


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1 agencies utilizing services and data under sections 302 

2 and 303 fairly compensate the National Oceanic and At3 mospheric Administration, or the non-Federal entities pro4 viding such services or data, as appropriate, for use.’’. 

5 SEC. 304. DATA ASSIMILATION, MANAGEMENT, AND SHAR6 ING PRACTICES. 

7 Title III of the Weather Research and Forecasting 

8 Innovation Act of 2017, as amended by section 303 of this 

9 Act, is further amended by adding at the end the following 

10 new section: 

11 ‘‘SEC. 305. DATA ASSIMILATION, MANAGEMENT, AND SHAR12 ING PRACTICES. 

13 ‘‘(a) DATA STANDARDS.—The Under Secretary, in 

14 collaboration with the weather enterprise, shall seek to es15 tablish consistent and open data and metadata standards 

16 to support open science, including simple cloud-optimized 

17 data formats and application programming interfaces that 

18 support findability, accessibility, usability, and 

19 preservability. 

20 ‘‘(b) DATA INFRASTRUCTURE.— 

21 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Under Secretary, in 

22 consultation with the Chief Information Officer and 

23 appropriate program heads, shall consolidate and ar24 range data infrastructure needs to ensure efficient 

25 and effective data transfer between National Oceanic 


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1 and Atmospheric Administration offices by consid2 ering the use of commercial cloud technologies, or 

3 similar hybrid structures, to host and transmit data 

4 and metadata. 

5 ‘‘(2) FEDERAL PARTNERSHIPS.—In carrying 

6 out paragraph (1), the Under Secretary may partner 

7 with the heads of other Federal departments and 

8 agencies, including the National Aeronautics and 

9 Space Administration, the Department of Energy, 

10 the United States Space Force, the United States 

11 Coast Guard, the United States Navy, the Federal 

12 Aviation Administration, the United States Forest 

13 Service, the Environmental Protection Agency, the 

14 National Science Foundation, and the United States 

15 Geological Survey, to collocate data with joint utility 

16 and support a transition to cloud architectures, in17 cluding commercial cloud networks. 

18 ‘‘(3) LONG TERM DATA ARCHIVE.—The Under 

19 Secretary shall ensure the long-term management, 

20 maintenance, and stewardship of archival data and 

21 metadata acquired through the Commercial Data 

22 Program under section 302 is conducted within the 

23 National Centers for Environmental Information. 

24 ‘‘(c) DATA SHARING WITH THE WEATHER ENTER25 PRISE.—To the greatest extent practicable, the Under 


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1 Secretary shall make accessible to members of the weather 

2 enterprise that are United States persons data not subject 

3 to redistribution contract permissions and purchased 

4 through the Commercial Data Program under section 302 

5 or shared through international government partners. If 

6 purchased data must be assimilated into numerical weath7 er prediction models or automated forecast guidance to 

8 satisfy redistribution contract permissions, the Under Sec9 retary shall make accessible without delay to members of 

10 the weather enterprise that are United States persons the 

11 numerical weather prediction model or automated forecast 

12 guidance output, as the case may be. 

13 ‘‘(d) DATA ASSIMILATION.— 

14 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Under Secretary, in 

15 coordination with the Commercial Data Program 

16 under section 302, the National Centers for Envi17 ronmental Information, and any other offices within 

18 the Administration, shall establish a program to 

19 test, advance, and implement data assimilation 

20 methods, which may include artificial intelligence, 

21 machine learning, data pre- and post-processing, ef22 ficient input and output, and next-generation algo23 rithms. 

24 ‘‘(2) DATA ASSIMILATION UNIVERSITY CONSOR25 TIUM.—Through the program established pursuant 


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1 to paragraph (1), the Under Secretary shall estab2 lish a consortium consisting of institutions of higher 

3 education (as such term is defined in section 101 of 

4 the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 

5 1001)) to address critical research challenges for 

6 data assimilation and foster a growing data assimi7 lation workforce. The consortium shall seek to— 

8 ‘‘(A) solve critical research issues for data 

9 assimilation through innovative research; 

10 ‘‘(B) increase significantly the number of 

11 students, including graduate level and Ph.D. 

12 candidates, in data assimilation; 

13 ‘‘(C) utilize modern software and frame14 works, such as the Joint Effort for Data As15 similation Integration, to conduct data assimila16 tion research and development and facilitate re17 search to operations efforts; 

18 ‘‘(D) identify and prioritize critical re19 search areas in data assimilation and facilitate 

20 operations to research efforts; 

21 ‘‘(E) establish and enable an effective col22 laboration infrastructure between National Oce23 anic and Atmospheric Administration facilities, 

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1 anism for external partners to host Administra2 tion employees; and 

3 ‘‘(F) establish mechanisms to enable all 

4 members of the consortium to archive and ac5 cess data required to support the work under 

6 this subsection. 

7 ‘‘(3) COORDINATION.—In carrying out this sub8 section, the Under Secretary shall ensure the Na9 tional Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and 

10 its associated activities focus on research to oper11 ations and operations to research, including by co12 ordinating and collaborating with the Joint Center 

13 for Satellite Data Assimilation. 

14 ‘‘(4) DATA ASSIMILATION, MANAGEMENT, AND

15 SHARING PRACTICES SECURITY.—The activities au16 thorized under this subsection shall be applied in a 

17 manner consistent with subtitle D of title VI of the 

18 Research and Development, Competition, and Inno19 vation Act (enacted as division B of Public Law 

20 117–167; 42 U.S.C. 19231 et seq.). 

21 ‘‘(e) STUDY ON DATA MANAGEMENT.— 

22 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 90 days 

23 after the data of the enactment of this section, the 

24 Under Secretary shall seek to enter into an agree25 ment with a non-Federal entity to conduct a study 


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1 on matters concerning data practices and manage2 ment needs at the National Oceanic and Atmos3 pheric Administration. In conducting the study, the 

4 outside entity shall— 

5 ‘‘(A) assess the costs and benefits of cur6 rent data management needs for observational 

7 and operational mission requirements; 

8 ‘‘(B) develop recommendations regarding 

9 how to make more robust and cost-effective the 

10 data portfolio of the Administration; 

11 ‘‘(C) identify data infrastructure tech12 nologies and needs that are essential to the per13 formance of modeling systems of the Adminis14 tration; 

15 ‘‘(D) assess the sharing needs and prac16 tices of the Administration for both internal 

17 and external sharing dissemination; and 

18 ‘‘(E) develop recommendations for methods 

19 of data infrastructure sharing, including data 

20 purchased from the commercial sector. 

21 ‘‘(2) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.— 

22 From amounts authorized to be appropriated to the 

23 Commercial Data Program under section 302, there 

24 are authorized to be appropriated to carry out the 


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1 study under paragraph (1) $1,000,000, to remain 

2 available until expended.’’. 

3 SEC. 305. CLERICAL AMENDMENT. 

4 The table of contents in section 1(b) of the Weather 

5 Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017 is 

6 amended by striking the items relating to sections 302 and 

7 303 and inserting the following new items: 

‘‘Sec. 302. Commercial Data Program. 

‘‘Sec. 303. Commercial Data Pilot Program. 

‘‘Sec. 304. Contracting authority and avoidance of duplication. 

‘‘Sec. 305. Data assimilation, management, and sharing practices.’’. 

8 TITLE IV—COMMUNICATING 

9 WEATHER TO THE PUBLIC 

10 SEC. 401. DEFINITIONS. 

11 In this title: 

12 (1) HAZARDOUS WEATHER OR WATER

13 EVENTS.—The term ‘‘hazardous weather or water 

14 events’’ has the meaning given such term in section 

15 406 of the Weather Research and Forecasting Inno16 vation Act of 2017 (Public Law 115–25; 131 Stat. 

17 109), as amended by section 402 of this Act. 

18 (2) INSTITUTION OF HIGHER EDUCATION.—The 

19 term ‘‘institution of higher education’’ has the 

20 meaning given such term in section 101 of the High21 er Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001). 

22 (3) NOAA WEATHER RADIO.—The term 

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1 anic and Atmospheric Administration Weather Radio 

2 All Hazards network. 

3 (4) PUBLIC CLOUD.—The term ‘‘public cloud’’ 

4 means an information technology model in which 

5 service providers make computing services, including 

6 compute and storage and develop-and-deploy envi7 ronments and applications, available on-demand to 

8 organizations and individuals over the public inter9 net or other means that allows for the widest dis10 semination of information. 

11 (5) WATCH; WARNING.—The terms ‘‘watch’’ 

12 and ‘‘warning’’ have the meanings given such terms 

13 in section 406 of the Weather Research and Fore14 casting Innovation Act of 2017 (Public Law 115–25; 

15 131 Stat. 109), as amended by section 402 of this 

16 Act. 

17 SEC. 402. HAZARDOUS WEATHER OR WATER EVENT RISK 

18 COMMUNICATION. 

19 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 406 of the Weather Re20 search and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017 (Public 

21 Law 115–25; 131 Stat. 109) is amended to read as fol22 lows: 

23 ‘‘SEC. 406. HAZARDOUS WEATHER OR WATER EVENT RISK 

24 COMMUNICATION. 

25 ‘‘(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 


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1 ‘‘(1) HAZARDOUS WEATHER OR WATER

2 EVENTS.—The term ‘hazardous weather or water 

3 events’ means weather or water events that have a 

4 high risk of loss of life or property, including the fol5 lowing: 

6 ‘‘(A) Severe storms, such as hurricanes 

7 and short-fused, small-scale hazardous weather 

8 or hydrologic events produced by thunder9 storms, including large hail, damaging winds, 

10 tornadoes, and flash floods. 

11 ‘‘(B) Winter storms, such as freezing or 

12 frozen precipitation (including freezing rain, 

13 sleet, and snow), or combined effects of freezing 

14 or frozen precipitation and strong winds. 

15 ‘‘(C) Other weather hazards, such as ex16 treme heat or cold, wildfire, drought, dense fog, 

17 high winds, and river, coastal, or lakeshore 

18 flooding. 

19 ‘‘(2) INSTITUTION OF HIGHER EDUCATION.— 

20 The term ‘institution of higher education’ has the 

21 meaning given such term in section 101 of the High22 er Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001). 

23 ‘‘(3) WATCH; WARNING.— 

24 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The terms ‘watch’ and 

25 ‘warning’, with respect to a hazardous weather 


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1 or water event, mean products issued by the 

2 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administra3 tion, intended for consumption by the general 

4 public, to alert the general public to the poten5 tial for or presence of such event and to inform 

6 action to prevent loss of life or property. 

7 ‘‘(B) EXCEPTION.—The terms ‘watch’ and 

8 ‘warning’ do not include technical or specialized 

9 meteorological or hydrological forecasts, out10 looks, or model guidance products. 

11 ‘‘(b) SYSTEM COMMUNICATIONS.—The Under Sec12 retary shall maintain and improve the system of the Na13 tional Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration by which 

14 the risks of hazardous weather or water events are com15 municated to the general public, with the goal of informing 

16 response to prevent loss of life or property. 

17 ‘‘(c) HAZARD RISK COMMUNICATION IMPROVEMENT

18 AND SIMPLIFICATION.— 

19 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—To carry out subsection 

20 (b), the Under Secretary shall maintain a social, be21 havioral, risk, communication, and economic sciences 

22 program (in this section referred to as the ‘Pro23 gram’), for the purpose of simplifying and improving 

24 the communication of hazardous weather or water 

25 events. 


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1 ‘‘(2) TERMINOLOGY.—The Program, in coordi2 nation with social, behavioral, risk, communication, 

3 and economic science community and user feedback, 

4 shall identify, eliminate, or modify unnecessary, re5 dundant, or confusing terms for communications re6 garding hazardous weather or water events and add 

7 new terminology, as appropriate. 

8 ‘‘(3) COMMUNICATIONS IMPROVEMENT.—The 

9 Program shall improve the form, content, and meth10 ods of communications regarding hazardous weather 

11 or water events and associated risks to more clearly 

12 inform response to prevent the loss of life or prop13 erty. 

14 ‘‘(4) EVALUATIONS.—The Program, in coordi15 nation with the performance and evaluation 

16 branches of the National Weather Service and Oce17 anic and Atmospheric Research, shall develop 

18 metrics for such branches to track and evaluate the 

19 degree to which communications regarding haz20 ardous weather or water events inform response. 

21 ‘‘(5) SUPPORT PLAN.—The Program shall de22 velop a plan for the purpose of carrying out para23 graph (3). Such plan shall be periodically updated 

24 and informed by internal and extramural research 

25 and the results of the evaluation of communications 


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1 regarding hazardous weather or water events and as2 sociated risks under paragraph (4). 

3 ‘‘(6) METHODS.—In carrying out this section, 

4 the Program shall develop and implement rec5 ommendations that— 

6 ‘‘(A) are based on the best and most re7 cent understanding from social, behavioral, eco8 nomic, risk, and communications science re9 search; 

10 ‘‘(B) are validated by social, behavioral, 

11 risk, and communications science, taking into 

12 account the importance of methods that support 

13 reproduction and replication of scientific stud14 ies, use of rigorous statistical analyses, and, as 

15 applicable, data analysis supported by artificial 

16 intelligence and machine learning technologies; 

17 ‘‘(C) account for the needs of various de18 mographics, vulnerable populations, and geo19 graphic regions; 

20 ‘‘(D) account for the differences between 

21 various types of hazardous weather or water 

22 events; 

23 ‘‘(E) respond to the needs of Federal, 

24 State, and local government partners and media 

25 partners; and 


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1 ‘‘(F) account for necessary changes in the 

2 infrastructure, technology, and protocols for de3 veloping and disseminating watches and warn4 ings. 

5 ‘‘(7) COORDINATION.—In carrying out this sec6 tion, the Program shall coordinate with the fol7 lowing: 

8 ‘‘(A) Federal partners, including National 

9 Laboratories, cooperative institutes, and re10 gional integrated sciences and assessments pro11 grams. 

12 ‘‘(B) State and local government partners. 

13 ‘‘(C) Tribal governments. 

14 ‘‘(D) Institutions of higher education or a 

15 consortia thereof. 

16 ‘‘(E) Media partners. 

17 ‘‘(8) TIMELINESS AND CONSISTENCY.—The 

18 Program shall develop best practices and guidance 

19 for ensuring timely and consistent communications 

20 across public facing platforms that disseminate in21 formation related to hazardous weather or water 

22 events.’’. 

23 (b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—Section 1(b) of the 

24 Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 


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1 2017 is amended by amending the item relating to section 

2 406 to read as follows: 

‘‘Sec. 406. Hazardous Weather or Water Event Risk Communication.’’. 

3 SEC. 403. HAZARD COMMUNICATION RESEARCH AND EN4 GAGEMENT. 

5 Section 406 of the Weather Research and Fore6 casting Innovation Act of 2017 (Public Law 115–25; 131 

7 Stat. 109), as amended by section 402 of this Act, is fur8 ther amended by adding at the end the following new sub9 sections: 

10 ‘‘(d) HAZARD COMMUNICATION RESEARCH AND EN11 GAGEMENT.— 

12 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Under Secretary shall 

13 maintain, as appropriate, a program to— 

14 ‘‘(A) modernize the development and com15 munication of risk-based, statistically reliable, 

16 probabilistic hazard information, with the goal 

17 of informing appropriate responses to haz18 ardous weather or water events; and 

19 ‘‘(B) improve the fundamental social, be20 havioral, economic, risk, and communication 

21 science relating to communications, including 

22 by means of collecting voluntary data, regarding 

23 hazardous weather or water events. 

24 ‘‘(2) COORDINATION.—In carrying out the pro25 gram under paragraph (1), the Under Secretary 


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1 shall coordinate and communicate with States, Trib2 al governments, localities, and emergency managers 

3 regarding research priorities and results. 

4 ‘‘(3) PILOT PROGRAM FOR TORNADO HAZARD

5 COMMUNICATION REQUIRED.—To further research 

6 into communications regarding hazardous weather 

7 or water events, the Under Secretary, in coordina8 tion with the VORTEX program under section 103 

9 and in collaboration with one or more eligible insti10 tutions (or a consortia thereof), shall establish a 

11 pilot program for tornado hazard communication to 

12 test the effectiveness of implementing research into 

13 operations with respect to tornadoes. 

14 ‘‘(4) PILOT STUDY FOR HURRICANE HAZARD

15 COMMUNICATION.— 

16 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—To further research 

17 into communications regarding hazardous 

18 weather or water events, the Under Secretary, 

19 in coordination with the hurricane forecast im20 provement program under section 104, shall 

21 seek to enter into an agreement with an appro22 priate entity, as determined by the Under Sec23 retary, to conduct a pilot study using a mixed 

24 methods approach, such as surveys, focus 

25 groups, and interviews, to gather information 


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1 from hurricane prone population areas regard2 ing the levels of preparedness of such areas for 

3 hurricanes or in response to the National Oce4 anic and Atmospheric Administration’s early 

5 forecasts and warnings. Such study shall evalu6 ate the following: 

7 ‘‘(i) Possession of disaster supplies. 

8 ‘‘(ii) Evacuation decisions. 

9 ‘‘(iii) Levels of trust of tropical cy10 clone information and hurricane path pre11 diction from various sources. 

12 ‘‘(iv) Access to tropical cyclone and 

13 hurricane warnings in such study partici14 pant’s first language. 

15 ‘‘(v) Determination regarding such 

16 study participant’s reasoning that may 

17 hinder the ability of such a participant to 

18 evacuate or willingness to evacuate. 

19 ‘‘(B) ADDITIONAL CRITERIA.—The pilot 

20 study described in subparagraph (A) shall de21 fine its methodology and be made publicly avail22 able on a website of the National Oceanic and 

23 Atmospheric Administration. 


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1 ‘‘(5) ELIGIBLE INSTITUTION DEFINED.—In this 

2 subsection, the term ‘eligible institution’ means any 

3 of the following: 

4 ‘‘(A) An institution of higher education, 

5 nonprofit organization, or other institution lo6 cated in a jurisdiction eligible to participate in 

7 the program under section 113 of the National 

8 Science Foundation Authorization Act of 1988 

9 (42 U.S.C. 1862g). 

10 ‘‘(B) An institution of higher education, 

11 nonprofit organization, or other institution lo12 cated in proximity to a Weather Forecast Office 

13 of the National Weather Service. 

14 ‘‘(e) HURRICANE SOCIAL, BEHAVIORAL, AND ECO15 NOMIC SCIENCES.—As part of the program carried out 

16 under subsection (d), the Under Secretary shall carry out 

17 research and development activities to improve how the 

18 public receives, interprets, responds to, and values hurri19 cane forecasts and warnings. In conducting such activities, 

20 the Under Secretary shall— 

21 ‘‘(1) conduct a comprehensive review of what is 

22 known about how the public receives, interprets, re23 sponds to, and makes decisions regarding hurricane 

24 forecasts and warnings, including— 


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1 ‘‘(A) how the connections between weather 

2 observations, downstream models, and processes 

3 affect the decision tools or products derived 

4 from such hurricane forecasts and warnings; 

5 ‘‘(B) how such hurricane forecasts and 

6 warnings generated by decision tools and prod7 ucts are used by emergency managers, govern8 ments, and other users to benefit the public and 

9 stakeholder groups; 

10 ‘‘(C) how past experiences with hurricanes 

11 impacts decision making; 

12 ‘‘(D) how the source of such hurricane 

13 forecasts and warnings affects interpretation; 

14 ‘‘(E) how tropical cyclone warnings and 

15 watches are received and interpreted; 

16 ‘‘(F) how understanding of and response 

17 to such hurricane forecasts and warnings vary 

18 across demographic groups, including the elder19 ly, people with disabilities, and other vulnerable 

20 populations; 

21 ‘‘(G) language barriers; and 

22 ‘‘(H) how understanding and response to 

23 such hurricane forecasts and warnings varies 

24 across geographic areas, including rural, urban, 

25 and suburban areas; 


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1 ‘‘(2) identify communication data gaps based on 

2 the review conducted pursuant to paragraph (1); 

3 ‘‘(3) carry out research, including data collec4 tion and baseline assessments, in coordination with 

5 the hurricane forecast improvement program under 

6 section 104 to evaluate and quantify the economic 

7 value of extending lead times of tropical cyclone and 

8 hurricane warnings and watches, including identi9 fying the most effected or vulnerable populations 

10 and potential impacts to those populations; 

11 ‘‘(4) as part of post-storm surveys and assess12 ments conducted under section 406 of the Weather 

13 Act Reauthorization Act of 2023, conduct retrospec14 tive or ex ante assessments of previous hurricane 

15 forecasts and warnings with improvements to better 

16 understand the key components, including expected 

17 actions or behavior changes, of the value of the fore18 casts and warnings provided; 

19 ‘‘(5) conduct cost benefit analysis of forecasts 

20 and warnings improvement alternatives developed 

21 through the hurricane forecast improvement pro22 gram under section 104; and 

23 ‘‘(6) conduct risk assessments for pre-, during, 

24 and post-storm periods in regions and communities 


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1 with significant elderly populations, including retire2 ment communities.’’. 

3 SEC. 404. NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE COMMUNICATIONS 

4 IMPROVEMENT. 

5 (a) IMPROVEMENT OF NWS INSTANT MESSAGING

6 SERVICE.—The Director of the National Weather Service 

7 shall improve the instant messaging service used by per8 sonnel of the National Weather Service by implementing, 

9 not later than October 1, 2027, a commercial off-the-shelf 

10 communications solution that replaces the instant mes11 saging service commonly referred to as ‘‘NWSChat’’. 

12 (b) REQUIREMENTS.—The communications solution 

13 implemented under this section shall— 

14 (1) be hosted on the public cloud; and 

15 (2) satisfy requirements set forth by the Direc16 tor to ensure such solution— 

17 (A) best accommodates future growth; 

18 (B) performs successfully with increased 

19 numbers of users; 

20 (C) is easy to use for the majority of users; 

21 and 

22 (D) is similar to systems already in com23 mercial use. 

24 (c) FUNDING.—From amounts made available for 

25 Operations, Research, and Facilities, the Director of the 


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1 National Weather Service shall allocate up to $3,000,000 

2 for each of fiscal years 2024 through 2027 to carry out 

3 this section. 

4 SEC. 405. NOAA WEATHER RADIO MODERNIZATION. 

5 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Under Secretary shall, to the 

6 maximum extent practicable, expand coverage of the 

7 NOAA Weather Radio and ensure its reliability. In car8 rying out this subsection, the Under Secretary shall— 

9 (1) maintain support for existing systems serv10 ing areas not covered by or having poor quality cel11 lular service; 

12 (2) ensure consistent maintenance and oper13 ations monitoring, with timely repairs to broadcast 

14 transmitter site equipment and antennas; 

15 (3) enhance the ability to amplify Non-Weather 

16 Emergency Messages via NOAA Weather Radio as 

17 necessary; and 

18 (4) acquire additional transmitters as required 

19 to expand coverage to rural and underserved com20 munities, units of the National Park System, and 

21 National Recreation Areas. 

22 (b) MODERNIZATION INITIATIVE.—To the maximum 

23 extent practicable, the Under Secretary shall enhance 

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1 erage remain valuable to the public. In carrying out this 

2 section, the Under Secretary shall— 

3 (1) upgrade telecommunications infrastructure 

4 of NOAA Weather Radio to accelerate the transition 

5 of broadcasts to internet protocol-based communica6 tions over non-copper media; 

7 (2) accelerate software upgrades to the Ad8 vanced Weather Interactive Processing System, or 

9 the relevant system successors, to implement partial 

10 county notifications and alerts; 

11 (3) consult with relevant stakeholders, including 

12 the private sector, to enhance accessibility and 

13 usability of NOAA Weather Radio data and feeds; 

14 (4) develop options, including satellite backup 

15 capability and commercial provider partnerships, for 

16 NOAA Weather Radio continuity in the event of 

17 Weather Forecast Office outages; 

18 (5) research and develop alternative options, in19 cluding microwave capabilities, to transmit NOAA 

20 Weather Radio signals to transmitters that are re21 mote or do not have internet protocol capability; and 

22 (6) transition critical applications to the Inte23 grated Dissemination Program, or the relevant pro24 gram successors. 


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1 (c) PRIORITY.—In carrying out subsection (b), the 

2 Under Secretary shall prioritize practices, capabilities, and 

3 technologies recommended in accordance with the assess4 ment under subsection (d) to maximize accessibility, par5 ticularly in remote and underserved areas of the United 

6 States. 

7 (d) ASSESSMENT FOR MANAGEMENT AND DISTRIBU8 TION.—Not later than one year after the date of the enact9 ment of this Act, the Under Secretary shall complete an 

10 assessment of access to NOAA Weather Radio. In con11 ducting such assessment, the Under Secretary shall take 

12 into consideration and provide recommendations regarding 

13 the following: 

14 (1) The need for continuous, adequate, and 

15 operational real-time broadcasts of the NOAA 

16 Weather Radio in both urban and rural areas. 

17 (2) Solicited inputs from relevant stakeholders 

18 on the compatibility of NOAA Weather Radio data 

19 for third party platforms that provide online serv20 ices, such as websites and mobile device applications, 

21 or deliver NOAA Weather Radio access. 

22 (3) Existing or new management systems that 

23 promote consistent, efficient, and compatible access 

24 to NOAA Weather Radio. 


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1 (4) The ability of NOAA to aggregate real time 

2 broadcast feeds at one or more central locations. 

3 (5) Effective interagency coordination. 

4 (6) The potential effects of an electromagnetic 

5 pulse or geomagnetic disturbance on NOAA Weather 

6 Radio. 

7 (7) Any other function the Under Secretary de8 termines necessary. 

9 SEC. 406. POST-STORM SURVEYS AND ASSESSMENTS. 

10 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Under Secretary shall con11 tinue to perform one or more post-storm surveys and as12 sessments following every hazardous weather or water 

13 event determined by the Under Secretary to be of suffi14 cient societal importance to warrant a post-event survey 

15 and assessment. 

16 (b) COORDINATION.—The Under Secretary shall co17 ordinate with Federal, State, local and Tribal govern18 ments, private entities, and relevant institutions of higher 

19 education (or a consortia thereof) when conducting post20 storm surveys and assessments under this section to opti21 mize data collection, sharing, integration, archiving, and 

22 access, as appropriate for research needs. 

23 (c) DATA AVAILABILITY.—The Under Secretary shall 

24 make the appropriate data obtained from each post-storm 

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1 able to the public as soon as practicable after conducting 

2 each such survey and assessment. 

3 (d) IMPROVEMENT.—In carrying out this section, the 

4 Under Secretary shall— 

5 (1) examine the role of uncrewed aerial and ma6 rine systems in data collection during post-storm 

7 surveys and assessments conducted under this sec8 tion; 

9 (2) identify gaps in and update tactics and pro10 cedures to enhance the efficiency and reliability of 

11 data obtained from post-storm surveys and assess12 ments; 

13 (3) to the maximum extent practicable, increase 

14 the number of post-storm community impact studies, 

15 particularly among under-observed, underserved, or 

16 highly vulnerable populations, including— 

17 (A) surveying-individual responses; 

18 (B) conducting review of the accuracy of 

19 prior risk evaluations; 

20 (C) evaluating the efficacy of prior mitiga21 tion activity; and 

22 (D) gathering survivability statistics; and 

23 (4) as appropriate, integrate community-based, 

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1 veys and assessments, including relating to efficacy 

2 of forecast and warning information, barriers to ac3 tion, and messaging challenges. 

4 (e) SUPPORT FOR EMPLOYEES.—The Under Sec5 retary shall provide training, resources, and access to pro6 fessional counseling to support the emotional and mental 

7 health and well-being of employees conducting post-storm 

8 surveys and assessments under this section. 

9 (f) EXEMPTION.—Subchapter I of chapter 35 of title 

10 44, United States Code, shall not apply to the collection 

11 of information during the conduct of a survey or assess12 ment authorized under subsection (a). 

13 SEC. 407. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE REPORT 

14 ON ALERT DISSEMINATION FOR HAZARDOUS 

15 WEATHER OR WATER EVENTS. 

16 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 540 days after the 

17 date of the enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General 

18 of the United States shall submit to the Committee on 

19 Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate and 

20 the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology of the 

21 House of Representatives a report that examines the infor22 mation technology infrastructure of the National Weather 

23 Service of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminis24 tration, specifically regarding the system for timely public 


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1 notification via alerts and updates regarding hazardous 

2 weather or water events. 

3 (b) ELEMENTS.—The report required by subsection 

4 (a) shall include the following: 

5 (1) An analysis of the information technology 

6 infrastructure of the National Weather Service, in7 cluding software and hardware capabilities and limi8 tations, including an examination of server and data 

9 storage methods, broadband, data management, and 

10 data sharing. 

11 (2) An identification of secondary and tertiary 

12 fail-safes for the timely distribution to the public of 

13 notifications via alerts and updates regarding haz14 ardous weather or water events. 

15 (3) A process analysis to determine the source 

16 and extent to which public notifications via alerts 

17 and updates regarding hazardous weather or water 

18 events have been delayed and an identification of 

19 possible improvements or corrective measures to ad20 dress latency in the notification process. 

21 (4) An assessment of whether collaboration with 

22 other Federal offices, States, or private entities 

23 could reduce delays in notifications to the public. 

24 (5) A description of actions being undertaken to 

25 better identify critical steps in public notification via 


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1 alerts and updates for hazardous weather or water 

2 events that may be vulnerable to disruption or fail3 ure in the event of communication, technologic, or 

4 computational failure. 

5 (6) The geographical differences in availability 

6 and effectiveness of rural systems, including an esti7 mated number of rural areas affected by unreliable 

8 or unavailable accurate systems and barriers to ob9 tain or upgrade such systems. 

10 SEC. 408. DATA COLLECTION MANAGEMENT AND PROTEC11 TION. 

12 (a) DATA COLLECTION.—The Under Secretary may 

13 collect social, behavioral, and economic data, including 

14 Federal communication and related public response to 

15 hazardous weather or water events. Where appropriate, 

16 the Under Secretary shall encourage use of secondary 

17 data, purchase data, or partner with the private sector. 

18 (b) DATA MANAGEMENT.—The Under Secretary 

19 shall establish a central repository system for the National 

20 Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for social, be21 havioral, and economic data related to the communication 

22 of and related public response to hazardous weather or 

23 water events, including data developed or received pursu24 ant to this title. 


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1 (c) PROTECTION OF DATA.—The Under Secretary 

2 shall ensure that all data collected and managed by the 

3 Administration is done within with all legal, regulatory, 

4 and contractual obligations and in accordance with chap5 ter 31 of title 44, United States Code, and the Federal 

6 Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018 (Public Law 

7 115–435). 

8 (d) DIGITAL WATERMARKING.—The Under Secretary 

9 shall develop methods to reduce the likelihood of unauthor10 ized tampering with online public notifications of haz11 ardous weather or water events, such as developing digital 

12 watermarks. 

13 (e) POLICIES AND PROCEDURES.—The Under Sec14 retary shall establish policies and procedures for the collec15 tion, archiving, and stewardship of data on community re16 sponse, including the response of effected or vulnerable 

17 populations, to hazardous weather or water events. 

18 TITLE V—IMPROVING WEATHER 

19 INFORMATION FOR AGRI20 CULTURE AND WATER MAN21 AGEMENT 

22 SEC. 501. WEATHER AND CLIMATE INFORMATION IN AGRI23 CULTURE AND WATER MANAGEMENT. 

24 Section 1762 of the Food Security Act of 1985 (15 

25 U.S.C. 8521) is amended— 


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1 (1) by amending subsection (h) to read as fol2 lows: 

3 ‘‘(h) SUBSEASONAL TO SEASONAL FORECASTING

4 PILOT PROJECTS.— 

5 ‘‘(1) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Under Secretary 

6 shall establish not fewer than two pilot projects, in 

7 accordance with paragraph (2), within the U.S. 

8 Weather Research Program of the Oceanic and At9 mospheric Research office of the National Oceanic 

10 and Atmospheric Administration to support im11 proved subseasonal to seasonal precipitation fore12 casts for the following: 

13 ‘‘(A) Water management in the western 

14 United States. 

15 ‘‘(B) Agriculture in the central United 

16 States. 

17 ‘‘(2) OBJECTIVES.—In carrying out this sub18 section, the Under Secretary shall ensure the fol19 lowing: 

20 ‘‘(A) A pilot project under subparagraph 

21 (A) of paragraph (1) addresses key science 

22 challenges to improving forecasts and devel23 oping related products for water management 

24 in the western United States, including the fol25 lowing: 


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1 ‘‘(i) Improving operational model reso2 lution, both horizontal and vertical, to re3 solve issues associated with mountainous 

4 terrain, such as intensity of precipitation 

5 and relative fraction of rain versus snow 

6 precipitation. 

7 ‘‘(ii) Improving fidelity in the oper8 ational modeling of the atmospheric bound9 ary layer in mountainous regions. 

10 ‘‘(iii) Resolving challenges in pre11 dicting winter atmospheric circulation and 

12 storm tracks, including periods of blocked 

13 versus unblocked flow over the eastern 

14 North Pacific Ocean and western United 

15 States. 

16 ‘‘(iv) Utilizing outcomes from the At17 mospheric Rivers Forecast Improvement 

18 Program as authorized in section 204 of 

19 the Weather Act Reauthorization Act of 

20 2023 to produce operational tools and 

21 services. 

22 ‘‘(v) Improving the quality and tem23 poral and spatial resolution of observations 

24 and accurate operational modeling of air25 sea interactions, and the influence of 


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1 oceans on subseasonal and seasonal fore2 casting. 

3 ‘‘(B) A pilot project under subparagraph 

4 (B) of paragraph (1) addresses key science 

5 challenges to improving forecasts and devel6 oping related products for agriculture in the 

7 central United States, including the following: 

8 ‘‘(i) Improving the quality and tem9 poral and spatial resolution of observations 

10 and accurate operational modeling of the 

11 land surface and hydrologic cycle, includ12 ing soil moisture and flash drought proc13 esses. 

14 ‘‘(ii) Improving fidelity in the oper15 ational modeling of warm season precipita16 tion processes. 

17 ‘‘(iii) Understanding and predicting 

18 large-scale upper-level dynamical flow 

19 anomalies that occur in spring and sum20 mer. 

21 ‘‘(3) ACTIVITIES.—A pilot project under this 

22 subsection shall include activities that carry out the 

23 following: 

24 ‘‘(A) Best implement recommendations of 

25 the National Weather Service’s 2020 Report, 


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1 entitled ‘Subseasonal and Seasonal Forecasting 

2 Innovation: Plans for the Twenty-First Cen3 tury’. 

4 ‘‘(B) Achieve measurable objectives for 

5 operational forecast improvement. 

6 ‘‘(C) Engage with, and leverage the re7 sources of, institutions of higher education (as 

8 such term is defined in section 101 of the High9 er Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001)), or 

10 a consortia thereof, and entities within the Na11 tional Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 

12 in existence as of the date of the enactment of 

13 this subsection, including Regional Climate 

14 Centers and the National Centers for Environ15 mental Information. 

16 ‘‘(D) Are carried out in coordination with 

17 the Assistant Administrator for the Office of 

18 Oceanic and Atmospheric Research and the Di19 rector of the National Weather Service. 

20 ‘‘(4) SUNSET.—The authority under this sub21 section shall terminate on the date that is five years 

22 after the date of the enactment of this subsection.’’; 

23 and 

24 (2) by amending subsection (j) to read as fol25 lows: 


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1 ‘‘(j) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 

2 are authorized to be appropriated $45,000,000 for each 

3 of fiscal years 2024 through 2028 to carry out the activi4 ties under this section.’’. 

5 SEC. 502. NATIONAL INTEGRATED DROUGHT INFORMATION 

6 SYSTEM. 

7 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 3 of the National Inte8 grated Drought Information System Act of 2006 (15 

9 U.S.C. 313d) is amended— 

10 (1) in subsection (b)— 

11 (A) in paragraph (1)— 

12 (i) in subparagraph (A), by striking 

13 ‘‘and’’ after the semicolon; 

14 (ii) in subparagraph (B), by inserting 

15 ‘‘and’’ after the semicolon; and 

16 (iii) by adding at the end the fol17 lowing new subparagraph: 

18 ‘‘(C) incorporates flash drought research 

19 and tools to enhance timely response;’’; 

20 (B) in paragraph (5), by striking ‘‘and’’ 

21 after the semicolon; 

22 (C) in paragraph (6)— 

23 (i) by inserting ‘‘(including ecological 

24 drought)’’ after ‘‘drought’’ each place it 

25 appears; and 


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1 (ii) by striking the period and insert2 ing a semicolon; and 

3 (D) by adding at the end the following new 

4 paragraphs: 

5 ‘‘(7) advance and deploy next generation tech6 nologies related to drought and related publicly 

7 available data, such as monitoring, preparedness, 

8 and forecasting capabilities utilizing artificial intel9 ligence, machine learning, and cloud technologies; 

10 and 

11 ‘‘(8) utilize observational networks, including 

12 the National Weather Service cooperative observer 

13 program and State or regional hydrological moni14 toring projects, and refine drought indicators across 

15 a variety of spatial and temporal scales for decision16 support products by optimizing data and resources 

17 from across the Federal Government, including 

18 snowpack, soil moisture, groundwater, and rapid in19 tensification data.’’; 

20 (2) in subsection (c)— 

21 (A) in paragraph (2), by striking ‘‘and’’ 

22 after the semicolon; 

23 (B) in paragraph (3), by striking the pe24 riod and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 


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1 (C) by adding at the end the following new 

2 paragraph: 

3 ‘‘(4) in partnership with the National Mesonet 

4 Program, establish memoranda of understanding to 

5 provide coordinated, high-quality, nationwide 

6 drought information for the public good, including 

7 integrated soil moisture information in accordance 

8 with the 2021 report, ‘A Strategy for the National 

9 Coordinated Soil Moisture Monitoring Network’.’’; 

10 and 

11 (3) by amending subsection (f) to read as fol12 lows: 

13 ‘‘(f) MODELING UPDATE.—The Under Secretary, in 

14 partnership with National Integrated Drought Informa15 tion System and the Climate Prediction Center of the Na16 tional Weather Service, shall undertake an effort to transi17 tion existing drought products to probabilistic forecasts 

18 and incorporate new and improved dynamical and statis19 tical forecast modeling tools.’’. 

20 (b) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—Section 

21 4 of the National Integrated Drought Information System 

22 Act of 2006 (15 U.S.C. 313d note) is amended to read 

23 as follows: 


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1 ‘‘SEC. 4. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 

2 ‘‘From amounts made available to Operations, Re3 search, and Facilities of the National Oceanic and Atmos4 pheric Administration, there are authorized to be appro5 priated to carry out this section the following: 

6 ‘‘(1) $15,000,000 for fiscal year 2024. 

7 ‘‘(2) $15,500,000 for fiscal year 2025. 

8 ‘‘(3) $16,000,000 for fiscal year 2026. 

9 ‘‘(4) $16,500,000 for fiscal year 2027. 

10 ‘‘(5) $17,000,000 for fiscal year 2028.’’. 

11 SEC. 503. NATIONAL MESONET PROGRAM. 

12 (a) PROGRAM.—The Under Secretary shall maintain 

13 the National Mesonet Program (in this section referred 

14 to as the ‘‘Program’’). The Program shall— 

15 (1) obtain observations in all geographic envi16 ronments to improve understanding of and forecast 

17 capabilities for atmospheric and water events, with 

18 a prioritization on leveraging available commercial, 

19 academic, and other non-Federal environmental data 

20 to enhance coordination across the private, public, 

21 and academic sectors of the United States weather 

22 enterprise; and 

23 (2) establish memoranda of understanding with 

24 networks outside of the scope of the Program. 

25 (b) PROGRAM ELEMENTS.—The Program shall carry 

26 out the following activities: 


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1 (1) Improve environmental observations used by 

2 the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administra3 tion and the National Weather Service to support 

4 baseline forecasts, including nowcasts, and warnings 

5 that protect the Nation’s citizens, businesses, mili6 tary, and government agencies, and enable such in7 dividuals and entities to operate in safe, efficient, 

8 and orderly manners. 

9 (2) When demonstrably cost effective and meet10 ing or exceeding agency data quality standards, le11 verage existing networks of environmental moni12 toring stations, including supplemental radar sys13 tems, to increase the quantity and density of envi14 ronmental observations and data available to the Ad15 ministration. 

16 (3) Establish means to integrate greater density 

17 and type of environmental observations into the Pro18 gram on an annual basis, including by encouraging 

19 local and regional networks of environmental moni20 toring stations, in situ sensor networks and satellite 

21 constellations to participate in the Program. 

22 (4) Yield increased quantities of boundary-layer 

23 data to improve numerical weather prediction per24 formance, including regarding subseasonal to sea25 sonal timescales. 


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1 (5) Provide the critical technical and adminis2 trative infrastructure needed to facilitate rapid inte3 gration and sustained use of new and emerging net4 works of environmental monitoring stations antici5 pated in coming years from non-Federal sources. 

6 (6) Expand and enhance environmental obser7 vational networks in the roadway environment to 

8 provide real-time road weather and surface condi9 tions for surface transportation and related eco10 nomic sectors. 

11 (7) Identify available terrestrial or marine envi12 ronmental data, or quantifiable gaps in such data, to 

13 improve the understanding of air-sea interactions. 

14 (8) Support the National Weather Service in 

15 reaching its target of a 30-minute warning time for 

16 severe weather through better predictive model algo17 rithms driven by increasingly effective observations. 

18 (9) Coordinate with existing Administration 

19 data used for forecasts, including data from the Na20 tional Environmental Satellite, Data, and Informa21 tion Service, the Integrated Ocean Observing Sys22 tem, the Global Ocean Monitoring and Observing 

23 Program, the National Data Buoy Center, and the 

24 National Ocean Service. 


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1 (10) Identify and communicate to the Office of 

2 Oceanic and Atmospheric Research and other part3 ners priorities of research and development needed 

4 to advance observations in the Program. 

5 (11) Support the National Coordinated Soil 

6 Moisture Monitoring Network in acquiring soil mois7 ture and related data to support the development of 

8 decision-support products and other information 

9 services. 

10 (c) FINANCIAL AND TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE.— 

11 (1) IN GENERAL.—In furtherance of the Pro12 gram, the Under Secretary may, to the extent 

13 amounts are made available, award up to 15 percent 

14 of the Program’s annual appropriations for financial 

15 assistance to State, Tribal, private, and academic 

16 entities seeking to build, expand, or upgrade equip17 ment and capacity of mesonet systems. Financial as18 sistance under this subsection may be made in co19 ordination with and in addition to awards from 

20 other Federal agencies. 

21 (2) AGREEMENTS.—Before receiving financial 

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

23 private, or academic entity seeking financial assist24 ance under this subsection shall enter into an agree25 ment with the Under Secretary to provide data to 


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1 the Program, subject to verification by the Program 

2 of the relative operational value and evaluation of 

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

4 severe weather warnings, and emergency response. 

5 (3) ASSISTANCE AND OTHER SUPPORT.—The 

6 Under Secretary may provide technical assistance, 

7 project implementation support, and guidance to 

8 State, Tribal, private, and academic entities seeking 

9 financial assistance under this subsection. The 

10 Under Secretary may provide technical and financial 

11 assistance for maintenance of monitoring stations in 

12 underrepresented or remote areas of the country 

13 where it is financially unfeasible for one entity to op14 erate such stations without such assistance. 

15 (4) TERMS.—In providing financial assistance 

16 under this subsection, the Under Secretary shall es17 tablish terms to ensure that each State, Tribal, pri18 vate, or academic entity that receives financial as19 sistance under this subsection receives a level of 

20 Federal support commensurate with the quality and 

21 other characteristics of the data to be provided. 

22 (5) DETERMINATION.—A State, Tribal, private, 

23 or academic entity may receive financial assistance 

24 under this subsection only if the Under Secretary 

25 determines such entity shall provide sufficient nonVerDate Sep 11 2014 02:14 May 02, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00155 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6093.RFS H6093

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1 Federal financial support and full maintenance to 

2 maintain the quality of the mesonet system and as3 sociated data standards required by the Program for 

4 a period of not less than five years. 

5 (6) PRIORITY.—The Under Secretary shall 

6 prioritize providing assistance under paragraph (1) 

7 to at least one entity in an underrepresented or re8 mote area. 

9 (d) ADVISORY COMMITTEE.— 

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

11 ensure the Program has an active advisory com12 mittee of subject matter experts to make rec13 ommendations to the National Oceanic and Atmos14 pheric Administration on the identification, imple15 mentation, procurement, and tracking of data need16 ed to supplement the Program, and recommend im17 provements, expansions, and acquisitions of available 

18 data. The Under Secretary may designate an exist19 ing Federal advisory committee, subcommittee, or 

20 working group, including, if appropriate, the Science 

21 Advisory Board of the National Oceanic and Atmos22 pheric Administration, to carry out this subsection. 

23 (2) ACADEMIC EXPERTISE.—The advisory com24 mittee under paragraph (1), in consultation with the 

25 Program, shall include expertise from one or more 


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1 institutions of higher education (as such term is de2 fined in section 101 of the Higher Education Act of 

3 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001)) to assist the advisory com4 mittee to identify, evaluate, and recommend poten5 tial partnerships, regional or subregional consortia, 

6 and collaborative methods that would expand the 

7 number of participants and volume of data in the 

8 Program. 

9 (e) REGULAR REPORTING.—The Under Secretary 

10 shall provide regular briefings, not less than twice annu11 ally, to the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology 

12 of the House of Representatives and the Committee on 

13 Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate on 

14 all Program activities. Such briefings shall include infor15 mation relating to the following: 

16 (1) Efforts to implement the activities described 

17 in subsection (b). 

18 (2) Any financial or technical assistance pro19 vided pursuant to subsection (c). 

20 (3) Efforts to address recommendations re21 ceived from the advisory committee under subsection 

22 (d). 

23 (4) The potential need and associated benefits 

24 of a coastal and ocean mesonet, or other emerging 

25 areas of weather data needs. 


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1 (5) Progress toward eliminating gaps in weath2 er observation data by States and regions of the 

3 United States. 

4 (6) Any other topic the Under Secretary deter5 mines relevant. 

6 (f) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—From 

7 amounts made available to the National Weather Service, 

8 the Under Secretary, to carry out this section, shall allo9 cate up to the following amounts for each specified fiscal 

10 year: 

11 (1) $50,000,000 for fiscal year 2024. 

12 (2) $55,000,000 for fiscal year 2025. 

13 (3) $61,000,000 for fiscal year 2026. 

14 (4) $68,000,000 for fiscal year 2027. 

15 (5) $70,000,000 for fiscal year 2028. 

16 SEC. 504. NATIONAL COORDINATED SOIL MOISTURE MONI17 TORING NETWORK. 

18 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Under Secretary, in collabo19 ration with the Secretary of Agriculture, the Director of 

20 the United States Geological Survey, the Administrator of 

21 the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and 

22 the heads of other relevant Federal agencies and depart23 ments, shall support the development, deployment, and 

24 maintenance of soil moisture monitoring networks by man25 aging the National Coordinated Soil Moisture Monitoring 


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1 Network (in this section referred to as the ‘‘Network’’) 

2 within the National Integrated Drought Information Sys3 tem. 

4 (b) ACTIVITIES.—The Under Secretary shall ensure 

5 the Network includes activities that carry out the fol6 lowing: 

7 (1) Establishing a visible, user-friendly website. 

8 (2) Developing a set of criteria for high-quality 

9 data sources. 

10 (3) Supporting research necessary to develop or 

11 improve soil moisture monitoring products at a na12 tional scale. 

13 (4) Increasing the number of long-term, high14 quality, in situ and remote sensing soil moisture 

15 monitoring stations across the United States. 

16 (5) Sharing methodologies and validation proto17 cols with the private sector. 

18 (6) Engaging with the citizen science commu19 nity. 

20 (7) Developing, releasing, and promoting new, 

21 nationwide point-based and gridded soil moisture 

22 data products that meet the needs of diverse end23 user groups. 

24 (8) Supporting community building and out25 reach to the network of individuals engaged with soil 


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1 moisture information delivery, from data provision to 

2 end-user decision making. 

3 SEC. 505. NATIONAL WATER CENTER. 

4 Section 301 of the Coordinated Ocean Observations 

5 and Research Act of 2020 (42 U.S.C. 10371) is amend6 ed— 

7 (1) in subsection (a)— 

8 (A) in paragraph (1)(A)— 

9 (i) in the matter preceding clause (i), 

10 by inserting ‘‘as a component of the Na11 tional Centers for Environmental Pre12 diction’’ after ‘‘center’’; 

13 (ii) in clause (i), by striking ‘‘and’’ 

14 after the semicolon; 

15 (iii) in clause (ii), by striking the pe16 riod and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 

17 (iv) by adding at the end the following 

18 new clause: 

19 ‘‘(iii) to provide service backup capa20 bilities and additional mission support 

21 services for River Forecast Centers.’’; and 

22 (B) in paragraph (2), by adding at the end 

23 the following new subparagraph: 

24 ‘‘(F) Serving as the primary Center for 

25 collaboration and coordination of the National 


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1 Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s 

2 water research and operational activities with 

3 existing Federal centers and networks, includ4 ing the Department of Agriculture, the Army 

5 Corps of Engineers, the Bureau of Reclamation, 

6 the United States Geological Survey, and the 

7 Federal Emergency Management Agency.’’; 

8 (2) by striking subsection (b) and redesignating 

9 subsections (c) through (e) as subsections (b) 

10 through (d) respectively; and 

11 (3) by amending subsection (c), as so redesig12 nated, to read as follows: 

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

14 is authorized to be appropriated $46,000,000 for each of 

15 fiscal years 2024 through 2028 to carry out this section.’’. 

16 SEC. 506. SATELLITE TRANSFERS REPORT. 

17 Not later than 180 days after the date of the enact18 ment of this Act, the Secretary of Commerce shall submit 

19 to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transpor20 tation of the Senate and the Committee on Science, Space, 

21 and Technology of the House of Representatives a report 

22 describing the Department of Commerce’s authorities, 

23 policies, and Federal Government-wide policies related to 

24 transferring any portion of the weather satellite systems 

25 operated by the Department of Commerce to any other 


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1 Federal department or agency. The report shall also in2 clude the following: 

3 (1) A description of the process for decommis4 sioning a Department of Commerce operational 

5 weather satellite, any existing agreements related to 

6 transfers of weather satellites, whether decommis7 sioned or not, and any reimbursable agreements re8 lated to the transfer of physical property or the op9 eration of Department of Commerce weather sat10 ellites on behalf of any other Federal department or 

11 agency. 

12 (2) A summary of any Department of Com13 merce plans for potential transfer of existing or fu14 ture weather satellite systems to any other Federal 

15 department or agency. 

16 SEC. 507. PRECIPITATION FORECAST IMPROVEMENT PRO17 GRAM. 

18 (a) IN GENERAL.—Title VI of the Weather Research 

19 and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017 (15 U.S.C. 8501 

20 et seq.) is amended— 

21 (1) by redesignating section 603 as section 604; 

22 and 

23 (2) by inserting after section 602 the following 

24 new section: 


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1 ‘‘SEC. 603. PRECIPITATION FORECAST IMPROVEMENT PRO2 GRAM. 

3 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The Under Secretary, in collabo4 ration with the United States weather industry, other Fed5 eral agencies, and academic partners, shall maintain a 

6 program to improve precipitation forecasting across 

7 timescales. 

8 ‘‘(b) GOAL.—The goal of the program under sub9 section (a) shall be to provide more accurate, reliable, and 

10 timely precipitation forecasts across timescales through 

11 the development and application of a fully coupled Earth 

12 system prediction model in order to reduce the loss of life 

13 or property related to precipitation extremes, with a focus 

14 on the following: 

15 ‘‘(1) Improving the understanding and pre16 diction of precipitation extremes from a variety of 

17 weather systems, including atmospheric rivers. 

18 ‘‘(2) Evaluating and incorporating, as appro19 priate, innovative observations into operational moni20 toring and forecast systems to improve precipitation 

21 forecasts. 

22 ‘‘(3) Improving earth system model predictions 

23 of precipitation extremes from atmospheric rivers, 

24 tropical cyclones, summer-time thunderstorms, win25 ter storms, and other phenomena, in coordination 

26 with relevant programs. 


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1 ‘‘(4) Enhancing research transition to oper2 ations through testbeds, including the evaluation of 

3 physical and social science, technology, and other re4 search to develop products and services for imple5 mentation and use by relevant stakeholders. 

6 ‘‘(5) Incorporating social, behavioral, and eco7 nomic sciences best practices into operations for 

8 more effective and actionable watch and warning 

9 products that help drive public safety and damage 

10 mitigation decisions in coordination with the pro11 grams established in accordance with this Act. 

12 ‘‘(6) Ensuring data and metadata management 

13 processes are in place to support data access and ar14 chive for long term research and operations among 

15 multiple partners. 

16 ‘‘(c) ACTIVITIES.—In carrying out the program 

17 under subsection (a), the Under Secretary shall support 

18 research-to-operations work, including relating to the fol19 lowing: 

20 ‘‘(1) Implementing key strategies and following 

21 priorities and objectives outlined by the National 

22 Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s ‘Precipi23 tation Prediction Grand Challenge Strategy’. 


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1 ‘‘(2) Improving the physical science, operational 

2 modeling and tools, and technology related to better 

3 forecasting precipitation extremes across timescales. 

4 ‘‘(3) Improving the social, behavioral, risk, com5 munications, and economic sciences related to 

6 vulnerabilities, risk communication, and delivery of 

7 information critical for reducing the loss of life or 

8 property related to extreme precipitation. 

9 ‘‘(4) Conducting the research necessary to de10 velop and deploy probabilistic weather forecast guid11 ance technology relating to precipitation extremes in 

12 operational practice. 

13 ‘‘(5) Enhancing the operational capacity of the 

14 National Weather Service to deliver decision support 

15 for increasing precipitation extremes. 

16 ‘‘(6) Expanding computational resources to im17 prove precipitation modeling. 

18 ‘‘(d) ANNUAL BUDGET.—The Under Secretary shall, 

19 not less frequently than annually, submit to Congress a 

20 proposed budget corresponding with carrying out this sec21 tion.’’. 

22 (b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of contents 

23 in section 1(b) of the Weather Research and Forecasting 

24 Innovation Act of 2017 is amended by striking the item 


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1 relating to section 603 and inserting the following new 

2 items: 

‘‘Sec. 603. Precipitation forecast improvement program. 

‘‘Sec. 604. Definitions.’’. 

Passed the House of Representatives April 30, 2024. 

Attest: KEVIN F. MCCUMBER, 

Clerk. 


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