I

104TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 383

To amend the National Agricultural Weather Information System Act of

1990 to improve the collection and distribution of weather information

to assist agricultural producers.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

JANUARY 4, 1995

Mr. TRAFICANT introduced the following bill; which was referred to the

Committee on Agriculture

A BILL

To amend the National Agricultural Weather Information

System Act of 1990 to improve the collection and distribution of weather information to assist agricultural

producers.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. WEATHER INFORMATION COLLECTION AND

4 DISTRIBUTION TO AGRICULTURAL PRODUC5 ERS THROUGH THE NATIONAL WEATHER

6 SERVICE.

7 (a) COLLECTION AND DISTRIBUTION.—Section 1638

8 of the National Agricultural Weather Information System
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1 Act of 1990 (7 U.S.C. 5852) is amended by adding at

2 the end the following new subsection:

3 ‘‘(e) COLLECTION AND DISTRIBUTION OF INFORMA4 TION TO PRODUCERS.—

5 ‘‘(1) COOPERATIVE PROJECT.—As one of the

6 cooperative projects authorized by subsection (b)(1),

7 the Secretary of Agriculture shall enter into an

8 agreement with the Secretary of Commerce to use

9 Weather Service Offices and Weather Service Fore10 cast Offices to collect, organize, and distribute infor11 mation aimed at meeting the short-term and long12 term weather and climate information needs of agri13 cultural producers.

14 ‘‘(2) INFORMATION COLLECTION.—The Sec15 retaries shall develop a system for the collection by

16 the National Weather Service of weather and climate

17 information that is relevant to agricultural producers

18 and available through the Agricultural Weather Of19 fice and other Federal agencies, State agricultural

20 weather information systems and other State pro21 grams, colleges and universities, and the private

22 weather consulting sector.

23 ‘‘(3) METHODS OF DISTRIBUTION.—Weather

24 and climate information collected under this sub-
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1 section shall be distributed to agricultural producers

2 through the use of—

3 ‘‘(A) weekly publications containing weath4 er forecasts and other information regarding

5 anticipated temperatures and precipitation lev6 els;

7 ‘‘(B) toll-free and local telephone numbers

8 that agricultural producers can call to obtain

9 immediate information to assist with specific

10 day-to-day production activities; and

11 ‘‘(C) such other methods as the Secretaries

12 consider to be appropriate to distribute such

13 weather and climate information to agricultural

14 producers in a timely manner.’’.

15 (b) REPORT.—Not later than one year after the date

16 of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Agriculture

17 and the Secretary of Commerce shall jointly submit a re18 port to the Congress analyzing the effectiveness of the co19 operative project required by section 1638(e) of the Na20 tional Agricultural Weather Information System Act of

21 1990, as added by subsection (a), in providing relevant

22 weather and climate information to agricultural producers.

23 The report shall include a description of the number of

24 agricultural producers who obtained weather information
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1 through the project and an estimate of whether the project

2 improved farm profitability for participating producers.

3 (c) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is

4 authorized to be appropriated to carry out section 1638(e)

5 of the National Agricultural Weather Information System

6 Act of 1990, as added by subsection (a), $2,000,000 for

7 fiscal year 1996.

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