IB 

Union Calendar No. 41 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1496 

[Report No. 118–61] 

To upgrade the communications service used by the National Weather Service, 

and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MARCH 9, 2023 

Mr. FEENSTRA (for himself, Mr. CARBAJAL, Mrs. MILLER-MEEKS, Ms. 

BONAMICI, Mr. MILLER of Ohio, Mrs. HINSON, Mrs. GONZA ́LEZ-COLO ́N, 

Mr. CRAWFORD, Mr. JACKSON of North Carolina, Ms. ROSS, Mr. 

LAMALFA, Mr. SORENSEN, Mrs. RADEWAGEN, and Mrs. FOUSHEE) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 

Science, Space, and Technology 

MAY 16, 2023 

Additional sponsors: Mr. FITZPATRICK, Mr. CAREY, and Ms. LEE of 

Pennsylvania 

MAY 16, 2023 

Reported from the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology; committed 

to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union and ordered to be printed 


pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB
2 

•HR 1496 RH

A BILL 

To upgrade the communications service used by the National 

Weather Service, and for other purposes. 


pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB
3 

•HR 1496 RH

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

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘National Weather 

5 Service Communications Improvement Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE COMMUNICATIONS. 

7 (a) IN GENERAL.—Title IV of the Weather Research 

8 and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017 (15 U.S.C. 8541 

9 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following 

10 new section: 

11 ‘‘SEC. 415. NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE COMMUNICA12 TIONS. 

13 ‘‘(a) SYSTEM UPGRADE.—The Director of the Na14 tional Weather Service shall improve the instant mes15 saging service used by National Weather Service personnel 

16 by implementing a commercial off-the-shelf communica17 tions solution hosted on the public cloud to serve as a re18 placement for the communications system in use as of the 

19 date of the enactment of this section (commonly referred 

20 to as ‘NWSChat’). Such communications solution shall 

21 satisfy requirements set forth by the Director to best ac22 commodate future growth and perform successfully with 

23 increased numbers of users. 

24 ‘‘(b) FUNDING.—From amounts made available for 

25 Operations, Research, and Facilities, the Director of the 


pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB
4 

•HR 1496 RH

1 National Weather Service shall allocate up to $3,000,000 

2 for each of fiscal years 2024 through 2027 to carry out 

3 subsection (a). 

4 ‘‘(c) LIMITATION ON FUNDING.—Amounts made 

5 available to carry out subsection (a) shall be derived from 

6 amounts appropriated or otherwise made available to the 

7 National Weather Service.’’. 

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

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

10 Innovation Act of 2017 is amended by inserting after the 

11 item relating to section 414 the following new item: 

‘‘Sec. 415. National Weather Service communications.’’. 


pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB

pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB
Union Calendar No. 41 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1496 

[Report No. 118–61] 

A BILL 

National Weather Service, and for other purposes. 

To upgrade the communications service used by the 

MAY 16, 2023 

Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the 

State of the Union and ordered to be printed 


pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with $$_JOB