cast innovation activities across the Federal Government. 
The Interagency Committee shall— 
(1) include participation by the National Aero-
nautics and Space Administration, the Federal Avia-
tion Administration, NOAA and its constituent ele-
ments, the National Science Foundation, and such 
other agencies involved in weather forecasting re-
search as the President determines are appropriate; 
(2) identify and prioritize top forecast needs 
and coordinate those needs against budget requests 
and program initiatives across participating offices 
and agencies; and 
(3) share information regarding operational 
needs and forecasting improvements across relevant 
agencies. 
(b) CO-CHAIR.—The Federal Coordinator for Meteor-
ology shall serve as a co-chair of this panel. 
(c) FURTHER COORDINATION.—The Director shall 
take such other steps as are necessary to coordinate the 
activities of the Federal Government with those of the 
American weather industry, State governments, emer-
gency managers, and academic researchers. 
SEC. 13. OAR AND NWS EXCHANGE PROGRAM. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Assistant Administrator for 
OAR and the Assistant Administrator for NWS may es-
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tablish a program to detail OAR personnel to the NWS 
and NWS personnel to OAR. 
(b) GOAL.—The goal of this program is to enhance 
forecasting innovation through regular, direct interaction 
between OAR’s world-class scientists and NWS’s oper-
ational staff. 
(c) ELEMENTS.—The program shall allow up to 10 
OAR staff and NWS staff to spend up to 1 year on detail. 
Candidates shall be jointly selected by the Assistant Ad-
ministrator for OAR and the Assistant Administrator for 
NWS. 
(d) REPORT.—The Under Secretary shall report an-
nually to the Committee on Science, Space, and Tech-
nology of the House of Representatives and to the Com-
mittee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the 
Senate on participation in such program and shall high-
light any innovations that come from this interaction. 
SEC. 14. VISITING FELLOWS AT NWS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Assistant Administrator for 
NWS may establish a program to host postdoctoral fellows 
and academic researchers at any of the National Centers 
for Environmental Prediction. 
(b) GOAL.—This program shall be designed to pro-
vide direct interaction between forecasters and talented 
academic and private sector researchers in an effort to 
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bring innovation to forecasting tools and techniques avail-
able to the NWS. 
(c) SELECTION AND APPOINTMENT.—Such fellows 
shall be competitively selected and appointed for a term 
not to exceed 1 year. 
SEC. 15. NOAA WEATHER RADIO ALL HAZARDS ‘‘MARK 
TRAIL’’ AWARD PROGRAM. 
(a) PROGRAM.—The Assistant Administrator for 
NWS is authorized to establish the NOAA Weather Radio 
All Hazards ‘‘Mark Trail’’ Award Program. This award 
program shall provide annual awards to honor individuals 
or organizations that use or provide NOAA Weather Radio 
All Hazards receivers or transmitters to save lives and 
protect property. Individuals or organizations that utilize 
other early warning tools or applications also qualify for 
this award. 
(b) GOAL.—This award program draws attention to 
the life-saving work of the NOAA Weather Radio All Haz-
ards program, as well as emerging tools and applications, 
that provide real-time warning to individuals and commu-
nities of severe weather or other hazardous conditions. 
(c) PROGRAM ELEMENTS.— 
(1) 
NOMINATIONS.—Nominations 
for 
this 
award shall be made annually by the Weather Field 
Offices to the Assistant Administrator for NWS. 
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Broadcast meteorologists, weather radio manufactur-
ers and weather warning tool and application devel-
opers, emergency managers and public safety offi-
cials may nominate individuals and/or organizations 
to their local Weather Field Offices, but the final list 
of award nominees must come from the Weather 
Field Offices. 
(2) SELECTION OF AWARDEES.—Annually, the 
Assistant Administrator for NWS shall choose win-
ners of this award whose timely actions, based on 
NOAA weather radio all hazards receivers or trans-
mitters or other early warning tools and applica-
tions, saved lives and/or property or demonstrated 
public service in support of weather or all hazard 
warnings. 
(3) AWARD CEREMONY.—The Assistant Admin-
istrator for NWS shall establish a means of making 
these awards to provide maximum public awareness 
of the important Weather Radio All Hazards pro-
gram, and such other warning tools and applications 
as are represented in the awards. 
SEC. 16. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act: 
(1) AOA.—The term ‘‘AOA’’ means an Anal-
ysis of Alternatives. 
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(2) NESDIS.—The term ‘‘NESDIS’’ means 
the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and In-
formation Service. 
(3) NOAA.—The term ‘‘NOAA’’ means the Na-
tional Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 
(4) NWS.—The term ‘‘NWS’’ means the Na-
tional Weather Service. 
(5) OAR.—The term ‘‘OAR’’ means the Office 
of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research. 
(6) OSE.—The term ‘‘OSE’’ means an Observ-
ing System Experiment. 
(7) OSSE.—The term ‘‘OSSE’’ means an Ob-
serving System Simulation Experiment. 
(8) UNDER
SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Under 
Secretary’’ means the Under Secretary of Commerce 
for Oceans and Atmosphere. 
SEC. 17. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 
(a) FISCAL YEAR 2015.—There are authorized to be 
appropriated for fiscal year 2015— 
(1) $90,800,000 to OAR to carry out this Act, 
of which— 
(A) $70,000,000 is authorized for weather 
laboratories and cooperative institutes; and 
(B) $20,800,000 is authorized for weather 
and air chemistry research programs; and 
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(2) out of funds made available for research 
and development at NOAA, an additional amount of 
$16,000,000 for OAR to carry out the joint tech-
nology transfer initiative described in section 
3(b)(4). 
(b) FISCAL YEARS 2016 AND 2017.—For each of fis-
cal years 2016 and 2017, there are authorized to be ap-
propriated in OAR— 
(1) $100,000,000 to carry out this Act, of 
which— 
(A) $80,000,000 is authorized for weather 
laboratories and cooperative institutes; and 
(B) $20,000,000 is authorized for weather 
and air chemistry research programs; and 
(2) an additional amount of $20,000,000 for 
the joint technology transfer initiative described in 
section 3(b)(4). 
(c) LIMITATION.—No additional funds are authorized 
to carry out this Act, and the amendments made by this 
Act. 
Æ 
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