I 
117TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1437 
To amend the Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017 
to direct the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to provide 
comprehensive and regularly updated Federal precipitation information, 
and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
FEBRUARY 26, 2021 
Ms. SHERRILL (for herself, Ms. ROSS, Ms. NORTON, Mr. PASCRELL, Ms. 
JOHNSON of Texas, Mr. CRIST, Mr. FITZPATRICK, Mr. SIRES, and Ms. 
MOORE of Wisconsin) introduced the following bill; which was referred to 
the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology 
A BILL 
To amend the Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation 
Act of 2017 to direct the National Oceanic and Atmos-
pheric Administration to provide comprehensive and reg-
ularly updated Federal precipitation information, and for 
other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Providing Research 
and Estimates of Changes In Precipitation Act’’ or the 
‘‘PRECIP Act’’. 
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SEC. 2. AMENDMENT TO THE WEATHER RESEARCH AND 
FORECASTING INNOVATION ACT OF 2017. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 508 of the Weather Re-
search and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017 (15 U.S.C. 
8521) is amended by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘TITLE 
VI—IMPROVING 
FED-
ERAL PRECIPITATION INFOR-
MATION 
‘‘SEC. 601. STUDY ON PRECIPITATION ESTIMATION. 
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 90 days after the 
date of enactment of the PRECIP Act, the Administrator, 
in consultation with other Federal agencies as appropriate, 
shall seek to enter an agreement with the National Acad-
emies— 
‘‘(1) to conduct a study on the state of practice 
and research needs for precipitation estimation, in-
cluding probable maximum precipitation estimation; 
and 
‘‘(2) to submit, not later than 24 months after 
the date on which such agreement is finalized, to the 
Committee on Science, Space, and Technology of the 
House of Representatives and the Committee on 
Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Sen-
ate, and make publicly available on a website, a re-
port on the results of the study under paragraph 
(1). 
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‘‘(b) STUDY.—The report under subsection (a) shall 
include the following: 
‘‘(1) An examination of the current state of 
practice for precipitation estimation at scales appro-
priate for decisionmaker needs, and rationale for 
further evolution of this field. 
‘‘(2) An evaluation of best practices for precipi-
tation estimation that are based on the best-avail-
able science, include assumptions of non-stationarity, 
and can be utilized by the user community. 
‘‘(3) A framework for— 
‘‘(A) the development of a National Guid-
ance Document for estimating extreme precipi-
tation in a changing climate; and 
‘‘(B) evaluation of the strengths and chal-
lenges of the full spectrum of approaches, in-
cluding for probable maximum precipitation 
studies. 
‘‘(4) A description of existing research needs in 
the field of precipitation estimation in order to mod-
ernize current methodologies and incorporate the im-
pacts of climate change on precipitation. 
‘‘(5) A description of in-situ, airborne, and 
space-based observation requirements, that could en-
hance precipitation estimation and development of 
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models, including an examination of the use of geo-
graphic information systems and geospatial tech-
nology for integration, analysis, and visualization of 
precipitation data. 
‘‘(6) A recommended plan for a Federal re-
search and development program, including speci-
fications for costs, timeframes, and responsible agen-
cies for addressing identified research needs. 
‘‘(7) An analysis of the respective roles in pre-
cipitation estimation of various Federal agencies, 
academia, State, tribal, territorial, and local govern-
ments, and other public and private stakeholders. 
‘‘(8) Recommendations for data management to 
promote long-term needs such as enabling retrospec-
tive analyses and data discoverability, interoper-
ability, and reuse. 
‘‘(9) Recommendations for how data and serv-
ices from the entire enterprise can be best leveraged 
by the Federal Government. 
‘‘(10) Such other topics as the Administrator or 
National Academies consider appropriate. 
‘‘(c) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 
is authorized $1,500,000 to the National Oceanic and At-
mospheric Administration to carry out this study. 
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‘‘SEC. 602. IMPROVING PRECIPITATION FREQUENCY ESTI-
MATES. 
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The Administrator shall— 
‘‘(1) not later than 5 years after the date of en-
actment of this title and not less than every 5 years 
thereafter, update precipitation frequency estimates 
for the United States, such that each update in-
cludes at least one precipitation frequency atlas that 
incorporates assumptions of non-stationarity; 
‘‘(2) develop products targeted at users of this 
data in support of the mission of the National Oce-
anic and Atmospheric Administration; 
‘‘(3) make publicly available, in a searchable, 
interoperable format, all precipitation frequency esti-
mate studies developed by the National Oceanic and 
Atmospheric Administration that the Administrator 
has the legal right to redistribute and that are 
deemed to be at an appropriate stage of development 
on an internet website of the National Oceanic and 
Atmospheric Administration; and 
‘‘(4) ensure all precipitation frequency estimate 
data, products, and supporting documentation and 
metadata are preserved, curated, and served by the 
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 
as appropriate. 
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‘‘(b) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 
are authorized to be appropriated to the National Oceanic 
and Atmospheric Administration to carry out this section 
$3,500,000 for each of fiscal years 2022 through 2030. 
‘‘SEC. 603. IMPROVING PROBABLE MAXIMUM PRECIPITA-
TION ESTIMATES. 
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 90 days after the 
date on which the National Academies makes public the 
report under section 601, the Administrator, in consider-
ation of the report recommendations, shall consult with 
relevant partners, including users of the data, on the de-
velopment of a plan to— 
‘‘(1) not later than 6 years after the completion 
of the National Academies report under section 601 
and not less than every 10 years thereafter, update 
probable maximum precipitation estimates for the 
United States, such that each update includes esti-
mates 
that 
incorporate 
assumptions 
of 
non- 
stationarity; 
‘‘(2) coordinate with partners to conduct re-
search in the field of extreme precipitation esti-
mation, in accordance with the research needs iden-
tified by the National Academies report under sec-
tion 601; 
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‘‘(3) make publicly available, in a searchable, 
interoperable format, all probable maximum precipi-
tation studies developed by the National Oceanic and 
Atmospheric Administration that the Administrator 
has the legal right to redistribute and deemed to be 
at an appropriate state of development on an inter-
net website of the National Oceanic and Atmos-
pheric Administration; and 
‘‘(4) ensure all probable maximum precipitation 
estimate data, products, and supporting documenta-
tion and metadata developed by the National Oce-
anic and Atmospheric Administration are preserved, 
curated, and served by the National Oceanic and At-
mospheric Administration, as appropriate. 
‘‘(b) NATIONAL GUIDANCE DOCUMENT FOR THE DE-
VELOPMENT
OF PROBABLE MAXIMUM PRECIPITATION 
ESTIMATES.—The Administrator, in collaboration with 
Federal agencies, State, territorial, tribal and local gov-
ernments, academia and other partners the Administrator 
deems appropriate, shall develop a National Guidance 
Document that— 
‘‘(1) provides best practices that can be fol-
lowed by Federal and State regulatory agencies, pri-
vate meteorological consultants, and other users that 
perform probable maximum precipitation studies; 
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‘‘(2) considers the recommendations provided in 
the National Academies study in section 601; 
‘‘(3) facilitates review of probable maximum 
precipitation studies by regulatory agencies; 
‘‘(4) provides confidence in regional and site- 
specific probable maximum precipitation estimates; 
and 
‘‘(5) includes such other topics as the Adminis-
trator deems appropriate. 
‘‘(c) PUBLICATION.—Not later than 2 years after the 
date on which the National Academies makes public the 
report under section 601, the Administrator shall make 
publicly available the National Guidance Document under 
subsection (b) on an internet website of the National Oce-
anic and Atmospheric Administration. 
‘‘(d) UPDATES.—The Administrator shall update the 
National Guidance Document not less than once every 10 
years after the publication of the National Guidance Docu-
ment under subsection (c) and publish such updates in 
accordance with such subsection. 
‘‘(e) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 
are authorized to be appropriated to the National Oceanic 
and Atmospheric Administration to carry out this section: 
‘‘(1) $13,000,000 for fiscal year 2022. 
‘‘(2) $14,000,000 for fiscal year 2023. 
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‘‘(3) $14,000,000 for fiscal year 2024. 
‘‘(4) $2,000,000 for fiscal year 2025. 
‘‘(5) $2,000,000 for fiscal year 2026. 
‘‘(6) $2,000,000 for fiscal year 2027. 
‘‘SEC. 604. DEFINITIONS. 
‘‘ In this title: 
‘‘(1) ADMINISTRATOR.—The term ‘Adminis-
trator’ means the Under Secretary of Commerce for 
Oceans and Atmosphere and Administrator of the 
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 
‘‘(2) NATIONAL
ACADEMIES.—The term ‘Na-
tional Academies’ means the National Academies of 
Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 
‘‘(3) PRECIPITATION FREQUENCY ATLAS.—The 
term ‘precipitation frequency atlas’ means a geo-
graphical atlas, such as the NOAA Atlas 14, that 
contains precipitation frequency estimates for the 
United States with associated lower and upper 
bounds of a determined confidence interval and sup-
plementary information on temporal distribution of 
heavy precipitation, analysis of seasonality, and 
trends in annual maximum series data. 
‘‘(4) PRECIPITATION FREQUENCY ESTIMATE.— 
The term ‘precipitation frequency estimate’ means 
the magnitude associated with specific average re-
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currence interval or annual exceedance probability 
for a given duration. 
‘‘(5) UNITED
STATES.—The term ‘United 
States’ means, collectively, each State of the United 
States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth 
of Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the Com-
monwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the 
Virgin Islands of the United States, and any other 
territory or possession of the United States.’’. 
(b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—Section 1(b) of the 
Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 
2017 (15 U.S.C. 8501 note) is amended in the table of 
contents by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘TITLE VI—IMPROVING FEDERAL PRECIPITATION INFORMATION 
‘‘Sec. 601. Study on Precipitation Estimation. 
‘‘Sec. 602. Improving Precipitation Frequency Estimates. 
‘‘Sec. 603. Improving Probable Maximum Precipitation Estimates. 
‘‘Sec. 604. Definitions.’’. 
Æ 
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