I 
116TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 8882 
To establish a national integrated flood information system within the 
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
DECEMBER 4, 2020 
Ms. SHERRILL (for herself and Mr. WEBER of Texas) introduced the following 
bill; which was referred to the Committee on Science, Space, and Tech-
nology, and in addition to the Committees on Natural Resources, and 
Transportation and Infrastructure, for a period to be subsequently deter-
mined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions 
as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To establish a national integrated flood information system 
within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminis-
tration, 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; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 
‘‘Flood Level Observation, Operations, and Decision Sup-
port Act’’ or the ‘‘FLOODS Act’’. 
(b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents for 
this Act is as follows: 
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Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. 
Sec. 2. Definitions. 
Sec. 3. National Integrated Flood Information System. 
Sec. 4. Observations and modeling for total water prediction. 
Sec. 5. Service coordination hydrologists at River Forecast Centers of the Na-
tional Weather Service. 
Sec. 6. Improving National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration commu-
nication of future flood risks and hazardous flash flood events. 
Sec. 7. Freshwater monitoring along the coast. 
Sec. 8. Tornado warning improvement. 
Sec. 9. Hurricane forecast improvement program. 
Sec. 10. Weather and water research and development planning. 
Sec. 11. Forecast communication coordinators. 
Sec. 12. Estimates of precipitation frequency in the United States. 
Sec. 13. Interagency Coordinating Committee on Water Management. 
Sec. 14. National Weather Service hydrologic research fellowship program. 
Sec. 15. Identification and support of consistent, Federal set of forward-look-
ing, long-term meteorological information. 
Sec. 16. Gap analysis on availability of snow-related data to assess and predict 
flood and flood impacts. 
Sec. 17. Availability to the public of flood-related data. 
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act: 
(1) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means each 
State of the United States, the District of Columbia, 
the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, American 
Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern 
Mariana Islands, the Virgin Islands of the United 
States, and any other territory or possession of the 
United States. 
(2) UNDER
SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Under 
Secretary’’ means the Under Secretary of Commerce 
for Oceans and Atmosphere. 
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SEC. 3. NATIONAL INTEGRATED FLOOD INFORMATION SYS-
TEM. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Under Secretary shall estab-
lish a system, to be known as the ‘‘National Integrated 
Flood Information System’’, to better inform and provide 
for more timely decision making to reduce flood-related 
effects and costs. 
(b) SYSTEM FUNCTIONS.—The Under Secretary, 
through the National Integrated Flood Information Sys-
tem, shall— 
(1) provide an effective flood early warning sys-
tem that— 
(A) collects and integrates information on 
the key indicators of floods and flood impacts, 
including streamflow, reservoir release and di-
version, precipitation, soil moisture, snow water 
equivalent, land cover, and evaporative demand; 
(B) makes usable, reliable, and timely fore-
casts of floods; 
(C) assesses the severity of flood conditions 
and effects; 
(D) issues flood watches and warnings 
when necessary; 
(E) provides information described in sub-
paragraph (A), forecasts described in subpara-
graph (B), and assessments described in sub-
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paragraph (C) at the national, regional, and 
local levels, as appropriate; and 
(F) communicates flood forecasts, flood 
conditions, and flood impacts to public and pri-
vate entities engaged in flood planning, pre-
paredness, and response, including— 
(i) decision makers at the Federal, 
State, local, and Tribal levels of govern-
ment; 
(ii) the private sector; and 
(iii) the public; 
(2) provide timely data, information, and prod-
ucts that reflect differences in flood conditions 
among localities, regions, watersheds, and States; 
(3) coordinate and integrate, through inter-
agency agreements as practicable, Federal research 
and monitoring in support of the flood early warning 
information system provided under paragraph (1); 
(4) use existing forecasting and assessment pro-
grams and partnerships; 
(5) make improvements in seasonal precipita-
tion and temperature, subseasonal precipitation and 
temperature, and flood water prediction; and 
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