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SEC. 303. CONTRACTING AUTHORITY AND AVOIDANCE OF 
DUPLICATION. 
Title III of the Weather Research and Forecasting 
Innovation Act of 2017 is amended by adding at the end 
the following new section: 
‘‘SEC. 304. CONTRACTING AUTHORITY AND AVOIDANCE OF 
DUPLICATION. 
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Consistent with other Federal 
agencies that contract and partner with private sector en-
tities, the Under Secretary is authorized to use con-
tracting mechanisms and enter into agreements that uti-
lize multiyear contract options. In carrying out sections 
302 and 303, the Under Secretary shall, to the greatest 
extent possible— 
‘‘(1) enter into year-long or multiyear contract 
options using contracting mechanisms that foster re-
siliency of datatypes purchased; 
‘‘(2) partner and contract with multiple obser-
vation service and data providers simultaneously to 
reduce risks of data gaps and improve mission 
robustness; and 
‘‘(3) utilize authorities, such as additional 
forms of transaction agreements under section 301, 
that allow for innovative partnerships with private 
sector entities. 
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‘‘(b) SAVINGS CLAUSE.—Nothing in this title may be 
construed as infringing on the acquisition authority or 
strategy of Federal entities authorized under title 10, 
United States Code. 
‘‘(c) UNNECESSARY DUPLICATION.—In meeting the 
requirements under this title, the Under Secretary shall 
avoid unnecessary duplication between the National Oce-
anic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Aero-
nautics and Space Administration, other Federal depart-
ments and agencies, and private sector entities, including 
relating to corresponding expenditures of funds and em-
ployment of personnel by— 
‘‘(1) coordinating existing activities with other 
civilian Federal departments and agencies which 
provide, contract, or partner with private sector enti-
ties to acquire, weather and environmental observa-
tions and data; and 
‘‘(2) coordinating and soliciting weather and en-
vironmental observations and data requirements and 
needs from other civilian Federal departments and 
agencies to be acquired by the Commercial Data 
Program under section 302. 
‘‘(d) FAIR
COMPENSATION
FOR
INTERAGENCY 
NEEDS.—The Under Secretary, to the maximum extent 
practicable, shall ensure that Federal departments and 
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agencies utilizing services and data under sections 302 
and 303 fairly compensate the National Oceanic and At-
mospheric Administration, or the non-Federal entities pro-
viding such services or data, as appropriate, for use.’’. 
SEC. 304. DATA ASSIMILATION, MANAGEMENT, AND SHAR-
ING PRACTICES. 
Title III of the Weather Research and Forecasting 
Innovation Act of 2017, as amended by section 303 of this 
Act, is further amended by adding at the end the following 
new section: 
‘‘SEC. 305. DATA ASSIMILATION, MANAGEMENT, AND SHAR-
ING PRACTICES. 
‘‘(a) DATA STANDARDS.—The Under Secretary, in 
collaboration with the weather enterprise, shall seek to es-
tablish consistent and open data and metadata standards 
to support open science, including simple cloud-optimized 
data formats and application programming interfaces that 
support 
findability, 
accessibility, 
usability, 
and 
preservability. 
‘‘(b) DATA INFRASTRUCTURE.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Under Secretary, in 
consultation with the Chief Information Officer and 
appropriate program heads, shall consolidate and ar-
range data infrastructure needs to ensure efficient 
and effective data transfer between National Oceanic 
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and Atmospheric Administration offices by consid-
ering the use of commercial cloud technologies, or 
similar hybrid structures, to host and transmit data 
and metadata. 
‘‘(2) FEDERAL
PARTNERSHIPS.—In carrying 
out paragraph (1), the Under Secretary may partner 
with the heads of other Federal departments and 
agencies, including the National Aeronautics and 
Space Administration, the Department of Energy, 
the United States Space Force, the United States 
Coast Guard, the United States Navy, the Federal 
Aviation Administration, the United States Forest 
Service, the Environmental Protection Agency, the 
National Science Foundation, and the United States 
Geological Survey, to collocate data with joint utility 
and support a transition to cloud architectures, in-
cluding commercial cloud networks. 
‘‘(3) LONG TERM DATA ARCHIVE.—The Under 
Secretary shall ensure the long-term management, 
maintenance, and stewardship of archival data and 
metadata acquired through the Commercial Data 
Program under section 302 is conducted within the 
National Centers for Environmental Information. 
‘‘(c) DATA SHARING WITH THE WEATHER ENTER-
PRISE.—To the greatest extent practicable, the Under 
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Secretary shall make accessible to members of the weather 
enterprise that are United States persons data not subject 
to redistribution contract permissions and purchased 
through the Commercial Data Program under section 302 
or shared through international government partners. If 
purchased data must be assimilated into numerical weath-
er prediction models or automated forecast guidance to 
satisfy redistribution contract permissions, the Under Sec-
retary shall make accessible without delay to members of 
the weather enterprise that are United States persons the 
numerical weather prediction model or automated forecast 
guidance output, as the case may be. 
‘‘(d) DATA ASSIMILATION.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Under Secretary, in 
coordination with the Commercial Data Program 
under section 302, the National Centers for Envi-
ronmental Information, and any other offices within 
the Administration, shall establish a program to 
test, advance, and implement data assimilation 
methods, which may include artificial intelligence, 
machine learning, data pre- and post-processing, ef-
ficient input and output, and next-generation algo-
rithms. 
‘‘(2) DATA ASSIMILATION UNIVERSITY CONSOR-
TIUM.—Through the program established pursuant 
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to paragraph (1), the Under Secretary shall estab-
lish a consortium consisting of institutions of higher 
education (as such term is defined in section 101 of 
the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 
1001)) to address critical research challenges for 
data assimilation and foster a growing data assimi-
lation workforce. The consortium shall seek to— 
‘‘(A) solve critical research issues for data 
assimilation through innovative research; 
‘‘(B) increase significantly the number of 
students, including graduate level and Ph.D. 
candidates, in data assimilation; 
‘‘(C) utilize modern software and frame-
works, such as the Joint Effort for Data As-
similation Integration, to conduct data assimila-
tion research and development and facilitate re-
search to operations efforts; 
‘‘(D) identify and prioritize critical re-
search areas in data assimilation and facilitate 
operations to research efforts; 
‘‘(E) establish and enable an effective col-
laboration infrastructure between National Oce-
anic and Atmospheric Administration facilities, 
such as labs, centers, or joint agency institutes, 
and the research community, including a mech-
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anism for external partners to host Administra-
tion employees; and 
‘‘(F) establish mechanisms to enable all 
members of the consortium to archive and ac-
cess data required to support the work under 
this subsection. 
‘‘(3) COORDINATION.—In carrying out this sub-
section, the Under Secretary shall ensure the Na-
tional Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and 
its associated activities focus on research to oper-
ations and operations to research, including by co-
ordinating and collaborating with the Joint Center 
for Satellite Data Assimilation. 
‘‘(4) DATA ASSIMILATION, MANAGEMENT, AND 
SHARING PRACTICES SECURITY.—The activities au-
thorized under this subsection shall be applied in a 
manner consistent with subtitle D of title VI of the 
Research and Development, Competition, and Inno-
vation Act (enacted as division B of Public Law 
117–167; 42 U.S.C. 19231 et seq.). 
‘‘(e) STUDY ON DATA MANAGEMENT.— 
‘‘(1) IN
GENERAL.—Not later than 90 days 
after the data of the enactment of this section, the 
Under Secretary shall seek to enter into an agree-
ment with a non-Federal entity to conduct a study 
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on matters concerning data practices and manage-
ment needs at the National Oceanic and Atmos-
pheric Administration. In conducting the study, the 
outside entity shall— 
‘‘(A) assess the costs and benefits of cur-
rent data management needs for observational 
and operational mission requirements; 
‘‘(B) develop recommendations regarding 
how to make more robust and cost-effective the 
data portfolio of the Administration; 
‘‘(C) identify data infrastructure tech-
nologies and needs that are essential to the per-
formance of modeling systems of the Adminis-
tration; 
‘‘(D) assess the sharing needs and prac-
tices of the Administration for both internal 
and external sharing dissemination; and 
‘‘(E) develop recommendations for methods 
of data infrastructure sharing, including data 
purchased from the commercial sector. 
‘‘(2) AUTHORIZATION
OF
APPROPRIATIONS.— 
From amounts authorized to be appropriated to the 
Commercial Data Program under section 302, there 
are authorized to be appropriated to carry out the 
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study under paragraph (1) $1,000,000, to remain 
available until expended.’’. 
SEC. 305. CLERICAL AMENDMENT. 
The table of contents in section 1(b) of the Weather 
Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017 is 
amended by striking the items relating to sections 302 and 
303 and inserting the following new items: 
‘‘Sec. 302. Commercial Data Program. 
‘‘Sec. 303. Commercial Data Pilot Program. 
‘‘Sec. 304. Contracting authority and avoidance of duplication. 
‘‘Sec. 305. Data assimilation, management, and sharing practices.’’. 
TITLE IV—COMMUNICATING 
WEATHER TO THE PUBLIC 
SEC. 401. DEFINITIONS. 
In this title: 
(1) 
HAZARDOUS
WEATHER
OR
WATER 
EVENTS.—The term ‘‘hazardous weather or water 
events’’ has the meaning given such term in section 
406 of the Weather Research and Forecasting Inno-
vation Act of 2017 (Public Law 115–25; 131 Stat. 
109), as amended by section 402 of this Act. 
(2) INSTITUTION OF HIGHER EDUCATION.—The 
term ‘‘institution of higher education’’ has the 
meaning given such term in section 101 of the High-
er Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001). 
(3) 
NOAA 
WEATHER
RADIO.—The 
term 
‘‘NOAA Weather Radio’’ means the National Oce-
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anic and Atmospheric Administration Weather Radio 
All Hazards network. 
(4) PUBLIC CLOUD.—The term ‘‘public cloud’’ 
means an information technology model in which 
service providers make computing services, including 
compute and storage and develop-and-deploy envi-
ronments and applications, available on-demand to 
organizations and individuals over the public inter-
net or other means that allows for the widest dis-
semination of information. 
(5) WATCH; WARNING.—The terms ‘‘watch’’ 
and ‘‘warning’’ have the meanings given such terms 
in section 406 of the Weather Research and Fore-
casting Innovation Act of 2017 (Public Law 115–25; 
131 Stat. 109), as amended by section 402 of this 
Act. 
SEC. 402. HAZARDOUS WEATHER OR WATER EVENT RISK 
COMMUNICATION. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 406 of the Weather Re-
search and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017 (Public 
Law 115–25; 131 Stat. 109) is amended to read as fol-
lows: 
‘‘SEC. 406. HAZARDOUS WEATHER OR WATER EVENT RISK 
COMMUNICATION. 
‘‘(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 
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‘‘(1) 
HAZARDOUS
WEATHER
OR
WATER 
EVENTS.—The term ‘hazardous weather or water 
events’ means weather or water events that have a 
high risk of loss of life or property, including the fol-
lowing: 
‘‘(A) Severe storms, such as hurricanes 
and short-fused, small-scale hazardous weather 
or hydrologic events produced by thunder-
storms, including large hail, damaging winds, 
tornadoes, and flash floods. 
‘‘(B) Winter storms, such as freezing or 
frozen precipitation (including freezing rain, 
sleet, and snow), or combined effects of freezing 
or frozen precipitation and strong winds. 
‘‘(C) Other weather hazards, such as ex-
treme heat or cold, wildfire, drought, dense fog, 
high winds, and river, coastal, or lakeshore 
flooding. 
‘‘(2) INSTITUTION OF HIGHER EDUCATION.— 
The term ‘institution of higher education’ has the 
meaning given such term in section 101 of the High-
er Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001). 
‘‘(3) WATCH; WARNING.— 
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The terms ‘watch’ and 
‘warning’, with respect to a hazardous weather 
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or water event, mean products issued by the 
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administra-
tion, intended for consumption by the general 
public, to alert the general public to the poten-
tial for or presence of such event and to inform 
action to prevent loss of life or property. 
‘‘(B) EXCEPTION.—The terms ‘watch’ and 
‘warning’ do not include technical or specialized 
meteorological or hydrological forecasts, out-
looks, or model guidance products. 
‘‘(b) SYSTEM COMMUNICATIONS.—The Under Sec-
retary shall maintain and improve the system of the Na-
tional Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration by which 
the risks of hazardous weather or water events are com-
municated to the general public, with the goal of informing 
response to prevent loss of life or property. 
‘‘(c) HAZARD RISK COMMUNICATION IMPROVEMENT 
AND SIMPLIFICATION.— 
‘‘(1) IN
GENERAL.—To carry out subsection 
(b), the Under Secretary shall maintain a social, be-
havioral, risk, communication, and economic sciences 
program (in this section referred to as the ‘Pro-
gram’), for the purpose of simplifying and improving 
the communication of hazardous weather or water 
events. 
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‘‘(2) TERMINOLOGY.—The Program, in coordi-
nation with social, behavioral, risk, communication, 
and economic science community and user feedback, 
shall identify, eliminate, or modify unnecessary, re-
dundant, or confusing terms for communications re-
garding hazardous weather or water events and add 
new terminology, as appropriate. 
‘‘(3) COMMUNICATIONS
IMPROVEMENT.—The 
Program shall improve the form, content, and meth-
ods of communications regarding hazardous weather 
or water events and associated risks to more clearly 
inform response to prevent the loss of life or prop-
erty. 
‘‘(4) EVALUATIONS.—The Program, in coordi-
nation 
with 
the 
performance 
and 
evaluation 
branches of the National Weather Service and Oce-
anic and Atmospheric Research, shall develop 
metrics for such branches to track and evaluate the 
degree to which communications regarding haz-
ardous weather or water events inform response. 
‘‘(5) SUPPORT PLAN.—The Program shall de-
velop a plan for the purpose of carrying out para-
graph (3). Such plan shall be periodically updated 
and informed by internal and extramural research 
and the results of the evaluation of communications 
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regarding hazardous weather or water events and as-
sociated risks under paragraph (4). 
‘‘(6) METHODS.—In carrying out this section, 
the Program shall develop and implement rec-
ommendations that— 
‘‘(A) are based on the best and most re-
cent understanding from social, behavioral, eco-
nomic, risk, and communications science re-
search; 
‘‘(B) are validated by social, behavioral, 
risk, and communications science, taking into 
account the importance of methods that support 
reproduction and replication of scientific stud-
ies, use of rigorous statistical analyses, and, as 
applicable, data analysis supported by artificial 
intelligence and machine learning technologies; 
‘‘(C) account for the needs of various de-
mographics, vulnerable populations, and geo-
graphic regions; 
‘‘(D) account for the differences between 
various types of hazardous weather or water 
events; 
‘‘(E) respond to the needs of Federal, 
State, and local government partners and media 
partners; and 
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‘‘(F) account for necessary changes in the 
infrastructure, technology, and protocols for de-
veloping and disseminating watches and warn-
ings. 
‘‘(7) COORDINATION.—In carrying out this sec-
tion, the Program shall coordinate with the fol-
lowing: 
‘‘(A) Federal partners, including National 
Laboratories, cooperative institutes, and re-
gional integrated sciences and assessments pro-
grams. 
‘‘(B) State and local government partners. 
‘‘(C) Tribal governments. 
‘‘(D) Institutions of higher education or a 
consortia thereof. 
‘‘(E) Media partners. 
‘‘(8) TIMELINESS
AND
CONSISTENCY.—The 
Program shall develop best practices and guidance 
for ensuring timely and consistent communications 
across public facing platforms that disseminate in-
formation related to hazardous weather or water 
events.’’. 
(b) TABLE
OF CONTENTS.—Section 1(b) of the 
Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 
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