(4) Initiating the dissemination of weather, 
water, marine, ecological, climate, aviation, and 
space warnings and forecasts in a rapid and highly 
reliable manner. 
(c) ELEMENTS.—The transition of operations re-
quired under subsection (a) may include the following: 
(1) Establishment or support of testbeds, pilot 
projects, and functional testing activities to facilitate 
remote evaluation and automated testing. 
(2) Coordinated training efforts needed for 
Federal and non-Federal users and operators of the 
Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System in 
an operational cloud-based environment referred to 
in subsection (a). 
(3) Evaluation of bandwidth requirements to 
achieve a quality user experience. 
(4) Installation of circuits to reduce lapses in 
network operations and support backup functions. 
(5) Establishment of a cloud-based, remotely 
accessible repository for data referred to in sub-
section (b)(2). 
(6) Development and deployment of virtualized 
systems to replace physical hardware at operational 
sites. 
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(7) Evaluation of commercial cloud providers, 
including hybrid approaches, to meet mission needs. 
(8) Development, testing, demonstration, eval-
uation, and operationalization of forecast and warn-
ing products, consistent with the mission and sci-
entific expertise of the National Oceanic and Atmos-
pheric Administration. 
(d) UPDATES TO CONGRESS.—The Under Secretary 
shall submit to the Committee on Science, Space, and 
Technology of the House of Representatives and the Com-
mittee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the 
Senate periodic updates on the implementation of this sec-
tion. 
(e) CONTINUED INNOVATION.—Nothing in this sec-
tion may be construed as prohibiting the development of 
new forecast capabilities, subsystems, or implementing 
modeling advancements on the operational computing sys-
tems of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminis-
tration. 
SEC. 209. REANALYSIS AND REFORECASTING. 
The Under Secretary may support reanalysis and re-
forecasting activities within the National Oceanic and At-
mospheric Administration, including through weather 
testbeds of the Administration, for the following: 
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(1) Improving weather forecasts, extreme 
weather predictions, and weather and climate 
datasets. 
(2) Serving as training data for artificial intel-
ligence and machine learning data-driven models. 
SEC. 210. NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE WORKFORCE. 
(a) HIRING.—The Director of the National Weather 
Service shall annually submit to the Under Secretary and 
Congress an assessment of the milestones, timelines, and 
service level expectations required for the expeditious hir-
ing and timely on-boarding of employees of the National 
Weather Service. Each such assessment may include the 
following: 
(1) Recommendations to outsource hiring to 
any entity other than the National Weather Service 
in order to meet such milestones, timelines, and 
service level expectations. 
(2) Determinations of the number of staff and 
designated positions required at each forecasting of-
fice to provide services to protect lives and property 
in the geographic region of responsibility. 
(b) HEALTH AND MORALE ASSESSMENT.—The Di-
rector of the National Weather Service shall contract or 
continue to partner with an external entity or organization 
to conduct an assessment of medical impacts, including 
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100 
stress and long-term health impacts, on National Weather 
Service employees related to required rotating shift work. 
Such assessment may include options for mitigating such 
impacts on employees and recommendations for improving 
benefits related to required rotating shift work. 
(c) ROLE OF THE DIRECTOR.—Notwithstanding the 
results of the assessment under subsection (b), the Direc-
tor of the National Weather Service shall establish service 
level standards based on staffing levels. 
(d) DESIGNATION OF SERVICE HYDROLOGIST.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—The Director of the National 
Weather Service may designate at least one service 
coordination hydrologist at each Weather Forecast 
Office of the National Weather Service. 
(2) LIMITATION.—Nothing in this section may 
be construed to authorize or require a change in the 
authorized number of full-time equivalent employees 
of the National Weather Service or otherwise result 
in the employment of any additional employees. 
(3) PERFORMANCE BY OTHER EMPLOYEES.— 
Notwithstanding paragraphs (4) and (5), the Direc-
tor of the National Weather Service may assign the 
performance of the responsibilities described in this 
subsection to such other staff of the National 
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Weather Service as the Director considers appro-
priate. 
(4) RESPONSIBILITIES.—In order to increase 
impact-based decision support services, each service 
coordination hydrologist designated under paragraph 
(1) shall, with respect to hydrology, carry out the 
following: 
(A) Be responsible for providing service to 
the geographic area of responsibility covered by 
the Weather Forecast Office at which the serv-
ice coordination hydrologist is employed to help 
ensure that users of products and services of 
the National Weather Service can respond ef-
fectively to improve outcomes from flood events. 
(B) Liaise with users of products and serv-
ices of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
Administration, such as emergency managers, 
the public, academia, media outlets, users in the 
hydropower, transportation, recreation, and ag-
ricultural communities, and forestry, land, fish-
eries, and water management interests, to 
evaluate the adequacy and usefulness of the 
products and services referred to in subpara-
graph (A), including extended range streamflow 
forecasts, water supply forecasts, drought out-
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