I 
111TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 327 
To establish the National Hurricane Research Initiative to improve hurricane 
preparedness, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JANUARY 8, 2009 
Mr. HASTINGS of Florida (for himself, Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN, Ms. WASSERMAN 
SCHULTZ, Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida, Mr. MEEK of Florida, 
Mr. BROWN of South Carolina, Mr. BISHOP of Georgia, Mr. MACK, Mr. 
LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida, Ms. BORDALLO, Ms. CASTOR of Flor-
ida, Mr. WEXLER, Mr. MCINTYRE, Mr. MOORE of Kansas, Mr. BILI-
RAKIS, Mr. WEINER, Mr. MELANCON, and Mr. BUCHANAN) introduced 
the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Science and 
Technology 
A BILL 
To establish the National Hurricane Research Initiative to 
improve hurricane preparedness, 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 ‘‘National Hurricane 
Research Initiative Act of 2009’’. 
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act: 
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(1) DIRECTOR.—The term ‘‘Director’’ means 
the Director of the National Science Foundation. 
(2) UNDER
SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Under 
Secretary’’ means the Under Secretary for Oceans 
and Atmosphere of the Department of Commerce. 
(3) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means any 
State of the United States, the District of Columbia, 
the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, American 
Samoa, the United States Virgin Islands, the North-
ern Mariana Islands, and any other territory or pos-
session over which the United States has jurisdic-
tion. 
SEC. 3. NATIONAL HURRICANE RESEARCH INITIATIVE. 
(a) REQUIREMENT TO ESTABLISH.—The Under Sec-
retary and the Director shall establish an initiative known 
as the National Hurricane Research Initiative for the pur-
poses described in subsection (b). 
(b) PURPOSES.—The purposes of the National Hurri-
cane Research Initiative shall be to set research objectives 
based upon the findings of the January 12, 2007, National 
Science Board report entitled ‘‘Hurricane Warning: The 
Critical Need for National Hurricane Research Initia-
tive’’— 
(1) to make recommendations to the National 
Science Board and the National Oceanic and Atmos-
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pheric Administration Science Advisory Board on 
such research; 
(2) to assemble the science and engineering ex-
pertise of State or local government agencies or de-
partments and nongovernmental entities (including 
universities and colleges and other research and aca-
demic institutions), through a multi-entity effort fo-
cused on— 
(A) improving hurricane and other severe 
tropical storm forecasting capabilities, including 
formation, track, and intensity change; 
(B) durable and resilient infrastructure; 
and 
(C) mitigating impacts on coastal popu-
lations, the coastal built environment, and the 
natural coastal environment, including but not 
limited to, coral reefs, wetlands, and other nat-
ural systems that mitigate hurricane wind and 
storm surge impacts; and 
(3) to make grants to eligible entities to carry 
out research in the following areas: 
(A) PREDICTING
HURRICANE
INTENSITY 
CHANGE.—Research to improve understanding 
of— 
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(i) rapid change in storm size, motion, 
structure, and intensity; 
(ii) storm internal dynamics; and 
(iii) the interactions of the storm and 
its environmental conditions, including the 
atmosphere, ocean, and land surface. 
(B) UNDERSTANDING OCEAN-ATMOSPHERE 
INTERACTIONS.—Observations, theory and mod-
eling, to improve understanding of air-sea inter-
action in high wind speeds. 
(C) PREDICTING STORM SURGE, RAINFALL, 
INLAND FLOODING, AND STRONG WINDS PRO-
DUCED BY HURRICANES AND TROPICAL STORMS 
DURING AND AFTER LANDFALL.—Research to 
understand, model, and predict rainfall, flood-
ing, high winds, the potential occurrence of tor-
nadoes, and storm surge, including probabilistic 
modeling and mapping of risk. 
(D) IMPROVED OBSERVATIONS OF HURRI-
CANES
AND
TROPICAL
STORMS.—Research to 
improve measurements of hurricanes and trop-
ical storms through mobile radar platforms, 
Global Positioning Systems technology, un-
manned vehicles, ground-based and wireless 
sensors, oceanic remote sensing technologies, 
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and air-deployed ocean profilers and floats to 
improve our understanding of the complex na-
ture of storms and their interaction with the 
ocean and land. 
(E) ASSESSING VULNERABLE INFRASTRUC-
TURE.—Research to develop a national engi-
neering assessment of coastal infrastructure, in-
cluding infrastructure related to levees, sea-
walls, drainage systems, bridges, water and 
sewage systems, power, and communications, to 
determine the level of vulnerability of such in-
frastructure to damage from hurricanes and to 
determine 
strategies 
to 
reduce 
such 
vulnerabilities. 
(F) INTERACTION OF HURRICANES WITH 
ENGINEERED
STRUCTURES.—Research to im-
prove understanding of the impacts of hurri-
canes and tropical storms on buildings, struc-
tures, and housing combined with modeling es-
sential for guiding the creation of improved 
building designs and construction codes in loca-
tions particularly vulnerable to hurricanes. 
(G) 
RELATIONSHIP
BETWEEN
HURRI-
CANES, 
CLIMATE, 
AND
NATURAL
ECO-
SYSTEMS.—Research to improve the under-
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standing of complex relationships between hur-
ricanes and climate, including research to deter-
mine the most effective methods to use observa-
tional information and numerical model simula-
tions to examine the impacts on ecosystems 
over long and short periods of time, including 
but not limited to impacts on coral reefs, wet-
lands, and other natural systems that mitigate 
hurricane wind and storm surge impacts. 
(H) TECHNOLOGIES
FOR
DISASTER
RE-
SPONSE AND RECOVERY.—Research to improve 
emergency communication networks for govern-
ment agencies and non-government entities and 
to improve communications between such net-
works during disaster response and recovery, 
including cyber-security during disaster situa-
tions and the ability to improve damage assess-
ments during storms. 
(I) EVACUATION PLANNING.—Research to 
improve the manner in which hurricane-related 
information is provided to, and utilized by, the 
public and government officials, including re-
search to assist officials of State or local gov-
ernment in determining the circumstances in 
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which evacuations are required and in carrying 
out such evacuations. 
(J) 
COMPUTATIONAL
CAPABILITY.—Re-
search to improve understanding of the efficient 
utility of multiple models requiring sharing and 
inter-operability of databases, computing envi-
ronments, networks, visualization tools, and 
analytic systems beyond what is currently avail-
able for transitioning hurricane research assets 
into operational practice and to provide access 
to robust computational facilities beyond the fa-
cilities normally accessible by the civilian re-
search community for the hurricane research 
enterprise, including data acquisition and mod-
eling capability during hurricane events. 
(c) COOPERATION WITH OTHER AGENCIES.—The 
Under Secretary and the Director shall cooperate with the 
head of each appropriate Federal agency or department, 
research institute, university, and disaster-response or 
nongovernmental organization to utilize the expertise and 
capabilities of such entity to carry out the purposes of the 
National Hurricane Research Initiative, including co-
operation with the heads of the following entities: 
(1) The National Aeronautics and Space Ad-
ministration. 
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(2) The National Institute of Standards and 
Technology. 
(3) The Department of Homeland Security, in-
cluding the Federal Emergency Management Agen-
cy. 
(4) The Department of Energy. 
(5) The Defense Advanced Research Project 
Agency. 
(6) The Environmental Protection Agency. 
(7) The United States Geological Survey. 
(8) The Army Corps of Engineers. 
(d) COORDINATION.—The White House Office of 
Science and Technology Policy, through the National 
Science and Technology Council, shall coordinate the ac-
tivities carried out by the United States related to the Na-
tional Hurricane Research Initiative as a formal program 
with a well defined organizational structure and execution 
plan. 
(e) GRANTS.— 
(1) AUTHORITY.—The Undersecretary and the 
Director may award grants to appropriate State and 
local governmental agencies or departments, re-
search universities or nongovernmental entities to 
carry out the purposes described in subsection (b). 
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(2) BEST
PRACTICES.—The Under Secretary 
and the Director shall develop and make available to 
the public a description of best practices to be used 
to carry out a project with a grant awarded under 
this subsection. 
(f) RESEARCH SEMINARS AND FORUMS.—The Under 
Secretary and the Director shall carry out a series of na-
tional seminars and forums that assemble a broad collec-
tion of scientific disciplines to direct researchers to work 
collaboratively to carry out the purposes described in sub-
section (b). 
(g) INITIAL RESEARCH TO DEVELOP IMPROVED 
HURRICANE INTENSITY FORECASTS AND IMPACT PRO-
JECTIONS.—The Undersecretary and the Director shall 
within 120 days after the enactment of this Act issue a 
request for proposals to undertake the basic and applied 
research with an annual budget in the amounts as deemed 
appropriate by the Under Secretary and the Director to 
accomplish the desired research results during a 10-year 
term. 
(h) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is 
authorized to be appropriated $150,000,000 for each of 
the fiscal years 2009 through 2013 to carry out this sec-
tion. 
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SEC. 4. NATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE DATABASE. 
(a) REQUIREMENT TO ESTABLISH.—The Under Sec-
retary and the Director shall establish a National Infra-
structure Database for the purposes of— 
(1) cataloging and characterizing the physical, 
social, and natural infrastructure in order to provide 
a baseline for developing standards, measuring modi-
fication, and determining loss; 
(2) providing information to Federal, State, and 
local government officials to improve information 
public policy related to hurricanes and tropical 
storms; and 
(3) providing data to researchers to improve 
their ability to measure hurricane impacts, separate 
such impacts from other effects, both natural and 
anthropogenic, make effective recommendations for 
improved building codes and urban planning prac-
tices, and develop effective procedures for respond-
ing to infrastructure disruption. 
(b) DATABASE REQUIREMENTS.—The National In-
frastructure Database shall be a virtual, cyber environ-
ment that uses existing capabilities and facilities, and es-
tablishes new capabilities and facilities, as appropriate, to 
provide an interoperable environment and the necessary 
metadata and other resources needed by users of that 
Database. 
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