I 
116TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 5536 
To require the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to make 
certain operational models available to the public, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
DECEMBER 23, 2019 
Mrs. FLETCHER introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Science, Space, and Technology 
A BILL 
To require the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminis-
tration to make certain operational models available to 
the public, 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 ‘‘Learning Excellence 
and Good Examples from New Developers Act of 2019’’ 
or the ‘‘LEGEND Act of 2019’’. 
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act: 
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(1) ADMINISTRATION.—The term ‘‘Administra-
tion’’ means the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
Administration. 
(2) ADMINISTRATOR.—The term ‘‘Adminis-
trator’’ means the Under Secretary of Commerce for 
Oceans and Atmosphere and Administrator of the 
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 
(3) MODEL.—The term ‘‘model’’ means any nu-
merical model of the Earth’s system or its compo-
nents produced by scientists employed by the Ad-
ministration. 
(4) OPERATIONAL
MODEL.—The term ‘‘oper-
ational model’’ means any model that has an output 
used by the Administration for operational or public 
service functions. 
(5) OPEN
SOURCE
CODE.—The term ‘‘open 
source code’’ means computer code or programming 
language that is available for public use or modifica-
tion. 
SEC. 3. PURPOSES. 
The purposes of this Act are— 
(1) to support innovation in modeling by allow-
ing interested stakeholders to have easy and com-
plete access to the models used by the Administra-
tion; and 
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(2) to use vetted innovations arising from ac-
cess provided under paragraph (1) to improve mod-
eling by the Administration. 
SEC. 4. REQUIREMENT TO MAKE CERTAIN OPERATIONAL 
MODELS AVAILABLE TO THE PUBLIC. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Administrator shall make 
available to the public the following: 
(1) Current and future operational models de-
veloped by the Administration, in the form of open 
source code for a period consistent with applicable 
records retention requirements. 
(2) All Government-owned data, subject to re-
distribution rights, associated with such models and 
used in operational forecasting by the Administra-
tion, including— 
(A) relevant metadata; 
(B) data used for current operational fore-
casts; and 
(C) a description of intended model out-
puts. 
(b) DISCRETION TO MAKE EXPERIMENTAL OR DE-
VELOPMENT MODELS AVAILABLE.—The Administrator 
may make experimental or developmental models associ-
ated with development projects funded by the Administra-
tion available to the public as open source code. 
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(c) PLATFORM.—In carrying out subsections (a) and 
(b), the Administrator may use government servers, con-
tracts or agreements with a private vendor, or any other 
platform consistent with the purpose of this Act. 
(d) TECHNICAL CORRECTION.—Section 102(b) of the 
Weather Research Forecasting and Innovation Act of 
2017 (15 U.S.C. 8512(b)) is amended by redesignating 
the second paragraph (4) (as added by section 4(a) of the 
National Integrated Drought Information System Reau-
thorization Act of 2018 (Public Law 115–423)) as para-
graph (5). 
(e) PHASED IMPLEMENTATION.— 
(1) IMMEDIATE
EFFECT
FOR
CERTAIN
MOD-
ELS.—For operational models that, as of the date of 
the enactment of this Act, meet the requirements de-
scribed in paragraph (5)(E)(ii) of section 102(b) of 
the Weather Research Forecasting and Innovation 
Act of 2017 (15 U.S.C. 8512(b)), as redesignated by 
subsection (d), the Administrator shall implement 
the requirements of subsection (a) as soon as prac-
ticable after such date of enactment. 
(2) NEW
MODELS.—For operational models 
that meet the requirements described in paragraph 
(1) and are created or substantially updated after 
the date of the enactment of this Act, the Adminis-
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trator shall implement the requirements of sub-
section (a) not later than 1 year after such date of 
enactment. 
SEC. 5. REQUIREMENT TO REVIEW MODELS AND LEVER-
AGE INNOVATIONS. 
The Administrator shall— 
(1) consistent with the mission of the Earth 
Prediction Innovation Center, periodically review in-
novations and improvements made by persons out-
side the Administration to the operational models 
made available to the public under section 4 in order 
to improve the accuracy and timeliness of forecasts 
of the Administration; and 
(2) if the Administrator identifies an innovation 
for such a model the Administrator considers suit-
able, develop and implement a plan to use the inno-
vation to improve the model. 
SEC. 6. REPORT ON IMPLEMENTATION. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after the 
date of the enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall 
submit to the appropriate congressional committees a re-
port on the implementation of this Act that includes a de-
scription of— 
(1) how operational models have been made 
publicly available as required by section 4(a); and 
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(2) the process of the Administration under sec-
tion 5— 
(A) for engaging with interested stake-
holders to learn what innovations those stake-
holders have found; 
(B) for reviewing those innovations; and 
(C) for operationalizing innovations the 
Administrator considers suitable. 
(b) APPROPRIATE
CONGRESSIONAL
COMMITTEES 
DEFINED.—In this section, the term ‘‘appropriate con-
gressional committees’’ means— 
(1) the Committee on Commerce, Science, and 
Transportation and the Committee on Appropria-
tions of the Senate; and 
(2) the Committee on Science, Space, and 
Technology and the Committee on Appropriations of 
the House of Representatives. 
SEC. 7. PROTECTION OF NATIONAL SECURITY INTERESTS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other provi-
sion of this Act, the Administrator may withhold models 
or data used in operational weather forecasting if the Ad-
ministrator determines doing so to be necessary to protect 
the national security interests of the United States. 
(b) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this Act 
shall be construed to supersede any other provision of law 
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governing the protection of the national security interests 
of the United States. 
SEC. 8. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 
There are authorized to be appropriated to the Ad-
ministration for each of fiscal years 2021 through 2026 
such sums as may be necessary to carry out this Act. 
Æ 
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