I 
110TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2407 
To establish the National Hurricane Research Initiative to improve hurricane 
preparedness, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MAY 21, 2007 
Mr. HASTINGS of Florida (for himself, Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN, Ms. WASSERMAN 
SCHULTZ, Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi, Mr. MELANCON, Mr. TAYLOR, 
Mr. JINDAL, Mr. MEEK of Florida, Mr. KLEIN of Florida, Mr. WEXLER, 
Ms. CORRINE BROWN of Florida, Mr. MAHONEY of Florida, Mr. MARIO 
DIAZ-BALART of Florida, Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida, Mr. 
MCINTYRE, Mr. ORTIZ, Mr. JEFFERSON, Mr. KELLER of Florida, Mr. 
MACK, and Mr. BUCHANAN) introduced the following bill; which was re-
ferred 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 2007’’. 
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. 
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-
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-
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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— 
(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. 
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(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, 
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-
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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-
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 
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