National Mesonet Authorization Act
Bill: H.R.8397 | Sponsor: Rep. Bice, Stephanie I. (R-OK)
Policy area: Public Lands and Natural Resources

Summary:
National Mesonet Authorization Act
This bill provides statutory authority for the National Mesonet Program of the National Weather Service (NWS).
The program shall obtain observations from observing platforms in all geographic environments to improve understanding of and forecast capabilities for atmospheric events, with a prioritization on leveraging available commercial, academic, and other nonfederal weather data to enhance coordination across the private, public, and academic sectors of the U.S. weather enterprise.
The program must carry out specified activities, including improving environmental observations used by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the NWS to support baseline forecasts and warnings that protect the nation's citizens, businesses, military, and government agencies and enable such individuals and entities to operate in safe, efficient, and orderly manners.
NOAA shall ensure the program has an active advisory committee of subject matter experts to identify, implement, procure, and track data needed to supplement the program, and recommend improvements, expansions, and acquisitions of available data.
The advisory committee shall establish partnerships with one or more institutions of higher education to identify, evaluate, and recommend potential partnerships, regional or subregional consortia, and collaborative methods that would expand the number of participants and volume of data in the program.

To authorize the National Mesonet Program of the National Weather 
                    Service, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

     This Act may be cited as the ``National Mesonet Authorization 
Act''.

SEC. 2. NATIONAL MESONET PROGRAM.

    (a) In General.--Title I of the Weather Research and Forecasting 
Innovation Act of 2017 (15 U.S.C. 8501 et seq.) is amended by adding at 
the end the following new section:

``SEC. 111. NATIONAL MESONET PROGRAM.

    ``(a) Findings.--Congress finds the following:
            ``(1) Since the initial establishment of the National 
        Mesonet Program, a public-private partnership program, the 
        Program has leveraged data collected by existing weather 
        observation networks to--
                    ``(A) provide accurate, real-time observations to 
                support weather forecasters, emergency response, and 
                all-weather sensitive activities across the United 
                States;
                    ``(B) address persistent impediments, identified in 
                a 2009 National Academy of Sciences Report, From the 
                Ground Up, to fulfill the need for broader and denser 
                environmental observation networks to improve severe 
                weather lead-times;
                    ``(C) help achieve major improvements for the 
                National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the 
                broader American Weather Enterprise, as identified in 
                the 2011 National Academy of Sciences Report, The 
                National Weather Service Modernization and Associated 
                Restructuring;
                    ``(D) increase the amount of non-Federal weather 
                data available to the Federal Government by orders of 
                magnitude; and
                    ``(E) improve understanding of the impact, size, 
                and duration of mesoscale weather events.
            ``(2) The National Mesonet Program is a critical component 
        of Administration operations and provides reliable, real-time 
        observation capabilities for the physical environment that 
        enhances prediction, preparedness, and response strategies to 
        severe weather events.
            ``(3) The National Mesonet Program is a primary input, 
        ingest, and quality-assurance/quality-control for non-Federal 
        weather data that are critical to operations, including 
        situational awareness, forecasting, decision support, research, 
        in-situ verification and validation for emerging satellite 
        technologies, and numerical weather prediction modeling.
    ``(b) Program.--There is in the National Weather Service a program 
to be known as the National Mesonet Program (in this section referred 
to as the `Program'). The Program shall--
            ``(1) be administered by the Under Secretary; and
            ``(2) obtain observations from observing platforms in all 
        geographic environments to improve understanding of and 
        forecast capabilities for atmospheric events, with a 
        prioritization on leveraging available commercial, academic, 
        and other non-Federal weather data to enhance coordination 
        across the private, public, and academic sectors of the United 
        States weather enterprise.
    ``(c) Program Elements.--The Program shall carry out the following 
activities:
            ``(1) Improve environmental observations used by the 
        National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the 
        National Weather Service to support baseline forecasts and 
        warnings that protect the Nation's citizens, businesses, 
        military, and government agencies and enable such individuals 
        and entities to operate in safe, efficient, and orderly 
        manners.
            ``(2) When demonstrably cost effective, leverage existing 
        networks of environmental monitoring stations to increase the 
        quantity and density of weather observations available to the 
        Administration.
            ``(3) Establish means to integrate greater density and type 
        of weather observations into the Program on an annual basis, 
        including by encouraging local and regional networks of 
        environmental monitoring stations to participate in the 
        Program.
            ``(4) Yield increased quantities of boundary-layer data to 
        improve numerical weather prediction performance, including 
        regarding subseasonal to seasonal timescales.
            ``(5) Provide the critical technical and administrative 
        infrastructure needed to facilitate rapid integration and 
        sustained use of new and emerging networks of environmental 
        monitoring stations anticipated in coming years.
            ``(6) Expand and enhance environmental observational 
        networks in the roadway environment to provide real-time road 
        weather and surface conditions for surface transportation and 
        related economic sectors.
            ``(7) Identify available terrestrial or marine weather 
        data, or quantifiable gaps in such data, to improve the 
        understanding of air-sea interactions.
            ``(8) Support the National Weather Service in reaching its 
        target of a 30-minute warning time for severe weather through 
        better predictive model algorithms driven by increasingly 
        effective observations.
            ``(9) Coordinate with existing Administration data used for 
        forecasts, including data from the National Environmental 
        Satellite, Data, and Information Service, the Integrated Ocean 
        Observing System, the Global Ocean Monitoring and Observing 
        Program, and National Ocean Service water level stations.
            ``(10) Identify and communicate to the Office of Oceanic 
        and Atmospheric Research and other partners priorities of 
        research and development needed to advance observations in the 
        Program.
    ``(d) Financial and Technical Assistance.--
            ``(1) In general.--In furtherance of the Program, the Under 
        Secretary may, to the extent amounts are made available, award 
        financial assistance to State, Tribal, private, and academic 
        entities seeking to build, expand, or upgrade equipment and 
        capacity of mesonet systems. Financial assistance under this 
        subsection may be made in coordination or addition to awards 
        from other Federal agencies.
            ``(2) Agreements.--Before receiving financial assistance 
        under paragraph (1), the State, Tribal, private, or academic 
        entity seeking financial assistance under this subsection shall 
        enter into an agreement with the Under Secretary to provide 
        data to the Program, subject to verification of the relative 
        operational value and evaluation of the cost of such data, for 
        use in weather prediction, severe weather warnings, and 
        emergency response.
            ``(3) Assistance and other support.--The Under Secretary 
        may provide technical assistance, project implementation 
        support, and guidance to entities seeking financial assistance 
        under this subsection.
            ``(4) Terms.--In providing financial assistance under this 
        subsection, the Under Secretary shall establish terms to ensure 
        that each State, Tribal, private, or academic entity that 
        receives financial assistance under this subsection receives a 
        level of Federal support commensurate with the quality and 
        other characteristics of the data to be provided.
            ``(5) Determination.--A State, Tribal, private, or academic 
        entity may receive financial assistance under this subsection 
        only if the Under Secretary determines such entity shall 
        provide sufficient non-Federal financial support to maintain 
        the quality of the mesonet system and associated data standards 
        required by the Program.
    ``(e) Advisory Committee.--
            ``(1) In general.--The Under Secretary shall ensure the 
        Program has an active advisory committee of subject matter 
        experts to identify, implement, procure, and track data needed 
        to supplement the Program, and recommend improvements, 
        expansions, and acquisitions of available data. The Under 
        Secretary may designate an existing Federal advisory committee, 
        subcommittee, or working group, including, if appropriate, the 
        Science Advisory Board of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
        Administration, to carry out this subsection.
            ``(2) Partnerships.--The advisory committee under paragraph 
        (1) shall establish partnerships with one or more 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 identify, 
        evaluate, and recommend potential partnerships, regional or 
        subregional consortia, and collaborative methods that would 
        expand the number of participants and volume of data in the 
        Program.
    ``(f) Regular Reporting.--The Under Secretary shall provide regular 
briefings, not less than twice annually, to the Committee on Science, 
Space, and Technology of the House of Representatives and the Committee 
on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate on all Program 
activities. Such briefings shall include information relating to the 
following:
            ``(1) Efforts to implement the activities described in 
        subsection (c).
            ``(2) Any financial or technical assistance provided 
        pursuant to subsection (d).
            ``(3) Efforts to address recommendations received from the 
        advisory committee under subsection (e).
            ``(4) The potential need and associated benefits of a 
        coastal and ocean mesonet, or other emerging areas of weather 
        data needs.
            ``(5) Progress toward eliminating gaps in weather 
        observation data by States and regions of the United States.
            ``(6) Any other topic the Under Secretary determines 
        relevant.
    ``(g) Authorization of Appropriations.--Of amounts otherwise 
authorized to be made available to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
Administration, there is authorized to carry out this section the 
following:
            ``(1) $50,000,000 for fiscal year 2023.
            ``(2) $55,000,000 for fiscal year 2024.
            ``(3) $61,000,000 for fiscal year 2025.
            ``(4) $68,000,000 for fiscal year 2026.
            ``(5) $70,000,000 for fiscal year 2027.''.
    (b) Clerical Amendment.--The table of contents for the Weather 
Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017 is amended by inserting 
after the item relating to section 110 the following new item:

``Sec. 111. National Mesonet Program.''.
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