| 1 | 1 | | I |
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| 2 | 2 | | 119THCONGRESS |
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| 3 | 3 | | 1 |
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| 4 | 4 | | STSESSION H. R. 2296 |
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| 5 | 5 | | To upgrade the communications service used by the National Weather Service, |
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| 6 | 6 | | and for other purposes. |
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| 7 | 7 | | IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES |
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| 8 | 8 | | MARCH24, 2025 |
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| 9 | 9 | | Mr. F |
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| 10 | 10 | | EENSTRA(for himself, Mrs. HINSON, Mr. SORENSEN, Mr. GRAVES, Mr. |
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| 11 | 11 | | H |
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| 12 | 12 | | ARIDOPOLOS, Mr. CRENSHAW, Ms. CRAIG, Mr. FITZPATRICK, Ms. |
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| 13 | 13 | | M |
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| 14 | 14 | | CBRIDE, Ms. ROSS, Mrs. RADEWAGEN, Mrs. MILLER-MEEKS, Mr. |
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| 15 | 15 | | M |
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| 16 | 16 | | OYLAN, Mr. CARBAJAL, Mrs. MCCLAINDELANEY, and Mr. |
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| 17 | 17 | | M |
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| 18 | 18 | | OSKOWITZ) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the |
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| 19 | 19 | | Committee on Science, Space, and Technology |
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| 20 | 20 | | A BILL |
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| 21 | 21 | | To upgrade the communications service used by the National |
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| 22 | 22 | | Weather Service, and for other purposes. |
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| 23 | 23 | | Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1 |
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| 24 | 24 | | tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 |
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| 25 | 25 | | SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 |
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| 26 | 26 | | This Act may be cited as the ‘‘National Weather 4 |
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| 27 | 27 | | Service Communications Improvement Act’’. 5 |
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| 28 | 28 | | SEC. 2. NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE COMMUNICATIONS. 6 |
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| 29 | 29 | | (a) S |
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| 30 | 30 | | YSTEMUPGRADE.—The Director of the Na-7 |
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| 31 | 31 | | tional Weather Service shall improve the instant mes-8 |
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| 32 | 32 | | VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:20 Mar 29, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2296.IH H2296 |
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| 33 | 33 | | kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 2 |
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| 34 | 34 | | •HR 2296 IH |
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| 35 | 35 | | saging service used by personnel of the National Weather 1 |
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| 36 | 36 | | Service by implementing, not later than October 1, 2027, 2 |
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| 37 | 37 | | a commercial off-the-shelf communications solution that 3 |
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| 38 | 38 | | replaces the instant messaging service commonly referred 4 |
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| 39 | 39 | | to as ‘‘NWSChat’’. 5 |
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| 40 | 40 | | (b) R |
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| 41 | 41 | | EQUIREMENTS.—The communications solution 6 |
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| 42 | 42 | | implemented under subsection (a) shall— 7 |
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| 43 | 43 | | (1) be hosted on the public cloud; and 8 |
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| 44 | 44 | | (2) satisfy requirements set forth by the Direc-9 |
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| 45 | 45 | | tor of the National Weather Service to ensure such 10 |
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| 46 | 46 | | solution— 11 |
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| 47 | 47 | | (A) best accommodates future growth; 12 |
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| 48 | 48 | | (B) performs successfully with increased 13 |
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| 49 | 49 | | numbers of users; 14 |
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| 50 | 50 | | (C) is easy to use for the majority of users; 15 |
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| 51 | 51 | | and 16 |
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| 52 | 52 | | (D) is similar to systems already in com-17 |
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| 53 | 53 | | mercial use. 18 |
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| 54 | 54 | | (c) F |
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| 55 | 55 | | UNDING.—From amounts made available for 19 |
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| 56 | 56 | | Operations, Research, and Facilities, the Director of the 20 |
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| 57 | 57 | | National Weather Service shall allocate up to $3,000,000 21 |
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| 58 | 58 | | for each of fiscal years 2026 through 2029 to carry out 22 |
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| 59 | 59 | | subsection (a). 23 |
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| 60 | 60 | | (d) L |
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| 61 | 61 | | IMITATION ONFUNDING.—Amounts made avail-24 |
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| 62 | 62 | | able to carry out subsection (a) shall be derived from 25 |
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| 63 | 63 | | VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:20 Mar 29, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2296.IH H2296 |
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| 64 | 64 | | kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 3 |
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| 65 | 65 | | •HR 2296 IH |
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| 66 | 66 | | amounts appropriated or otherwise made available to the 1 |
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| 67 | 67 | | National Weather Service. 2 |
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| 68 | 68 | | Æ |
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| 69 | 69 | | VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:20 Mar 29, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H2296.IH H2296 |
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| 70 | 70 | | kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB |
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