I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 2296
To upgrade the communications service used by the National Weather Service,
and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH24, 2025
Mr. F
EENSTRA(for himself, Mrs. HINSON, Mr. SORENSEN, Mr. GRAVES, Mr.
H
ARIDOPOLOS, Mr. CRENSHAW, Ms. CRAIG, Mr. FITZPATRICK, Ms.
M
CBRIDE, Ms. ROSS, Mrs. RADEWAGEN, Mrs. MILLER-MEEKS, Mr.
M
OYLAN, Mr. CARBAJAL, Mrs. MCCLAINDELANEY, and Mr.
M
OSKOWITZ) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Science, Space, and Technology
A BILL
To upgrade the communications service used by the National
Weather Service, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘National Weather 4
Service Communications Improvement Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE COMMUNICATIONS. 6
(a) S
YSTEMUPGRADE.—The Director of the Na-7
tional Weather Service shall improve the instant mes-8
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saging service used by personnel of the National Weather 1
Service by implementing, not later than October 1, 2027, 2
a commercial off-the-shelf communications solution that 3
replaces the instant messaging service commonly referred 4
to as ‘‘NWSChat’’. 5
(b) R
EQUIREMENTS.—The communications solution 6
implemented under subsection (a) shall— 7
(1) be hosted on the public cloud; and 8
(2) satisfy requirements set forth by the Direc-9
tor of the National Weather Service to ensure such 10
solution— 11
(A) best accommodates future growth; 12
(B) performs successfully with increased 13
numbers of users; 14
(C) is easy to use for the majority of users; 15
and 16
(D) is similar to systems already in com-17
mercial use. 18
(c) F
UNDING.—From amounts made available for 19
Operations, Research, and Facilities, the Director of the 20
National Weather Service shall allocate up to $3,000,000 21
for each of fiscal years 2026 through 2029 to carry out 22
subsection (a). 23
(d) L
IMITATION ONFUNDING.—Amounts made avail-24
able to carry out subsection (a) shall be derived from 25
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amounts appropriated or otherwise made available to the 1
National Weather Service. 2
Æ
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