II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 1378
To enhance the use by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
of artificial intelligence for weather forecasting, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
APRIL9, 2025
Mr. S
CHATZ(for himself, Mr. SHEEHY, Mr. LUJA´N, and Mr. WELCH) intro-
duced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Com-
mittee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
A BILL
To enhance the use by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration of artificial intelligence for weather fore-
casting, 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 ‘‘Transformational Arti-4
ficial intelligence to Modernize the Economy against Ex-5
treme Weather and Wildfires Act’’ or the ‘‘TAME Ex-6
treme Weather and Wildfires Act’’. 7
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SEC. 2. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE FOR WEATHER FORE-1
CASTING. 2
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 3
(1) A
RTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE.—The term ‘‘ar-4
tificial intelligence’’— 5
(A) has the meaning given that term in 6
section 5002 of the National Artificial Intel-7
ligence Initiative Act of 2020 (15 U.S.C. 9401); 8
and 9
(B) includes machine learning, neural net-10
works, and natural language processing. 11
(2) A
RTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE WEATHER 12
MODEL.—The term ‘‘artificial intelligence weather 13
model’’ means a weather model based primarily on 14
artificial intelligence technology to project future 15
Earth system conditions based on machine learning 16
using weather forecasting training datasets. 17
(3) C
URATE.—The term ‘‘curate’’, with respect 18
to a dataset, means— 19
(A) to collect and maintain the dataset— 20
(i) to ensure and document its quality; 21
and 22
(ii) to provide metadata on its prove-23
nance; and 24
(B) to update the dataset periodically, as 25
appropriate and practicable. 26
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(4) NUMERICAL WEATHER MODEL .—The term 1
‘‘numerical weather model’’ means a weather model 2
based primarily on coupled Earth System processes 3
that uses numerical computation to forecast future 4
Earth system conditions. 5
(5) O
BSERVATIONAL DATA .—The term ‘‘obser-6
vational data’’ means data and metadata from ac-7
tual observations of environmental conditions, in-8
cluding remote sensing and in situ platforms. 9
(6) S
EASONAL, SUBSEASONAL, UNDER SEC-10
RETARY, WEATHER ENTERPRISE .—the terms ‘‘sea-11
sonal’’, ‘‘subseasonal’’, ‘‘Under Secretary’’, and 12
‘‘weather enterprise’’ have the meanings given those 13
terms in section 2 of the Weather Research and 14
Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017 (15 U.S.C. 15
8501). 16
(7) S
YNTHETIC DATA.—The term ‘‘synthetic 17
data’’ means data produced from a model or statis-18
tical method in order to fill gaps in observational 19
data. 20
(8) W
EATHER DATA .—The term ‘‘weather 21
data’’ means information used to track and predict 22
weather conditions and patterns, including forecasts, 23
observations, and derivative products from such in-24
formation. 25
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(b) PURPOSE.—The purpose of this section is— 1
(1) to improve accuracy and timeliness of 2
weather, water, and space weather forecasts and ef-3
fective dissemination of critical information; 4
(2) to strengthen analytic capacity to inform re-5
source deployments in response to and to mitigate 6
harm from weather, water, wildfires, and space 7
weather hazards through the mandated exploration 8
and use of artificial intelligence by Federal agencies; 9
(3) to strengthen public-private partnerships to 10
accelerate adoption and outcomes of the use of arti-11
ficial intelligence in response to and to mitigate such 12
harm; and 13
(4) to strengthen public-private partnerships in 14
highly technical, high-risk, and high-reward fields re-15
lated to weather, water, wildfires, and space weather 16
forecasts. 17
(c) E
ARTHSYSTEMFORECASTING AND INFORMA-18
TIONDELIVERY.— 19
(1) T
RAINING DATASETS.—Not later than 4 20
years after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 21
Under Secretary, in consultation with the Secretary 22
of Energy, the Administrator of the National Aero-23
nautics and Space Administration, the Director of 24
the National Science Foundation, the Director of the 25
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National Center for Atmospheric Research, the 1
Interagency Council on Advancing Meteorological 2
Services, other appropriate Federal advisory commit-3
tees as determined by the Under Secretary, and such 4
other technical experts as the Under Secretary con-5
siders appropriate, shall develop and curate com-6
prehensive weather forecasting training datasets 7
with relevant Earth system data, quality informa-8
tion, and metadata necessary for weather fore-9
casting. 10
(2) U
SE OF EXISTING DATASETS .—In order to 11
speed the development of the weather forecasting 12
training datasets required under paragraph (1), the 13
Under Secretary shall assess, and to the greatest ex-14
tent practicable build on, existing Earth system rea-15
nalysis datasets of the Federal Government. 16
(3) A
RTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE WEATHER 17
MODEL.— 18
(A) G
LOBAL MODEL.—In carrying out this 19
subsection, the Under Secretary, in consultation 20
with appropriate Federal advisory committees 21
as determined by the Under Secretary, may de-22
velop and test a global weather model based on 23
artificial intelligence technologies utilizing data 24
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of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Ad-1
ministration to the extent possible. 2
(B) R
EGIONAL AND LOCAL MODELS .—In 3
addition to a global weather model under sub-4
paragraph (A), the Under Secretary may exper-5
iment with regional and local weather models 6
based on artificial intelligence technologies. 7
(4) U
SE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TO DIS -8
SEMINATE INFORMATION .—In coordination with an 9
artificial intelligence weather model or models devel-10
oped under paragraph (3), the Under Secretary may 11
explore the use of artificial intelligence to enhance 12
the dissemination of information with respect to 13
weather and wildfire risks and evaluate the effective-14
ness of communication for improved public under-15
standing and preparedness. 16
(5) C
ONTINUED SUPPORT FOR OBSERVATIONS , 17
BASIC RESEARCH, AND NUMERICAL WEATHER MOD -18
ELS.—Notwithstanding the requirements of this sub-19
section, the Under Secretary shall continue to sup-20
port and advance the activities of the National Oce-21
anic and Atmospheric Administration— 22
(A) to collect and acquire traditional and 23
novel observational data relevant for artificial 24
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intelligence and numerical weather, water, and 1
space weather forecasting; 2
(B) to advance research on the Earth sys-3
tem and numerical weather model forecasting; 4
(C) to develop and advance numerical 5
Earth system modeling for predictions; 6
(D) to develop weather model data post- 7
processing techniques; and 8
(E) to improve data assimilation tech-9
niques. 10
(6) O
BSERVING SYSTEM COVERAGE .—In car-11
rying out this subsection, the Under Secretary may 12
evaluate the use of cost functions in data-driven ma-13
chine learning model training to balance inequities 14
in observing system coverage and data poor areas. 15
(7) U
NCERTAINTY QUANTIFICATION RE -16
SEARCH.—In carrying out this subsection, the Under 17
Secretary may develop uncertainty quantification re-18
search for the purpose of accurate environmental 19
risk and hazard communications of probabilistic pre-20
dictions and forecasts. 21
(8) R
EPORT.—Not later than 2 years after the 22
date of the enactment of this Act, and not less fre-23
quently than every 2 years thereafter through 2035, 24
the Under Secretary shall submit to the Committee 25
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on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the 1
Senate and the Committee on Science, Space, and 2
Technology of the House of Representatives a report 3
on the activities conducted under this subsection. 4
(d) A
DVANCEDARTIFICIALINTELLIGENCEAPPLICA-5
TIONS FORWEATHERFORECASTS ANDINFORMATIONDE-6
LIVERY.—The Under Secretary shall explore advanced ap-7
plications of artificial intelligence to improve weather fore-8
casts and information delivery, such as by— 9
(1) improving data assimilation; 10
(2) accounting for coupled Earth system proc-11
esses; 12
(3) improving readiness and preparedness to 13
combat wildfires, mitigation of the risk from 14
wildfires, and improving safety for firefighters and 15
communities at risk from wildfires; 16
(4) using artificial intelligence weather models 17
to generate ensemble forecasts to more accurately 18
assess flow-dependent forecast uncertainties; and 19
(5) improving impact-based decision support to 20
diverse users and communities for greater societal 21
benefits based on those forecasts. 22
(e) T
ECHNICALASSISTANCE ONUSE OFARTIFICIAL 23
I
NTELLIGENCEWEATHER, WATER, ANDSPACEWEATH-24
ERMODELS.— 25
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(1) IN GENERAL.—The Under Secretary shall 1
provide— 2
(A) technical assistance, data access, and 3
support for forecasters, scientists, social sci-4
entists, and engineers to test and evaluate the 5
use and effectiveness of the artificial intel-6
ligence models of the National Oceanic and At-7
mospheric Administration, including within the 8
testbeds of the Administration; 9
(B) best practices on providing forecasts 10
based on outputs from artificial intelligence 11
weather models and numerical weather models, 12
or a combination thereof; and 13
(C) support for emergency managers to 14
make operational decisions based on outputs 15
from artificial intelligence weather models and 16
numerical weather models, or a combination 17
thereof. 18
(2) A
SSESSMENT OF WEATHER MODELS .— 19
(A) I
N GENERAL.—The Under Secretary 20
shall support the development of a common 21
framework for the assessment of numerical 22
weather models and artificial intelligence weath-23
er models by comparing model output and ob-24
servational data over a period of time in the 25
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past through the use of such methodologies as 1
the Under Secretary considers appropriate. 2
(B) B
EST PRACTICES.—In carrying out 3
this paragraph, the Under Secretary may de-4
velop and disseminate best practices in collabo-5
ration with— 6
(i) the National Institute of Standards 7
and Technology, the National Aeronautics 8
and Space Administration, the National 9
Science Foundation, and the Department 10
of Energy; 11
(ii) academic and research institu-12
tions; and 13
(iii) the private sector. 14
(3) T
ECHNICAL ASSISTANCE .—In carrying out 15
this subsection, the Under Secretary may provide 16
technical assistance, best practices, and support re-17
quired under paragraph (1) through the National 18
Weather Service. 19
(4) I
NDEPENDENT STUDY ON THE IMPACTS OF 20
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE WEATHER , WATER, AND 21
SPACE WEATHER MODELS .—The Under Secretary 22
may enter into an agreement with the National 23
Academy of Sciences or another entity as determined 24
appropriate by the Under Secretary to assess the 25
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impacts of artificial intelligence weather models on 1
the weather enterprise and make recommendations 2
to improve the integration of such models in oper-3
ational forecasting. 4
(f) P
ARTNERSHIPS FOR TRANSFORMATIONAL INNO-5
VATION.— 6
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Under Secretary may 7
explore novel structures for partnerships with pri-8
vate, academic, and international entities for re-9
search and development of transformative innovation 10
in weather forecasting and other environmental fore-11
casts— 12
(A) to further the understanding of weath-13
er, water, wildfires, and space weather, and 14
their societal impact; 15
(B) to advance the science of weather and 16
water forecasting, including seasonal and sub-17
seasonal forecasting; and 18
(C) to develop, evaluate, and transition ar-19
tificial intelligence weather, water, and hazard 20
forecasting applications to operations. 21
(2) C
O-INVESTMENT.—Subject to applicable 22
law, the Under Secretary may consider and adopt 23
novel co-investment strategies with the private aca-24
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demic and international sectors to carry out para-1
graph (1), including— 2
(A) non-Federal Government contributions 3
to resource and support high-risk, high-return 4
research and development in environmental 5
forecasting, data science, artificial intelligence, 6
and related fields; 7
(B) shared rights to intellectual property 8
from research and development activities under 9
this subsection; and 10
(C) other approaches to sharing resources 11
and results under this subsection. 12
(g) A
VAILABILITY OFDATASET.— 13
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Under Secretary shall 14
develop and implement a plan to make available to 15
the public, at no cost and subject to applicable law 16
and policy, the following: 17
(A) Operational artificial intelligence 18
weather models developed by the National Oce-19
anic and Atmospheric Administration. 20
(B) Artificial intelligence weather models 21
that are not operational models, including ex-22
perimental and developmental models, as the 23
Under Secretary determines appropriate. 24
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(C) Applicable information and documenta-1
tion for artificial intelligence weather models 2
described in subparagraphs (A) and (B), includ-3
ing a description of intended model outputs. 4
(D) Subject to subsection (i), all data 5
owned by the Federal Government and data 6
that the Under Secretary has the legal right to 7
redistribute that are associated with artificial 8
intelligence weather models made available to 9
the public pursuant to the plan and used in 10
operational forecasting by the Administration, 11
including— 12
(i) relevant metadata; and 13
(ii) data used for operational artificial 14
intelligence weather models used by the 15
Administration. 16
(2) A
CCOMMODATIONS.—In developing and im-17
plementing the plan under paragraph (1), the Under 18
Secretary may make such accommodations as the 19
Under Secretary considers appropriate to ensure 20
that the public release of any artificial intelligence 21
weather model, information, documentation, or data 22
pursuant to the plan does not jeopardize— 23
(A) national security; 24
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(B) intellectual property or redistribution 1
rights, including under titles 17 and 35, United 2
States Code; 3
(C) any trade secret or commercial or fi-4
nancial information subject to section 552(b)(4) 5
of title 5, United States Code; 6
(D) any models or data that are otherwise 7
restricted by contract or other written agree-8
ment; or 9
(E) the mission of the Administration to 10
protect lives and property. 11
(3) R
EPORT.— 12
(A) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than one year 13
after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 14
Under Secretary shall submit to Congress a re-15
port, in both unclassified and classified form, 16
regarding the risks to the economic and intellec-17
tual security of the United States from foreign 18
countries of concern through access by those 19
countries to weather data in the United States. 20
(B) E
LEMENTS.—The report required 21
under subparagraph (A) shall include— 22
(i) a full analysis of the national, in-23
tellectual, and economic security implica-24
tions for the United States with respect to 25
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intellectual property theft or cyber or 1
human espionage through access to weath-2
er data; and 3
(ii) conclusions of the Under Sec-4
retary and recommendations for legislative 5
and administrative action, if any. 6
(C) F
OREIGN COUNTRY OF CONCERN DE -7
FINED.—In this paragraph, the term ‘‘foreign 8
country of concern’’ has the meaning given that 9
term in section 9901 of the William M. (Mac) 10
Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act 11
for Fiscal Year 2021 (15 U.S.C. 4651). 12
(h) R
ETENTION OFFEDERALGOVERNMENTEXPER-13
TISE.—Subject to applicable law, the Under Secretary 14
may consider novel methods to recruit, retrain, and retain 15
expert personnel to support activities under this section, 16
including by— 17
(1) using methods to be competitive with sala-18
ries outside the Federal Government; 19
(2) developing staff exchange programs and 20
training programs; and 21
(3) leveraging diverse hiring strategies. 22
(i) P
ROTECTION OF NATIONALSECURITYINTER-23
ESTS.— 24
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(1) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other 1
provision of this section, the Under Secretary, in 2
consultation with the Secretary of Defense, as ap-3
propriate, may withhold models or data used under 4
this section if the Under Secretary determines doing 5
so to be necessary to protect the national security 6
interests of the United States. 7
(2) R
ULE OF CONSTRUCTION .—Nothing in this 8
section shall be construed to supersede any other 9
provision of law governing the protection of the na-10
tional security interests of the United States. 11
(j) A
UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is 12
authorized to be appropriated to the Under Secretary to 13
carry out this section— 14
(1) for fiscal year 2026, $311,000,000; and 15
(2) for each of fiscal years 2027 through 2030, 16
$76,000,000. 17
Æ
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