II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 324
To require the Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere
to carry out pilot projects relating to improved subseasonal to seasonal
forecasting in agriculture and water management, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
JANUARY29, 2025
Ms. R
OSEN(for herself and Mr. PADILLA) introduced the following bill; which
was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and
Transportation
A BILL
To require the Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans
and Atmosphere to carry out pilot projects relating to
improved subseasonal to seasonal forecasting in agri-
culture and water management, 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 ‘‘Smarter Weather 4
Forecasting for Water Management, Farming, and 5
Ranching Act of 2025’’. 6
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•S 324 IS
SEC. 2. WEATHER AND CLIMATE INFORMATION IN AGRI-1
CULTURE AND WATER MANAGEMENT. 2
Section 1762 of the Food Security Act of 1985 (15 3
U.S.C. 8521) is amended— 4
(1) by amending subsection (h) to read as fol-5
lows: 6
‘‘(h) S
UBSEASONAL TO SEASONALFORECASTING 7
P
ILOTPROJECTS.— 8
‘‘(1) E
STABLISHMENT.—The Under Secretary 9
shall establish not fewer than two pilot projects, in 10
accordance with paragraph (2), within the U.S. 11
Weather Research Program of the Oceanic and At-12
mospheric Research office of the National Oceanic 13
and Atmospheric Administration to support im-14
proved subseasonal to seasonal precipitation fore-15
casts for the following: 16
‘‘(A) Water management in the western 17
United States. 18
‘‘(B) Agriculture in the United States. 19
‘‘(2) O
BJECTIVES.—In carrying out this sub-20
section, the Under Secretary shall ensure the fol-21
lowing: 22
‘‘(A) A pilot project under subparagraph 23
(A) of paragraph (1) addresses key science 24
challenges to improving forecasts and devel-25
oping related products for water management 26
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in the western United States, including the fol-1
lowing: 2
‘‘(i) Improving operational model reso-3
lution, both horizontal and vertical, to re-4
solve issues associated with mountainous 5
terrain, such as intensity of precipitation 6
and relative fraction of rain versus snow 7
precipitation. 8
‘‘(ii) Improving fidelity in the oper-9
ational modeling of the atmospheric bound-10
ary layer in mountainous regions. 11
‘‘(iii) Resolving challenges in pre-12
dicting winter atmospheric circulation and 13
storm tracks, including periods of blocked 14
versus unblocked flow over the eastern 15
North Pacific Ocean and western United 16
States. 17
‘‘(iv) Improving the forecast of atmos-18
pheric rivers. 19
‘‘(v) Improving— 20
‘‘(I) the quality and temporal 21
and spatial resolution of observations 22
of air-sea interactions; 23
‘‘(II) operational modeling of air- 24
sea interactions; and 25
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‘‘(III) operational modeling of 1
the influence of oceans on subseasonal 2
and seasonal forecasting. 3
‘‘(B) A pilot project under subparagraph 4
(B) of paragraph (1) addresses key science 5
challenges to improving forecasts and devel-6
oping related products for agriculture in the 7
United States, including the following: 8
‘‘(i) Improving the quality and tem-9
poral and spatial resolution of observations 10
and accurate operational modeling of the 11
land surface and hydrologic cycle, includ-12
ing soil moisture and flash drought proc-13
esses. 14
‘‘(ii) Improving fidelity in the oper-15
ational modeling of warm season precipita-16
tion processes. 17
‘‘(iii) Understanding and predicting 18
large-scale upper-level dynamical flow 19
anomalies that occur in spring and sum-20
mer. 21
‘‘(3) A
CTIVITIES.—A pilot project under this 22
subsection shall include activities that— 23
‘‘(A) best implement recommendations con-24
tained in the 2020 report of the National 25
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Weather Service, entitled ‘Subseasonal and Sea-1
sonal Forecasting Innovation: Plans for the 2
Twenty-First Century’; 3
‘‘(B) achieve measurable objectives for 4
operational forecast improvement; 5
‘‘(C) engage with, and leverage the re-6
sources of, institutions of higher education (as 7
such term is defined in section 101 of the High-8
er Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001)), or 9
a consortia thereof, and entities within the Na-10
tional Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 11
in existence as of the date of the enactment of 12
this subsection, including Regional Climate 13
Centers and the National Centers for Environ-14
mental Information; and 15
‘‘(D) are carried out in coordination with 16
the Assistant Administrator for the Office of 17
Oceanic and Atmospheric Research and the Di-18
rector of the National Weather Service. 19
‘‘(4) S
UNSET.—The authority under this sub-20
section shall terminate on the date that is five years 21
after the date of the enactment of this subsection.’’; 22
and 23
(2) by amending subsection (j) to read as fol-24
lows: 25
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‘‘(j) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 1
are authorized to be appropriated $45,000,000 for each 2
of fiscal years 2025 through 2029 to carry out the activi-3
ties under this section.’’. 4
Æ
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