Us Congress 2025-2026 Regular Session

Us Congress Senate Bill SB613 Compare Versions

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11 II
22 119THCONGRESS
33 1
44 STSESSION S. 613
55 To require the Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere
66 to maintain the National Mesonet Program, and for other purposes.
77 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
88 FEBRUARY18, 2025
99 Mr. S
1010 CHATZ(for himself and Mr. MARSHALL) introduced the following bill;
1111 which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce,
1212 Science, and Transportation
1313 A BILL
1414 To require the Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans
1515 and Atmosphere to maintain the National Mesonet Pro-
1616 gram, and for other purposes.
1717 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
1818 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
1919 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
2020 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Improving Flood and 4
2121 Agricultural Forecasts Act of 2025’’. 5
2222 SEC. 2. NATIONAL MESONET PROGRAM. 6
2323 (a) P
2424 ROGRAM.—The Under Secretary shall maintain 7
2525 the National Mesonet Program (referred to in this section 8
2626 as the ‘‘Program’’), which shall— 9
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3030 (1) obtain observations to improve under-1
3131 standing of and forecast capabilities for atmospheric, 2
3232 drought, fire, and water events, with a prioritization 3
3333 on leveraging available commercial, academic, and 4
3434 other non-Federal Government environmental data 5
3535 to enhance coordination across the private, public, 6
3636 and academic sectors of the weather enterprise in 7
3737 the United States; 8
3838 (2) establish means to integrate greater density 9
3939 and more types of environmental observations into 10
4040 the Program on an annual basis, including by en-11
4141 couraging local and regional networks of environ-12
4242 mental monitoring stations and in situ sensor net-13
4343 works, including soil moisture and ground-based 14
4444 profilers, to participate in the Program; 15
4545 (3) establish memoranda of understanding with 16
4646 networks outside of the scope of the Program in fur-17
4747 therance of this section; and 18
4848 (4) coordinate with satellite data and services 19
4949 acquired under section 302 of the Weather Research 20
5050 and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017 (15 U.S.C. 21
5151 8532). 22
5252 (b) P
5353 ROGRAMELEMENTS.—In carrying out the Pro-23
5454 gram, the Under Secretary shall— 24
5555 (1) increase data density by— 25
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5959 (A) improving and increasing the quantity 1
6060 and density of environmental observations used 2
6161 by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Ad-3
6262 ministration (referred to in this section as the 4
6363 ‘‘Administration’’) and the National Weather 5
6464 Service to support baseline forecasts, including 6
6565 nowcasts, warnings, and hyper local forecasts 7
6666 that protect individuals, businesses, agricultural 8
6767 production, food security, the military, and gov-9
6868 ernment agencies in the United States, and en-10
6969 abling such individuals and entities to operate 11
7070 in a safe, efficient, and orderly manner; 12
7171 (B) yielding increased quantities of bound-13
7272 ary-layer data to improve numerical weather 14
7373 prediction performance, including in subsea-15
7474 sonal to seasonal timescales; 16
7575 (C) identifying available terrestrial or ma-17
7676 rine environmental data, or quantifiable gaps in 18
7777 such data, to improve the understanding of air- 19
7878 sea interactions; and 20
7979 (D) supporting the National Weather Serv-21
8080 ice in reaching its target of a 30-minute warn-22
8181 ing time for severe weather through better pre-23
8282 dictive model algorithms driven by increasingly 24
8383 effective observations; 25
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8787 (2) monitor local meteorological conditions by— 1
8888 (A) acquiring soil and moisture data to 2
8989 monitor soil moisture, vegetation water content, 3
9090 and moisture loss from evaporation, in support 4
9191 of operational forecasting, the National Inte-5
9292 grated Drought Information System, and local 6
9393 commercial, agricultural, and emergency man-7
9494 agement needs; 8
9595 (B) supporting the National Coordinated 9
9696 Soil Moisture Monitoring Network in acquiring 10
9797 soil moisture and related data to support the 11
9898 development of decision-support products and 12
9999 other information services; and 13
100100 (C) expanding and enhancing environ-14
101101 mental observational networks in the roadway 15
102102 environment to provide real-time road weather 16
103103 and surface conditions for surface transpor-17
104104 tation and related economic sectors; and 18
105105 (3) administer the Program by— 19
106106 (A) obtaining data in furtherance of this 20
107107 section only when demonstrably cost effective 21
108108 and meeting or exceeding data quality stand-22
109109 ards available to the Administration; 23
110110 (B) subject to the requirement in subpara-24
111111 graph (A), leveraging existing networks of envi-25
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115115 ronmental monitoring stations, including sup-1
116116 plemental radar systems, to increase the quan-2
117117 tity and density of environmental observations 3
118118 and data available to the Administration; 4
119119 (C) providing the critical technical and ad-5
120120 ministrative infrastructure needed to facilitate 6
121121 rapid integration and sustained use of new and 7
122122 emerging networks of environmental monitoring 8
123123 stations anticipated in coming years from non- 9
124124 Federal Government sources; 10
125125 (D) coordinating with existing data devel-11
126126 oped by the Administration and used for fore-12
127127 casts, including data from the National Envi-13
128128 ronmental Satellite, Data, and Information 14
129129 Service, the Integrated Ocean Observing Sys-15
130130 tem, the Global Ocean Monitoring and Observ-16
131131 ing Program, the National Data Buoy Center, 17
132132 and the National Ocean Service; and 18
133133 (E) identifying and communicating to the 19
134134 Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research 20
135135 and other partners priorities of research and 21
136136 development needed to advance observations in 22
137137 the Program. 23
138138 (c) F
139139 INANCIAL ANDTECHNICALASSISTANCE.— 24
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143143 (1) IN GENERAL.—In furtherance of the Pro-1
144144 gram, in a fiscal year, the Under Secretary may 2
145145 award not less than 15 percent of the amount appro-3
146146 priated for the Program for that fiscal year for fi-4
147147 nancial assistance to State, Tribal, private, and aca-5
148148 demic entities seeking to build, expand, or upgrade 6
149149 equipment and capacity of mesonet systems. 7
150150 (2) O
151151 THER FEDERAL AWARDS .—Financial as-8
152152 sistance under this subsection may be made in co-9
153153 ordination with and in addition to awards from 10
154154 other Federal agencies. 11
155155 (3) A
156156 GREEMENTS.—Before receiving financial 12
157157 assistance under paragraph (1), the State, Tribal, 13
158158 private, or academic entity seeking financial assist-14
159159 ance under this subsection shall enter into an agree-15
160160 ment with the Under Secretary to provide data to 16
161161 the Program, subject to verification by the Program 17
162162 of the relative operational value and evaluation of 18
163163 the cost of such data, for use in weather prediction, 19
164164 severe weather warnings, and emergency response. 20
165165 (4) A
166166 SSISTANCE AND OTHER SUPPORT .—The 21
167167 Under Secretary may provide— 22
168168 (A) technical assistance, project implemen-23
169169 tation support, and guidance to State, Tribal, 24
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173173 private, and academic entities seeking financial 1
174174 assistance under this subsection; and 2
175175 (B) technical and financial assistance for 3
176176 maintenance of monitoring stations in under-4
177177 represented or remote areas of the country 5
178178 where it is financially unfeasible for one entity 6
179179 to operate such stations without such assist-7
180180 ance. 8
181181 (5) T
182182 ERMS.—In providing financial assistance 9
183183 under this subsection, the Under Secretary shall es-10
184184 tablish terms to ensure that each State, Tribal, pri-11
185185 vate, or academic entity that receives financial as-12
186186 sistance under this subsection receives a level of sup-13
187187 port commensurate with the quality and other char-14
188188 acteristics of the data to be provided. 15
189189 (6) D
190190 ETERMINATION.—A State, Tribal, private, 16
191191 or academic entity may only receive financial assist-17
192192 ance under this subsection if the Under Secretary 18
193193 determines such entity will provide sufficient finan-19
194194 cial support from non-Federal Government sources 20
195195 and fully maintain the quality of the mesonet system 21
196196 and associated data standards required by the Pro-22
197197 gram for a period of not less than 5 years. 23
198198 (7) P
199199 RIORITY.—The Under Secretary shall 24
200200 prioritize providing assistance under paragraph (1) 25
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204204 to not fewer than one entity in a remote area or an 1
205205 area that has a lack of environmental monitoring 2
206206 stations described in subsection (a)(2). 3
207207 (d) A
208208 DVISORYCOMMITTEE.— 4
209209 (1) I
210210 N GENERAL.—The Under Secretary shall 5
211211 ensure the Program has an active advisory com-6
212212 mittee of subject matter experts to make rec-7
213213 ommendations to the Administration on— 8
214214 (A) the identification, implementation, pro-9
215215 curement, and tracking of data needed to sup-10
216216 plement the Program; and 11
217217 (B) improvements, expansions, and acqui-12
218218 sitions of available data. 13
219219 (2) D
220220 ESIGNATION OF EXISTING COMMITTEE .— 14
221221 The Under Secretary may designate an existing ad-15
222222 visory committee, subcommittee, or working group of 16
223223 the Federal Government, including the Science Advi-17
224224 sory Board of the Administration, to carry out the 18
225225 requirement under paragraph (1). 19
226226 (3) A
227227 CADEMIC EXPERTISE.—The advisory com-20
228228 mittee under paragraph (1), in consultation with the 21
229229 Program, shall include expertise from one or more 22
230230 institutions of higher education (as defined in sec-23
231231 tion 101 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 24
232232 U.S.C. 1001)) to assist the advisory committee to 25
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236236 identify, evaluate, and recommend potential partner-1
237237 ships, regional or subregional consortia, and collabo-2
238238 rative methods that would expand the number of 3
239239 participants and volume of data in the Program. 4
240240 (e) R
241241 EGULARBRIEFINGS.— 5
242242 (1) I
243243 N GENERAL.—Not less frequently than an-6
244244 nually through 2035, and not later than June 30 of 7
245245 each year, the Under Secretary shall provide regular 8
246246 briefings to the Committee on Commerce, Science, 9
247247 and Transportation of the Senate and the Com-10
248248 mittee on Science, Space, and Technology of the 11
249249 House of Representatives on all activities under the 12
250250 Program. 13
251251 (2) B
252252 RIEFING CONTENT .—Each briefing re-14
253253 quired under paragraph (1) shall include informa-15
254254 tion relating to the following: 16
255255 (A) Efforts to implement the activities de-17
256256 scribed in subsection (b). 18
257257 (B) Any financial or technical assistance 19
258258 provided pursuant to subsection (c). 20
259259 (C) Efforts to address recommendations 21
260260 received from the advisory committee under 22
261261 subsection (d), if any. 23
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265265 (D) The potential need and associated ben-1
266266 efits of a coastal and ocean mesonet, or other 2
267267 emerging areas of weather data needs. 3
268268 (E) Progress toward eliminating gaps in 4
269269 weather observation data in States and regions 5
270270 of the United States. 6
271271 (F) Any other topic the Under Secretary 7
272272 determines relevant. 8
273273 (f) D
274274 EFINITIONS.—In this section: 9
275275 (1) S
276276 EASONAL, STATE, SUBSEASONAL, UNDER 10
277277 SECRETARY, WEATHER ENTERPRISE .—The terms 11
278278 ‘‘seasonal’’, ‘‘State’’, ‘‘subseasonal’’, ‘‘Under Sec-12
279279 retary’’, and ‘‘weather enterprise’’ have the mean-13
280280 ings given such terms in section 2 of the Weather 14
281281 Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017 15
282282 (15 U.S.C. 8501). 16
283283 (2) W
284284 EATHER DATA .—The term ‘‘weather 17
285285 data’’ means information used to track and predict 18
286286 weather conditions and patterns, including forecasts, 19
287287 observations, and derivative products from such in-20
288288 formation. 21
289289 (g) A
290290 UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—From 22
291291 amounts authorized to be appropriated to the National 23
292292 Weather Service, there shall be available not more than 24
293293 the following amounts to carry out this section: 25
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297297 (1) $50,000,000 for fiscal year 2025. 1
298298 (2) $55,000,000 for fiscal year 2026. 2
299299 (3) $61,000,000 for fiscal year 2027. 3
300300 (4) $68,000,000 for fiscal year 2028. 4
301301 (5) $70,000,000 for fiscal year 2029. 5
302302 Æ
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