[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5536 Introduced in House (IH)]
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116th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 5536
To require the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to make
certain operational models available to the public, and for other
purposes.
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IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
December 23, 2019
Mrs. Fletcher introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Science, Space, and Technology
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To require the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to make
certain operational models available to the public, and for other
purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Learning Excellence and Good
Examples from New Developers Act of 2019'' or the ``LEGEND Act of
2019''.
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) Administration.--The term ``Administration'' means the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
(2) Administrator.--The term ``Administrator'' means the
Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and
Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration.
(3) Model.--The term ``model'' means any numerical model of
the Earth's system or its components produced by scientists
employed by the Administration.
(4) Operational model.--The term ``operational model''
means any model that has an output used by the Administration
for operational or public service functions.
(5) Open source code.--The term ``open source code'' means
computer code or programming language that is available for
public use or modification.
SEC. 3. PURPOSES.
The purposes of this Act are--
(1) to support innovation in modeling by allowing
interested stakeholders to have easy and complete access to the
models used by the Administration; and
(2) to use vetted innovations arising from access provided
under paragraph (1) to improve modeling by the Administration.
SEC. 4. REQUIREMENT TO MAKE CERTAIN OPERATIONAL MODELS AVAILABLE TO THE
PUBLIC.
(a) In General.--The Administrator shall make available to the
public the following:
(1) Current and future operational models developed by the
Administration, in the form of open source code for a period
consistent with applicable records retention requirements.
(2) All Government-owned data, subject to redistribution
rights, associated with such models and used in operational
forecasting by the Administration, including--
(A) relevant metadata;
(B) data used for current operational forecasts;
and
(C) a description of intended model outputs.
(b) Discretion To Make Experimental or Development Models
Available.--The Administrator may make experimental or developmental
models associated with development projects funded by the
Administration available to the public as open source code.
(c) Platform.--In carrying out subsections (a) and (b), the
Administrator may use government servers, contracts or agreements with
a private vendor, or any other platform consistent with the purpose of
this Act.
(d) Technical Correction.--Section 102(b) of the Weather Research
Forecasting and Innovation Act of 2017 (15 U.S.C. 8512(b)) is amended
by redesignating the second paragraph (4) (as added by section 4(a) of
the National Integrated Drought Information System Reauthorization Act
of 2018 (Public Law 115-423)) as paragraph (5).
(e) Phased Implementation.--
(1) Immediate effect for certain models.--For operational
models that, as of the date of the enactment of this Act, meet
the requirements described in paragraph (5)(E)(ii) of section
102(b) of the Weather Research Forecasting and Innovation Act
of 2017 (15 U.S.C. 8512(b)), as redesignated by subsection (d),
the Administrator shall implement the requirements of
subsection (a) as soon as practicable after such date of
enactment.
(2) New models.--For operational models that meet the
requirements described in paragraph (1) and are created or
substantially updated after the date of the enactment of this
Act, the Administrator shall implement the requirements of
subsection (a) not later than 1 year after such date of
enactment.
SEC. 5. REQUIREMENT TO REVIEW MODELS AND LEVERAGE INNOVATIONS.
The Administrator shall--
(1) consistent with the mission of the Earth Prediction
Innovation Center, periodically review innovations and
improvements made by persons outside the Administration to the
operational models made available to the public under section 4
in order to improve the accuracy and timeliness of forecasts of
the Administration; and
(2) if the Administrator identifies an innovation for such
a model the Administrator considers suitable, develop and
implement a plan to use the innovation to improve the model.
SEC. 6. REPORT ON IMPLEMENTATION.
(a) In General.--Not later than 1 year after the date of the
enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall submit to the
appropriate congressional committees a report on the implementation of
this Act that includes a description of--
(1) how operational models have been made publicly
available as required by section 4(a); and
(2) the process of the Administration under section 5--
(A) for engaging with interested stakeholders to
learn what innovations those stakeholders have found;
(B) for reviewing those innovations; and
(C) for operationalizing innovations the
Administrator considers suitable.
(b) Appropriate Congressional Committees Defined.--In this section,
the term ``appropriate congressional committees'' means--
(1) the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
and the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate; and
(2) the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology and the
Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representatives.
SEC. 7. PROTECTION OF NATIONAL SECURITY INTERESTS.
(a) In General.--Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act,
the Administrator may withhold models or data used in operational
weather forecasting if the Administrator determines doing so to be
necessary to protect the national security interests of the United
States.
(b) Rule of Construction.--Nothing in this Act shall be construed
to supersede any other provision of law governing the protection of the
national security interests of the United States.
SEC. 8. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.
There are authorized to be appropriated to the Administration for
each of fiscal years 2021 through 2026 such sums as may be necessary to
carry out this Act.
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