[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 613 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
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119th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 613
To require the Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere to
maintain the National Mesonet Program, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
February 18, 2025
Mr. Schatz (for himself and Mr. Marshall) 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
maintain the National Mesonet Program, 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 ``Improving Flood and Agricultural
Forecasts Act of 2025''.
SEC. 2. NATIONAL MESONET PROGRAM.
(a) Program.--The Under Secretary shall maintain the National
Mesonet Program (referred to in this section as the ``Program''), which
shall--
(1) obtain observations to improve understanding of and
forecast capabilities for atmospheric, drought, fire, and water
events, with a prioritization on leveraging available
commercial, academic, and other non-Federal Government
environmental data to enhance coordination across the private,
public, and academic sectors of the weather enterprise in the
United States;
(2) establish means to integrate greater density and more
types of environmental observations into the Program on an
annual basis, including by encouraging local and regional
networks of environmental monitoring stations and in situ
sensor networks, including soil moisture and ground-based
profilers, to participate in the Program;
(3) establish memoranda of understanding with networks
outside of the scope of the Program in furtherance of this
section; and
(4) coordinate with satellite data and services acquired
under section 302 of the Weather Research and Forecasting
Innovation Act of 2017 (15 U.S.C. 8532).
(b) Program Elements.--In carrying out the Program, the Under
Secretary shall--
(1) increase data density by--
(A) improving and increasing the quantity and
density of environmental observations used by the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(referred to in this section as the ``Administration'')
and the National Weather Service to support baseline
forecasts, including nowcasts, warnings, and hyper
local forecasts that protect individuals, businesses,
agricultural production, food security, the military,
and government agencies in the United States, and
enabling such individuals and entities to operate in a
safe, efficient, and orderly manner;
(B) yielding increased quantities of boundary-layer
data to improve numerical weather prediction
performance, including in subseasonal to seasonal
timescales;
(C) identifying available terrestrial or marine
environmental data, or quantifiable gaps in such data,
to improve the understanding of air-sea interactions;
and
(D) supporting the National Weather Service in
reaching its target of a 30-minute warning time for
severe weather through better predictive model
algorithms driven by increasingly effective
observations;
(2) monitor local meteorological conditions by--
(A) acquiring soil and moisture data to monitor
soil moisture, vegetation water content, and moisture
loss from evaporation, in support of operational
forecasting, the National Integrated Drought
Information System, and local commercial, agricultural,
and emergency management needs;
(B) supporting the National Coordinated Soil
Moisture Monitoring Network in acquiring soil moisture
and related data to support the development of
decision-support products and other information
services; and
(C) expanding and enhancing environmental
observational networks in the roadway environment to
provide real-time road weather and surface conditions
for surface transportation and related economic
sectors; and
(3) administer the Program by--
(A) obtaining data in furtherance of this section
only when demonstrably cost effective and meeting or
exceeding data quality standards available to the
Administration;
(B) subject to the requirement in subparagraph (A),
leveraging existing networks of environmental
monitoring stations, including supplemental radar
systems, to increase the quantity and density of
environmental observations and data available to the
Administration;
(C) providing the critical technical and
administrative infrastructure needed to facilitate
rapid integration and sustained use of new and emerging
networks of environmental monitoring stations
anticipated in coming years from non-Federal Government
sources;
(D) coordinating with existing data developed by
the Administration and used for forecasts, including
data from the National Environmental Satellite, Data,
and Information Service, the Integrated Ocean Observing
System, the Global Ocean Monitoring and Observing
Program, the National Data Buoy Center, and the
National Ocean Service; and
(E) identifying and communicating to the Office of
Oceanic and Atmospheric Research and other partners
priorities of research and development needed to
advance observations in the Program.
(c) Financial and Technical Assistance.--
(1) In general.--In furtherance of the Program, in a fiscal
year, the Under Secretary may award not less than 15 percent of
the amount appropriated for the Program for that fiscal year
for financial assistance to State, Tribal, private, and
academic entities seeking to build, expand, or upgrade
equipment and capacity of mesonet systems.
(2) Other federal awards.--Financial assistance under this
subsection may be made in coordination with and in addition to
awards from other Federal agencies.
(3) Agreements.--Before receiving financial assistance
under paragraph (1), the State, Tribal, private, or academic
entity seeking financial assistance under this subsection shall
enter into an agreement with the Under Secretary to provide
data to the Program, subject to verification by the Program of
the relative operational value and evaluation of the cost of
such data, for use in weather prediction, severe weather
warnings, and emergency response.
(4) Assistance and other support.--The Under Secretary may
provide--
(A) technical assistance, project implementation
support, and guidance to State, Tribal, private, and
academic entities seeking financial assistance under
this subsection; and
(B) technical and financial assistance for
maintenance of monitoring stations in underrepresented
or remote areas of the country where it is financially
unfeasible for one entity to operate such stations
without such assistance.
(5) Terms.--In providing financial assistance under this
subsection, the Under Secretary shall establish terms to ensure
that each State, Tribal, private, or academic entity that
receives financial assistance under this subsection receives a
level of support commensurate with the quality and other
characteristics of the data to be provided.
(6) Determination.--A State, Tribal, private, or academic
entity may only receive financial assistance under this
subsection if the Under Secretary determines such entity will
provide sufficient financial support from non-Federal
Government sources and fully maintain the quality of the
mesonet system and associated data standards required by the
Program for a period of not less than 5 years.
(7) Priority.--The Under Secretary shall prioritize
providing assistance under paragraph (1) to not fewer than one
entity in a remote area or an area that has a lack of
environmental monitoring stations described in subsection
(a)(2).
(d) Advisory Committee.--
(1) In general.--The Under Secretary shall ensure the
Program has an active advisory committee of subject matter
experts to make recommendations to the Administration on--
(A) the identification, implementation,
procurement, and tracking of data needed to supplement
the Program; and
(B) improvements, expansions, and acquisitions of
available data.
(2) Designation of existing committee.--The Under Secretary
may designate an existing advisory committee, subcommittee, or
working group of the Federal Government, including the Science
Advisory Board of the Administration, to carry out the
requirement under paragraph (1).
(3) Academic expertise.--The advisory committee under
paragraph (1), in consultation with the Program, shall include
expertise from one or more institutions of higher education (as
defined in section 101 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20
U.S.C. 1001)) to assist the advisory committee to identify,
evaluate, and recommend potential partnerships, regional or
subregional consortia, and collaborative methods that would
expand the number of participants and volume of data in the
Program.
(e) Regular Briefings.--
(1) In general.--Not less frequently than annually through
2035, and not later than June 30 of each year, the Under
Secretary shall provide regular briefings to the Committee on
Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate and the
Committee on Science, Space, and Technology of the House of
Representatives on all activities under the Program.
(2) Briefing content.--Each briefing required under
paragraph (1) shall include information relating to the
following:
(A) Efforts to implement the activities described
in subsection (b).
(B) Any financial or technical assistance provided
pursuant to subsection (c).
(C) Efforts to address recommendations received
from the advisory committee under subsection (d), if
any.
(D) The potential need and associated benefits of a
coastal and ocean mesonet, or other emerging areas of
weather data needs.
(E) Progress toward eliminating gaps in weather
observation data in States and regions of the United
States.
(F) Any other topic the Under Secretary determines
relevant.
(f) Definitions.--In this section:
(1) Seasonal, state, subseasonal, under secretary, weather
enterprise.--The terms ``seasonal'', ``State'',
``subseasonal'', ``Under Secretary'', and ``weather
enterprise'' have the meanings given such terms in section 2 of
the Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017 (15
U.S.C. 8501).
(2) Weather data.--The term ``weather data'' means
information used to track and predict weather conditions and
patterns, including forecasts, observations, and derivative
products from such information.
(g) Authorization of Appropriations.--From amounts authorized to be
appropriated to the National Weather Service, there shall be available
not more than the following amounts to carry out this section:
(1) $50,000,000 for fiscal year 2025.
(2) $55,000,000 for fiscal year 2026.
(3) $61,000,000 for fiscal year 2027.
(4) $68,000,000 for fiscal year 2028.
(5) $70,000,000 for fiscal year 2029.
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