II 111th CONGRESS 1st Session S. 1667 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES September 14, 2009 Ms. Collins (for herself, Ms. Cantwell, Ms. Snowe, Mr. Kerry, and Mrs. Gillibrand) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation A BILL To provide for the development and coordination of a comprehensive and integrated United States research program that assists the people of the United States and the world to understand past, assess present, and predict future human-induced and natural processes of abrupt climate change, and for other purposes.

1.

Short title

This Act may be cited as the Abrupt Climate Change Research Act of 2009.

2.

Abrupt climate change defined

In this Act, the term abrupt climate change means a change in the climate that occurs so rapidly or unexpectedly that human or natural systems have difficulty adapting to the climate as changed.

3.

Abrupt climate change research program

(a)

Establishment of program

The Secretary of Commerce shall establish within the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and carry out, a program of extramural awards, made on a peer-reviewed and competitive basis, to conduct scientific research on abrupt climate change. (b)

Purposes of program

The purposes of the program established under subsection (a) shall be as follows: (1)To develop a global array of terrestrial and oceanographic indicators of paleoclimate in order to sufficiently identify and describe past instances of abrupt climate change. (2)To improve understanding of thresholds and nonlinearities in geophysical systems related to the mechanisms of abrupt climate change. (3)To incorporate such mechanisms into advanced geophysical models of climate change. (4)To test the simulation of climate change by such models against an improved global array of records of past abrupt climate changes.

4.

Authorization of appropriations

(a)

Authorization of appropriations

There is authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary of Commerce for each of fiscal years 2010 through 2016, $10,000,000 to carry out the research program established under section 3(a). (b)

Availability of funds

Amounts appropriated pursuant to the authorization of appropriations in subsection (a) are authorized to remain available until expended.