[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4373 Introduced in House (IH)]

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118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 4373

  To reauthorize the National Integrated Drought Information System, 
 maintain a National Coordinated Soil Moisture Monitoring Network, and 
                          for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 27, 2023

Mr. Collins (for himself, Mr. Baird, and Mr. Miller of Ohio) introduced 
  the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Science, 
                         Space, and Technology

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To reauthorize the National Integrated Drought Information System, 
 maintain a National Coordinated Soil Moisture Monitoring Network, 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 ``Weather Information for Agriculture 
Act.''

SEC. 2. NATIONAL INTEGRATED DROUGHT INFORMATION SYSTEM.

    (a) In General.--Section 3 of the National Integrated Drought 
Information System Act of 2006 (15 U.S.C. 313d) is amended--
            (1) in subsection (b)--
                    (A) in paragraph (5), by striking ``and'' after the 
                semicolon;
                    (B) in paragraph (6), by striking the period and 
                inserting a semicolon; and
                    (C) by adding at the end the following new 
                paragraphs:
            ``(7) advance and deploy next generation technologies 
        related to drought and related publicly available data, such as 
        forecasting capabilities utilizing artificial intelligence, 
        machine learning, and cloud technologies; and
            ``(8) strengthen observational networks and drought 
        indicators across a variety of spatial and temporal scales by 
        optimizing data and resources from across the Federal 
        Government, including investigating and addressing gaps in 
        snowpack monitoring, in-situ soil moisture monitoring, 
        groundwater data, and rapid intensification events.'';
            (2) in subsection (c)--
                    (A) in paragraph (2), by striking ``and'' after the 
                semicolon;
                    (B) in paragraph (3), by striking the period and 
                inserting ``; and''; and
                    (C) by adding at the end the following new 
                paragraph:
            ``(4) in partnership with the National Mesonet Program, 
        establish memoranda of understanding to provide coordinated, 
        high-quality, nationwide drought information for the public 
        good.''; and
            (3) by amending subsection (f) to read as follows:
    ``(f) Modeling Update.--The Under Secretary, in partnership with 
the Climate Prediction Center of the National Weather Service, shall 
undertake an effort to migrate existing products to probabilistic 
forecasts and incorporate new and improved dynamical and statistical 
forecast modeling tools.''.
    (b) Authorization of Appropriations.--
            (1) In general.--Section 4 of the National Integrated 
        Drought Information System Act of 2006 (15 U.S.C. 313d note) is 
        amended to read as follows:
    ``(d) Authorization of Appropriations.--From amounts made available 
to Operations, Research, and Facilities of the National Oceanic and 
Atmospheric Administration, there are authorized to be appropriated to 
carry out this section the following:
            ``(1) $15,000,000 for fiscal year 2024.
            ``(2) $15,500,000 for fiscal year 2025.
            ``(3) $16,000,000 for fiscal year 2026.
            ``(4) $16,500,000 for fiscal year 2027.
            ``(5) $17,000,000 for fiscal year 2028.''.
            (2) Effective date.--The amendment made by paragraph (1) 
        shall take effect and apply beginning on October 1, 2023.

SEC. 3. NATIONAL COORDINATED SOIL MOISTURE MONITORING NETWORK.

    (a) In General.--The Under Secretary shall support the development, 
deployment, and maintenance of soil moisture monitoring networks by 
managing the National Coordinated Soil Moisture Monitoring Network of 
the National Integrated Drought Information System under section 3 of 
the National Integrated Drought Information System Act of 2006 (15 
U.S.C. 313d) (in this section referred to as the ``network'').
    (b) Activities.--The Under Secretary shall ensure the network 
includes activities that carry out the following:
            (1) Establishing a visible, user-friendly website.
            (2) Developing a set of criteria for high-quality data 
        sources.
            (3) Supporting research necessary to develop or improve 
        soil moisture monitoring products at the National scale.
            (4) Increasing the number of long-term, high-quality, in 
        situ soil moisture monitoring stations across the United 
        States.
            (5) Sharing methodologies and validation protocols with the 
        private sector.
            (6) Engaging with the citizen science community.
            (7) Developing, releasing, and promoting new, nationwide 
        point-based and gridded soil moisture data products that meet 
        the needs of diverse end-user groups.
    (c) Partnerships.--In partnership with the National Integrated 
Drought Information System under section 3 of the National Integrated 
Drought Information System Act of 2006 (15 U.S.C. 313d) and the 
National Mesonet Program, the network may establish memoranda of 
understanding to acquire and provide coordinated, high-quality, 
nationwide soil moisture information for the public good.
    (d) Definition.--In this section, the term ``Under Secretary'' has 
the meaning given such term in section 2 of the Weather Research and 
Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017 (15 U.S.C. 8501).
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