[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 4901 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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118th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 4901

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

                             July 31, 2024

  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 2024''.

SEC. 2. NATIONAL MESONET PROGRAM.

    (a) Program.--The Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and 
Atmosphere 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, in situ sensor 
        networks, including soil moisture and stream gage networks, and 
        satellite constellations, to participate in the Program; and
            (3) establish memoranda of understanding with networks 
        outside of the scope of the Program in furtherance of this 
        section.
    (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 
                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, 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 
                National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 
                (referred to in this section as 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 1 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 1 
        entity in an underrepresented or remote area.
    (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 the 
        identification, implementation, procurement, and tracking of 
        data needed to supplement the Program, and recommend 
        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 1 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.--The Under Secretary shall provide regular 
        briefings, not less frequently than twice annually, 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, the terms ``seasonal'', 
``State'', ``subseasonal'', ``Under Secretary'', and ``weather 
enterprise'' have the meanings given those terms in section 2 of the 
Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017 (15 U.S.C. 
8501).
    (g) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized to be 
appropriated to the Under Secretary 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; and
            (5) $70,000,000 for fiscal year 2029.
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