[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 208 (Monday, December 18, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Page S6028]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE COMMUNICATIONS IMPROVEMENT ACT

  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent the Senate 
proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 260, S. 1414.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the bill by title.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       A bill (S. 1414) to improve the instant messaging service 
     used by the National Weather Service, and for other purposes.

  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the bill, 
which had been reported from the Committee on Commerce, Science, and 
Transportation.
  Mr. SCHUMER. I ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read 
a third time and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered 
made and laid upon the table.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The bill (S. 1414) was ordered to be engrossed for a third reading, 
was read a third time, and passed, as follows:

                                S. 1414

       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 ``National Weather Service 
     Communications Improvement Act''.

     SEC. 2. NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE COMMUNICATIONS.

       (a) In General.--Title IV of the Weather Research and 
     Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017 (15 U.S.C. 8541 et seq.) 
     is amended by adding at the end the following:

     ``SEC. 415. NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE COMMUNICATIONS.

       ``(a) Improvement of Instant Messaging Service.--
       ``(1) In general.--The Director of the National Weather 
     Service shall improve the instant messaging service used by 
     personnel of the National Weather Service by implementing by 
     October 1, 2027, a commercial off-the-shelf communications 
     solution that replaces the instant messaging service commonly 
     referred to as `NWSChat'.
       ``(2) Requirements.--The communications solution 
     implemented under paragraph (1) shall--
       ``(A) be hosted on the public cloud; and
       ``(B) satisfy requirements set forth by the Director to 
     ensure that the solution--
       ``(i) best accommodates future growth;
       ``(ii) performs successfully with increased numbers of 
     users;
       ``(iii) is easy to use for the majority of users; and
       ``(iv) is similar to systems already in commercial use.
       ``(3) Definition of public cloud.--In this subsection, the 
     term `public cloud' means an information technology model in 
     which service providers make computing services, including 
     compute and storage and develop-and-deploy environments and 
     applications, available on-demand to organizations and 
     individuals over the public internet.
       ``(b) No Additional Funds Authorized.--Funds to carry out 
     this section may only come from amounts authorized to be 
     appropriated to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
     Administration before the date of the enactment of the 
     National Weather Service Communications Improvement Act.''.
       (b) Clerical Amendment.--The table of contents in section 
     1(b) of the Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act 
     of 2017 is amended by inserting after the item relating to 
     section 414 the following:

``Sec. 415. National Weather Service communications.''.

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