[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 105 (Tuesday, June 23, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Page S3122]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

  SA 5994. Mr. HICKENLOOPER (for himself and Mr. Bennet) submitted an 
amendment intended to be proposed by him to the bill S. 4784, to 
authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2027 for military activities 
of the Department of Defense, for military construction, and for 
defense activities of the Department of Energy, to prescribe military 
personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for other purposes; which 
was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

       At the end of title X, add the following:

     SEC. 1094. ASSESSMENT OF NATIONAL SECURITY IMPACTS OF 
                   RESTRUCTURING THE NATIONAL CENTER FOR 
                   ATMOSPHERIC RESEARCH.

       (a) Findings.--Congress finds the following:
       (1) The Department of Defense relies extensively on 
     foundational atmospheric modeling, predictive analytics, and 
     basic research of the National Center for Atmospheric 
     Research (referred to in this section as the ``NCAR'') to 
     support global operational weather forecasting, flight and 
     satellite safety, and strategic mission planning.
       (2) Any disruption to these interconnected capabilities 
     risks creating critical gaps in environmental intelligence, 
     degrading the accuracy of severe weather tracking, and 
     compromising the operational readiness of advanced national 
     defense platforms on earth and in space.
       (b) Report.--
       (1) In general.--Not later than 180 days after the date of 
     enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense, in 
     consultation with the Administrator of the National Oceanic 
     and Atmospheric Administration, shall submit to the 
     congressional defense committees a report assessing the 
     national security impacts of a potential dismantling, 
     restructuring, or divestiture of the capabilities and 
     infrastructure of the NCAR.
       (2) Contents.--The report under paragraph (1) shall 
     include--
       (A) a complete inventory of all current Department of 
     Defense programs, initiatives, research and development 
     efforts, and operational workflows that rely on NCAR-
     developed models, software frameworks, data streams, or 
     computational infrastructure;
       (B) an operational impact assessment detailing how the loss 
     or degradation of NCAR's specialized assets, including the 
     atmospheric research aircraft fleet of the NCAR and the NCAR-
     Wyoming Supercomputing Center, would affect flight safety, 
     long-range deployments, and global operations;
       (C) a detailed analysis of the interagency dependencies 
     involved, specifically evaluating how a disruption to the 
     NCAR would impact the ability of the Department of Defense to 
     integrate next-generation satellite observations into 
     military weather models;
       (D) an evaluation of the impacts on national security space 
     operations and critical defense infrastructure resulting from 
     any degradation to the solar physics and space weather 
     forecasting capabilities of the NCAR, with a specific focus 
     on how disruptions to solar monitoring assets would affect 
     early-warning timelines for coronal mass ejections, 
     geomagnetic storms, and solar flares that threaten military 
     satellite communications, global positioning systems, and 
     orbital tracking; and
       (E) recommendations for mitigation strategies or 
     legislative safeguards necessary to maintain the 
     uninterrupted continuity of critical environmental 
     intelligence and to ensure that any civilian agency 
     restructuring does not inadvertently compromise national 
     security capabilities or readiness.
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