119-s613

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 613 Reported in Senate

    (RS) ]

<DOC>

 Calendar No. 194
119th CONGRESS
 1st Session
 S. 613

 [Report No. 119-83]

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

 February 18, 2025

 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

 October 21, 2025

 Reported by Mr. Cruz, without amendment

_______________________________________________________________________

 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 2025''.

SEC. 2. NATIONAL MESONET PROGRAM.

    (a) Program.--The Under Secretary 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 and in situ 
 sensor networks, including soil moisture and ground-based 
 profilers, to participate in the Program;

    (3) establish memoranda of understanding with networks 
 outside of the scope of the Program in furtherance of this 
 section; and

    (4) coordinate with satellite data and services acquired 
 under 

section 302 of the Weather Research and Forecasting 
 Innovation Act of 2017 (15 U.S.C. 8532).

    (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 
 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 
 (referred to in this section as 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, the 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 
 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 one 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 one 
 entity in a remote area or an area that has a lack of 
 environmental monitoring stations described in subsection

    (a)

    (2) .
            (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--
        (A) the identification, implementation, 
 procurement, and tracking of data needed to supplement 
 the Program; and
        (B) 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 one 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.--Not less frequently than annually through 
 2035, and not later than June 30 of each year, the Under 
 Secretary shall provide regular briefings 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:

    (1) Seasonal, state, subseasonal, under secretary, weather 
 enterprise.--The terms ``seasonal'', ``State'', 
 ``subseasonal'', ``Under Secretary'', and ``weather 
 enterprise'' have the meanings given such terms in 

section 2 of 
 the Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017 (15 
 U.S.C. 8501).

    (2) Weather data.--The term ``weather data'' means 
 information used to track and predict weather conditions and 
 patterns, including forecasts, observations, and derivative 
 products from such information.

    (g) Authorization of Appropriations.--From amounts authorized to be 
appropriated to the National Weather Service, there shall be available 
not more than the following amounts 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.

    (5) $70,000,000 for fiscal year 2029.
 Calendar No. 194

119th CONGRESS

 1st Session

 S. 613

 [Report No. 119-83]

_______________________________________________________________________

 A BILL

To require the Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere to 
 maintain the National Mesonet Program, and for other purposes.

_______________________________________________________________________

 October 21, 2025

 Reported without amendment