Track bills, resolutions, and amendments moving through Congress
Commemorating the 69th anniversary of the continuous operations of the Mauna Loa Observatory.
The bill secures continued, credible long-term CO2 and greenhouse-gas monitoring that strengthens climate science and policymaking, while opening the door to greater regulatory pressure and potential costs for taxpayers, industries, and consumers.
Improving Flood and Agricultural Forecasts Act of 2025
The bill strengthens local and national weather observations and forecasting—improving safety and resilience—by funding and leveraging non‑Federal networks, but it shifts costs and operational burdens onto taxpayers, NOAA/NWS, and local applicants and may create access and sustainment barriers for smaller partners.
Improving Flood and Agricultural Forecasts Act of 2025
Hurricane Hunter Aircraft Recapitalization Act
The bill secures continuous, modernized manned hurricane reconnaissance and improved forecasting by committing substantial funding and flexible contracting, at the cost of significant federal spending, longer contractual commitments, and reduced adaptability to emerging technologies.
Wildfire Intelligence Collaboration and Coordination Act of 2025
The bill centralizes wildfire science, forecasting, and data to improve community safety, responder effectiveness, and research efficiency—but does so at added federal cost and with risks that centralization, data/privacy issues, interoperability limits, and governance complexity could slow benefits or reduce local flexibility.
Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Reauthorization Act of 2026
The bill substantially strengthens U.S. forecasting, observing, data access, and wildfire/flood response capacity—likely saving lives and enabling innovation—but does so with meaningful new federal spending, increased reliance on commercial data/cloud services, and transitional, equity, privacy, and security risks that must be managed.
Hurricane Forecast Improvement Program Enhancement Act
The bill invests in better forecasts, computing, observing platforms, and social‑science-informed communications to reduce storm risk and modernize operations, but it increases federal costs and faces implementation and procurement risks that could delay or complicate benefits.
NIDIS Reauthorization Act of 2026
This bill strengthens drought forecasting, data sharing, and decision-support tools with multi-year funding and modern technology, but does so at increased federal cost and with risks of organizational uncertainty, resource trade-offs within NOAA, and added burdens for partner agencies.
Advanced Weather Model Computing Development Act
The bill channels federal computing and grant support to accelerate AI- and HPC-driven weather and climate modeling—improving forecasts, research, and workforce development—but does so with taxpayer cost, concentrated infrastructure and competition effects, and added security, inclusion, and administrative risks.
Radar Next Program Act of 2026
The bill aims to modernize and expand radar capabilities to improve severe-weather warnings and spur innovation, but it requires substantial federal investment, creates potential commercial dependence and integration risks, and will deliver benefits on a multi‑year timeline.
Coordinated Federal Response to Extreme Heat Act of 2025
The bill strengthens national coordination, data, forecasts, and funding to reduce heat-related harm—especially for vulnerable groups—but requires modest federal spending and new administrative work, with risks of uneven implementation, privacy challenges, and potential exclusions from technical definitions.
Smarter Weather Forecasting for Water Management, Farming, and Ranching Act of 2025
The bill directs targeted federal funding to rapidly improve subseasonal forecasts that can materially help farmers and water managers, but costs taxpayers ~$225M and uses limited, time‑bounded pilots whose narrow scope and five-year sunset could delay or disrupt broader, sustained benefits.
Improving Atmospheric River Forecasts Act
The bill strengthens forecasts, water-management decisions, and research access—potentially saving lives and improving infrastructure resilience—but will require sustained federal investment and careful data governance to avoid privacy risks and unequal access.
Saving NOAA’s Workforce Act
The bill preserves NOAA jobs and ensures continuity of critical weather, climate, and ocean services through FY2026, at the cost of reduced agency flexibility to adjust staffing and potential near-term added costs to taxpayers if appropriations fall short.
TORNADO Act
The bill would strengthen forecasting, warnings, research capacity, and equity-focused partnerships—improving safety for many communities—but relies on unspecified or distributed funding, may impose new costs, raises privacy and inclusion risks, and could reduce some transparency, so benefits may be uneven and phased.
TAME Extreme Weather and Wildfires Act
The bill funds and releases NOAA AI forecasting models and curated datasets to improve forecasts and public safety and to accelerate research, but does so at modest federal cost and with risks that security, IP, or private‑sector arrangements could limit access, transparency, or equitable control.
Fog Observations and Geographic Forecasting Act
The bill aims to improve fog forecasting and maritime safety and reduce weather-related economic losses through expanded observations and modeling, but it will cost federal funds, may impose data costs on private operators, and benefits could be delayed by implementation complexity.
Tornado Preparedness Act
The bill would substantially improve tornado detection, warnings, shelters, and intergovernmental coordination—likely reducing injuries and deaths—at the cost of significant federal and local spending, implementation burdens, and risks of uneven access and data/governance concerns.
NOAA Global Ocean Monitoring and Observing Research Act
FIRE Act of 2025
The bill strengthens wildfire detection, forecasting, and government warning capabilities—potentially saving lives and reducing property losses and spurring industry research—at the cost of new federal spending, possible duplication of resources, and a lag before tools deliver operational benefits.
Measuring the Cost of Disasters Act of 2025
The bill centralizes and updates high‑cost disaster data to improve planning, research, and transparency, while trading off additional federal costs, potential market/insurance consequences, and the risk that a $1 billion reporting threshold will underrepresent the cumulative harm from many smaller disasters.
TWISTER Act
The bill improves tornado detection, forecasting, and warnings—potentially reducing injuries, deaths, and damage—while requiring additional funding, administrative coordination, and carrying a risk of increased false alarms and warning fatigue.
Weather Act Reauthorization Act of 2025
The bill channels significant, multi-year federal investment and technical modernization to make U.S. weather forecasting and warnings more accurate and interoperable—improving public safety, commerce, and research—while creating substantial taxpayer costs, greater reliance on commercial data, and new administrative, privacy, and implementation risks.
To establish in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration a program to improve precipitation forecasts, and for other purposes.
The bill strengthens U.S. extreme-precipitation forecasting, data access, and scientific capacity—boosting community resilience and innovation—while adding modest federal costs, administrative requirements, and potential equity challenges for less-resourced partners.
Improving Atmospheric River Forecasts Act
The bill funds and accelerates improved subseasonal-to-seasonal and atmospheric-river forecasting—likely reducing deaths and property damage and strengthening water and forecasting capabilities—while increasing federal spending, concentrating benefits regionally and commercially, and risking interrupted continuity after a five-year sunset.
Rural Weather Monitoring Systems Act
This bill orders a rapid GAO study to reveal rural weather‑monitoring gaps and inform targeted investments, trading faster, actionable information for limited depth, short‑term administrative burdens, and no guaranteed funding for upgrades.
Advanced Weather Model Computing Development Act
The bill would substantially boost NOAA's computing, modeling, and forecasting capabilities (and related jobs and transparency) through public–private partnerships and multi-year investments, while increasing fiscal exposure, data-security/proprietary risks, and the chance that existing programs are deprioritized.
Weather Workforce Improvement Act
The bill speeds hiring and formally prioritizes balloon-launching and other mission-critical NWS roles to improve forecasts and public safety, but it relies on nonbinding designations and expedited hiring that could undermine civil-service safeguards, shift resources without new funding, and create modest taxpayer costs.
Protecting Coasts and Cities from Severe Weather Act
The bill would substantially improve localized observations, forecasts, and decision-support—boosting safety and resilience for many communities and infrastructure—but requires new federal spending and careful implementation, communication, and support to avoid uneven benefits and public confusion.
Fog Observations and Geographic Forecasting Act
The bill would measurably improve fog forecasting and maritime safety and provide economic and community resilience benefits, but requires federal and private investment, may cause short-term operational disruptions, and risks uneven rollout across coastal communities.
