Sponsors (12)
The bill preserves continuous ocean monitoring and stakeholder input for OOI sites—protecting data used by coastal communities and science—at the cost of delaying potential budgetary savings, reallocations, and creating short-term uncertainty for contractors and other research priorities.
Coastal communities and ocean researchers keep continuous ocean monitoring and data collection at OOI sites off Oregon, Washington, Alaska, North Carolina, and the Irminger Sea until an independent review is complete, preserving ongoing environmental observations.
Local economies and the public benefit from maintained scientific infrastructure and uninterrupted data that support weather forecasting, fisheries management, and climate research relied on by communities and industries.
Scientists, coastal stakeholders, and local communities gain a required opportunity for stakeholder input and increased transparency before any changes are made to OOI operations, improving local accountability.
Taxpayers bear continued operating costs because decommissioning or cost-saving changes are delayed until the mandated review is completed, extending federal expenses for OOI sites.
NSF may need to postpone reallocating funds from OOI to other research priorities while the review and continued operations proceed, slowing progress on other scientific projects and grant opportunities.
Contractors, partner institutions, and related workers face planning uncertainty and potential financial disruption if the review is lengthy or poorly scoped, complicating hiring, contracts, and project schedules.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Stops NSF from using federal funds to decommission or descope specified OOI instruments and requires continued operations until a comprehensive, stakeholder-informed review is completed.
Official title: Prohibit the National Science Foundation from using Federal funds to descope or decommission the Ocean Observatories Initiative instruments.
Introduced June 17, 2026 by Lisa Murkowski · Last progress June 18, 2026
Prohibits the National Science Foundation from using federal funds to decommission or reduce Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) instruments anchored off Oregon, Washington, Alaska, North Carolina, and in the Irminger Sea until NSF completes a comprehensive review with strong stakeholder engagement. Requires the NSF Director to continue full and consistent OOI operations, including restoring monitoring where instruments were previously removed, until that review is finished. The requirement is temporary and procedural: it pauses planned decommissioning/descope actions and mandates a review process with input from scientific and coastal communities before any changes to the specified OOI assets may proceed.