Sponsors (84)
Places a temporary moratorium on closing or restricting access to NOAA facilities and requires joint reports before future actions may proceed.
Official title: To impose a moratorium on closing, suspending, terminating leases of, ceasing construction of, consolidating, or otherwise imposing any new limitation on access to facilities of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and for other purposes.
Introduced July 17, 2025 by Gabe Amo · Last progress July 17, 2025
The bill protects NOAA staff and local communities from sudden facility closures and increases congressional oversight, at the cost of delaying potential savings and adding administrative steps that limit agency flexibility until the required reporting is completed.
Local communities and state/local governments are less likely to experience sudden loss or interruption of NOAA services because agencies must analyze impacts and replacement costs before closing or relocating facilities.
NOAA staff and researchers (federal employees and scientific personnel) retain access to facilities for at least the moratorium period, avoiding immediate displacement and operational disruption.
Congress (and therefore taxpayers and state governments) will receive a detailed joint report on selection criteria and a cost–benefit analysis before permanent changes, increasing transparency and oversight of relocation/closure decisions.
Fixing an earliest report date (Jan 21, 2029) could prevent agencies from acting on legitimate non-emergency operational needs before that date, limiting flexibility to respond to real operational requirements.
Delaying consolidations or lease terminations postpones potential cost savings and may raise near-term federal facilities costs borne by taxpayers.
Additional required reporting and review steps increase administrative burden and could slow agency reconfiguration efforts, creating more work for Commerce, NOAA, GSA staff and government contractors.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Prohibits the Commerce Secretary, the NOAA Administrator, and the GSA Administrator from closing, suspending, terminating leases, halting construction, consolidating, or otherwise limiting access to NOAA facilities for the duration of a moratorium. The moratorium allows only temporary emergency actions to protect health and safety and ends 180 days after a joint report from Commerce, NOAA, and GSA is delivered to relevant congressional committees, with the earliest report submission date of January 21, 2029. After the moratorium ends, the bill requires a similar joint report to be submitted at least 30 days before any future closure, lease termination, construction stop, consolidation, or other limitation takes effect, unless an emergency exception applies. The reporting requirement must describe selection criteria, cost–benefit analysis, anticipated savings, replacement costs, and impacts on NOAA services.