Sponsors (2)
The bill directs modest, multi-year funding and technical upgrades to improve extreme-precipitation forecasts and public data access—boosting community resilience and research capacity—while adding federal cost, administrative reporting burdens, and equity risks for less-resourced partners.
State and local governments and rural communities will get more accurate forecasts for precipitation extremes (e.g., atmospheric rivers, tropical cyclones), improving preparedness and reducing flood/damage impacts.
NOAA and the research community receive sustained funds (~$15M+ per year FY2026–2030) to support R&D and operations, sustaining jobs, scientific capacity, and forecast improvements.
Researchers, businesses, and the public will have better access to FAIR-managed forecast data, making it easier to reuse data for planning, innovation, and policy decisions.
All taxpayers face roughly $75 million in additional federal spending over five years to fund these programs, which may increase budgetary pressure or require offsets.
Smaller or under-resourced state and local partners (including tribal communities) may be disadvantaged as emphasis on advanced computing and AI favors well-resourced institutions, raising equity concerns in access and capacity.
NOAA and partner agencies will have added administrative workload from mandated coordination and biennial reporting, increasing staff time and program management costs.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Authorizes a NOAA program to improve precipitation forecasts via research, coupled Earth system models, observations, data curation, stakeholder coordination, and FAIR data, with multi-year funding.
Introduced July 15, 2025 by Deborah K. Ross · Last progress July 15, 2025
Creates a NOAA program to improve precipitation forecasts by funding research, model development, observations, data curation, and operational implementation of fully coupled Earth System Models across weather to decadal timescales. The program requires coordination across NOAA offices and with Federal, State, local, Tribal, academic, and private partners, emphasizes use of high-performance computing and ML/AI, mandates FAIR data management, and authorizes roughly $15 million per year for five years.