Sponsors (12)
The bill preserves continuous ocean observing and formal stakeholder review—protecting researchers, coastal communities, and environmental monitoring—but raises short-term taxpayer costs, limits NSF budget flexibility, and may delay infrastructure modernization.
Researchers and coastal communities retain access to ocean monitoring instruments and the data they produce because NSF must keep OOI assets operational until a formal review is completed.
Rural and coastal communities, fisheries managers, and weather services benefit from uninterrupted environmental and marine data collection (e.g., monitoring off OR, WA, AK, NC, Irminger Sea) that supports fisheries management, weather forecasting, and coastal planning.
Scientists and coastal stakeholders gain a formal, stakeholder-engaged review process before any decommissioning or descoping, increasing transparency and local input into decisions about ocean-observing assets.
Taxpayers may face higher short-term costs because NSF must continue funding and operating OOI instruments that were slated for decommissioning until the mandated review finishes.
NSF may be constrained from reallocating funds to other research priorities while prevented from decommissioning or descoping these OOI assets, potentially slowing other projects.
If the required review is lengthy, continued operation of aging equipment could delay planned modernization or replacement efforts and prolong reliance on older infrastructure.
Based on analysis of 1 section of legislative text.
Stops NSF from decommissioning or descoping specified OOI instruments and requires a comprehensive review with stakeholder input, while preserving full operations until the review is complete.
Official title: To prohibit the National Science Foundation from obligating or expending Federal funds to descope or decommission the Ocean Observatories Initiative instruments, and for other purposes.
Introduced July 13, 2026 by Suzanne Bonamici · Last progress July 13, 2026
Prohibits the National Science Foundation from decommissioning or descopeing Ocean Observatories Initiative instruments located off Oregon, Washington, Alaska, North Carolina, and in the Irminger Sea until NSF completes a comprehensive review of the Initiative and its national assets with robust stakeholder engagement. Requires the NSF Director to maintain full, consistent OOI operations — including restoring monitoring in states that previously had instruments decommissioned — until that review is finished.