Sponsors (4)
The bill strengthens tsunami detection, mapping, data access, and interagency coordination—improving public safety and planning—but creates funding rigidity, increased implementation costs, and potential loss of local flexibility that could limit or delay full benefits if resources are insufficient.
Coastal communities (residents, local emergency managers, ports) will get faster, more accurate tsunami detection and warnings by adding GNSS and expanding real-time data inputs, improving life-safety and evacuation lead time.
Local and state planners, homeowners, and infrastructure operators will benefit from routine updates to inundation maps and high-resolution digital elevation models, enabling better land-use planning, mitigation, and resilience investments.
States, researchers, and universities gain predictable funding and dedicated shares for state activities and research through a $32M/year authorization (FY2026–2030), supporting sustained program operations and planning.
State and local governments (and taxpayers) may face insufficient resources if the fixed $32M/year authorization does not keep pace with growing mapping, GNSS, and technology costs, risking incomplete implementation of required upgrades.
Mandated set-asides (e.g., specified percentages for state activities and research) reduce NOAA's flexibility to reallocate funds to other urgent priorities within the authorization cap, potentially limiting program responsiveness.
Expanding NOAA responsibilities (more mapping, data management, GNSS support and coordination) will increase implementation costs and likely require hiring or contracting, creating budget pressure and potential delays before communities see full benefits.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires GNSS data in tsunami forecasting, mandates data/metadata management and archiving, expands interagency cooperation, and updates inundation maps and alert duties.
Introduced June 23, 2025 by Suzanne Bonamici · Last progress June 23, 2025
Amends the federal tsunami law to strengthen data management, add GNSS (satellite positioning) data as an input to tsunami forecasting, expand interagency cooperation, and require routine updates to inundation maps and alert-level evaluations. The bill sets new statutory requirements for data quality, archiving, metadata access, and records compliance for the tsunami forecasting and warning program and broadens the geographic scope of covered ocean regions. The act is primarily technical and policy-focused: it updates purposes and program language, requires agencies to support real-time GNSS data streams, and mandates compliance with federal records and evidence-based data management laws. It does not itself appropriate funds in the text provided.