It also aims to expand NOAA’s use of commercial weather data. The bill is a priority of Science Committee Chair Frank Lucas (R-OK), who is also interested in separating NOAA from the Commerce Department and turning it into an independent agency. The Weather Act reauthorization is now with the Senate, which has not introduced analogous legislation.
The House passed the legislation along with five other bills that also emerged from the Science Committee: the Fire Weather Development Act, the Abandoned Well Remediation R&D Act, the Carbon Sequestration Collaboration Act, the Clean Energy Demonstration Transparency Act, and the Privacy Enhancing Technology Research Act.