Weather Research Forecasting Innovation Act of 2015
Floor Speech
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to just echo the comments of my colleague from Oklahoma, the vice chairman of the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, Mr. Lucas, and of course the ranking member, Ms. Bonamici. I think your summation of this bill is right on target.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to attest that H.R. 1561, the Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act, is the very first step in what will lead us to a day when we have zero deaths from tornadoes. I want to repeat that. This is the very first step of what is necessary to move us to a day where we have zero deaths from tornadoes. Those of us from the great State of Oklahoma understand this all too well.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to first thank Chairman Smith, Vice Chairman Lucas, and the Subcommittee on Environment Ranking Member Bonamici for their tireless efforts to see this bipartisan legislation move forward.
The burgeoning commercial private sector for space-based weather data and aviation-based weather data has voiced its support for this legislation. I would like to mention letters to the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology from PlanetiQ, Tempus Global Data, Panasonic Avionics Corporation, GeoOptics, and Spire Global.
H.R. 1561 builds on the foundation laid by my House-passed Weather Forecasting Improvement Act from last Congress and directs NOAA to prioritize activities that will save lives and protect property. This is critically important to my State, which is in the heart of Tornado Alley.
In fact, I just went home for the weekend. Saturday night, about midnight, all of the tornado sirens started going off. My wife and I got up. We got our kids out of bed. We brought them downstairs. We set up their beds in my closet. My wife and I turned on the TV, and we surfed the Internet trying to find out where the tornadoes were and where they were touching down.
This is critically important, and I am sure my experience this weekend, which is not unique to this weekend, is also an experience by many of my constituents and others throughout the State of Oklahoma. We must do all we can to improve our ability to predict the weather.
H.R. 1561 will help NOAA to develop more accurate and timely warnings for not only tornadoes, but also hurricanes and other high-impact weather events. It calls on NOAA to develop a plan to regain and maintain our forecasting capabilities that are second to none in the world because right now we, unfortunately, are lagging behind our counterparts in Europe, the U.K., and Canada. The bill encourages better cooperation across NOAA offices and enhances collaboration with universities such as the University of Oklahoma,
which is a national leader in weather research.
Mr. Speaker, I am particularly proud of a new section in this year's version that we have worked closely with industry, NOAA, and other Members of Congress to include. H.R. 1561 authorizes a pilot program for NOAA to purchase commercial space-based weather data and test it against NOAA's proprietary data. It also calls on NOAA to publish standards it expects from any purchased data from the commercial sector.
Mr. Speaker, this has the potential to be a major paradigm shift provision. This is the first step towards changing the business model. I believe we need to change the business model, moving to a day where the government does not purchase, own, and operate huge monolithic billion-dollar satellites but, rather, utilizes the innovation of the private sector to provide the data necessary to feed our data assimilation systems and our numerical weather models.
This will ultimately allow NOAA to focus its resources on the research and development necessary to improve our modeling capabilities, computing capacity, and warning lead times outlined in this legislation.
Mr. Speaker, I believe there will come a time when there will be zero deaths from tornados. I think this bill will help us implement the necessary steps to get there.
I, once again, thank my colleagues on the Science Committee for all their hard work, and I look forward to working with our counterparts in the Senate to move this legislation to the President's desk.
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