Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2015

Floor Speech

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Madam Chair, my amendment transfers $12 million from the Census Bureau to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research for the specific purpose of weather research.

We now know that technology exists that can predict tornadoes nearly 1 hour in advance. This technology will move us toward a day when we have zero deaths from tornadoes.

My amendment today will direct funds to research and technology vital to saving lives and property. I want to thank Chairman Wolf for working with us towards this goal.

The $12 million added by this amendment is for weather research in NOAA's office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, as authorized in my House-passed, bipartisan Weather Forecasting Improvement Act. Specifically, this increase provides for a total of $76 million for weather laboratories and cooperative institutes to advance observational, computing, and modeling capabilities and quantitative assessment tools for measuring the value of data and specific observing systems. The funding will accelerate research, development, and the development of critical technologies like new aerial weather observing systems; transformative global, national, and regional weather models; advancing high-performance computing using graphic processing information technology networks; and observing system simulation experiments to deliver substantial data improvements in weather forecasting and prediction of high-impact weather events such as those associated with hurricanes and tornadoes. This will save countless American lives in the future and allow our citizens to better protect their personal property. This should be NOAA's highest priority.

Another critical part of the Weather Forecasting Improvement Act is a joint technology transfer initiative between NOAA Research and the National Weather Service. I urge the Weather Service to follow through on this House's bipartisan voice vote back in April and transfer the full $20 million authorized in that legislation to NOAA Research to carry out the transition of the latest scientific and technological advances into the Weather Service operations. This will sunset outdated and expensive operational methods and tools to enable the cost-effective transfer of new methods and tools into operations.

Madam Chair, NOAA is the only Federal agency tasked with providing accurate and timely forecasts. I believe this amendment is a big step forward in reflecting this priority.

Again, I am grateful for the chairman's guidance in working on this amendment, and I am thankful for his leadership on this issue. I hope that we can work together to keep weather research funding at this level when it comes time to conference with the Senate. This amendment will save lives and property.

With that, I urge the support of my amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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