Weather Act Reauthorization Act of 2025

The Weather Service would have to find watch and warning terms that confuse people. It could drop them, reword them, or add new ones, guided by research and public feedback.

NOAA's tornado research program would aim to give useful warning more than an hour ahead. The goal is to warn from the forecast rather than wait until rotation shows up on radar.

NOAA would buy more transmitters to reach rural and underserved communities, national parks, and recreation areas. Broadcasts would move to internet-based lines, with satellite backup if a forecast office goes down.

The tsunami program is renewed at $30 million a year through 2030, and its risk review would cover the Pacific and Arctic as well as the Atlantic. Warning centers would have to keep a fail-safe backup and run regular drills.

Staff who put out harmful algal bloom forecasts could keep working during a lapse in funding. It applies only to areas with an active bloom.

At least two pilot projects would work on forecasts weeks to months ahead. One covers water supply in the West, the other farming in the central states, at $50.3 million a year for five years.

NOAA would start forecast programs for coastal flooding and storm surge, for atmospheric rivers, and for extreme rainfall. Each would build odds-based forecasts that states and emergency managers can use for planning.

An outside group would study how required rotating shifts affect forecasters' stress and long-term health. The study may also suggest ways to ease those effects and improve benefits.

NOAA would have to give training, resources, and professional counseling to employees who survey damage after storms. The work can mean weeks in destroyed communities.

The Weather Service director would report each year on hiring timelines and staffing needs at each forecast office. That report could recommend handing hiring over to an outside entity.

Each forecast office could name at least one service hydrologist to handle flood support. The bill says this cannot change the office's staffing count or add any employees.

NOAA could collect and store social, behavioral, and economic data on how the public responds to weather alerts, in one central repository. It could also buy that data from private companies; federal records and privacy rules would still apply.

NOAA's Commercial Data Program would buy satellite, aircraft, ocean, and ground observations from companies. At least 15 percent of that money would go to pilot contracts that test new providers.

Early in buying any future satellite system, NOAA would have to decide whether a company could meet the same needs at lower cost. If one could, NOAA must tell Congress why a government-owned system is still in the national interest.

NOAA could hire outside firms to cover areas where its own radar cannot see low-level storms. It would also plan to replace the current NEXRAD radar network by September 30, 2040.

Data NOAA buys would be passed to U.S. weather companies when the seller's contract allows it. If the data itself cannot be shared, NOAA would release the forecast model output instead.

Federal algal bloom work now centers on coasts and the Great Lakes. The bill extends it to fresh water, gives the EPA the lake and river work, and funds the program at $27.5 million a year.

An incubator program would fund and screen new ways to prevent, control, or remove harmful algae. It would keep a database of costs, permits, and how well each method works.

A pilot that puts greenhouse gas and other air sensors on commercial planes would move into regular operations. It sits in the bill's aviation weather section, paid for from the commercial data program.

NOAA would set up a data lake — a public, always-updated store of the data used in its forecast models. Community versions of its models would also have to run on ordinary computers outside NOAA's systems.

A renamed interagency council would publish a yearly report naming federal programs that use and buy private weather data. It would also list what gets in the way of obtaining that data.

The Commerce Department would have to tell Congress its authorities and any plans for handing weather satellites to another federal agency. It would also describe how a weather satellite is retired.

The bill drops standing reports on Defense Department forecasting, Weather Service operations and workforce, contract positions, weather impacts on communities, and radar coverage gaps. In their place, NOAA would issue a research and development plan at least twice a year.

Surveys NOAA runs after major storms would be exempt from the Paperwork Reduction Act. That law normally requires public notice and budget-office sign-off before a federal agency collects information from people.

The radar interference program and the ships-of-opportunity pilot would end by September 30, 2030. The joint computing initiative with the Energy Department and the seasonal forecast pilots would end five years after enactment.

The bill amends a 2020 water resources law from inside this weather bill. The Army Corps could sell or license new algae removal technology to water and irrigation districts in set focus areas.

The Interior Department would have to set up a regional landslide partnership in Alaska, and elsewhere only if it chooses. Partners would be universities or groups with landslide mapping and monitoring expertise.