YourVoice.Now Summary
Environmental ConcernsTransparency & AccountabilityThe NSF could not shut down ocean monitoring buoys off four states until it completes a full review with public input.
Environmental Concerns
- Ocean monitoring continuity — NSF must keep the observatory network fully operating
- Decommissioning authority — Federal funds barred for shutting down or shrinking the network
Transparency & Accountability
- Program review requirement — NSF must finish a thorough review with stakeholder engagement
The details
The National Science Foundation could not shut down or shrink its ocean monitoring network. The Ocean Observatories Initiative anchors instruments off Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and North Carolina. It also maintains instruments in the Irminger Sea near Greenland. Those sensors feed data on ocean conditions to researchers and coastal communities. No federal money could go toward decommissioning or descoping them. The freeze holds until NSF finishes a thorough review of the program. That review must include real engagement with scientists and coastal communities. NSF would also have to keep the network fully operating in the meantime. That includes restoring monitoring in states where instruments were already taken out of service.
Congressional Summary
This bill prohibits the National Science Foundation (NSF) from using federal funds to decommission or descope Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) instruments until a thorough review of OOI is completed.OOI measures and observes ocean conditions using a series of in-water instruments that gather physical, chemical, geological, and biological data. On May 21, 2026, NSF announced that it would remove all in-water infrastructure from four of the five active OOI arrays. However, on June 18, 2026, NSF announced that it would not proceed with this decommissioning and would instead continue OOI operations and solicit input from stakeholders on the future of NSF's ocean observation efforts. NSF also indicated that it would redeploy one array that was removed from the water.Under the bill, NSF must conduct a thorough review of OOI with engagement from the scientific and coastal communities before decommissioning or descoping specified OOI instruments. This includes OOI instruments anchored off of Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and North Carolina, as well as instruments anchored in the Irminger Sea. NSF is required to maintain full and consistent OOI operations, including monitoring in states where instruments have already been decommissioned, until the review is complete.
Details
- Congress
- 119th
- Chamber
- House
- Status
- summarized
- Action
- Introduced in House
- Action Date
- 2026-07-13
- Date Added
- 2026-07-23
- Source
- Congress.gov →
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