Extends a NOAA program called Digital Coast for another five years, through 2030. The program provides free coastal data — flood maps, elevation, shoreline change — to city planners, emergency managers, and researchers in coastal communities. The bill adds one new data category (underground infrastructure and buried utilities) and explicitly requires that the data be fully and freely available to anyone. Matters mostly for the roughly 127 million Americans living in coastal counties and the local governments that plan around sea level rise and storm risk.
Congressional Summary
This bill reauthorizes through FY2030 the Digital Coast program managed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and makes other changes to the program. Through the program, NOAA administers a digital platform with data, tools, training, and other information to support coastal management needs.The bill requires NOAA to ensure that data and resulting integrated products developed under the program are fully and freely available on the program website and via other sources. Further, NOAA must support existing efforts to acquire and integrate data related to underground infrastructure and subsurface utilities.Finally, NOAA must limit trainings carried out under the program to technical instruction on the use of data and tools provided by the program.
Legislative Subjects
Details
- Congress
- 119th
- Chamber
- Senate
- Status
- summarized
- Action
- Passed Senate
- Action Date
- 2026-02-26
- Date Added
- 2026-04-21
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