National Weather Service Communications Improvement Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. BEYER. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 7361) to upgrade the communications service used by the National Weather Service, and for other purposes.

The Clerk read the title of the bill.

The text of the bill is as follows: H.R. 7361

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. This Act may be cited as the ``National Weather Service Communications Improvement Act''. SEC. 2. NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE COMMUNICATIONS.

(a) In General.--Title IV of the Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017 (15 U.S.C. 8541 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following new section: ``SEC. 415. NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE COMMUNICATIONS.

``(a) System Upgrade.--The Director of the National Weather Service shall improve the instant messaging service used by National Weather Service personnel by implementing a commercial off-the-shelf communications solution hosted on the public cloud to serve as a replacement for the communications system in use as of the date of the enactment of this section (commonly referred to as `NWSChat'). Such communications solution shall satisfy requirements set forth by the Director to best accommodate future growth and perform successfully with increased numbers of users.

``(b) Authorization of Appropriations.--There is authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section $3,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2023 through 2026, to remain available until expended.''.

(b) Clerical Amendment.--The table of contents in section 1(b) of the Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017 is amended by inserting after the item relating to section 414 the following new item: ``Sec. 415. National Weather Service communications.''.

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Mr. BEYER. 7361, the bill now under consideration.

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Mr. BEYER. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 7361, the National Weather Service Communications Improvement Act.

This bipartisan bill, introduced by the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Feenstra) directs the National Weather Service to improve its current instant messaging communication service, also known as NWSChat.

NWSChat is a vital tool used by National Weather Service professionals to communicate with emergency managers, the media, and other strategic partners during high-impact and severe weather events. This tool ensures that the media and emergency response managers can retrieve real-time information to help protect Americans and their property during dangerous events.

However, NWSChat has experienced several issues recently which have caused delays in the National Weather Service's ability to share critical weather information. This bill would help to address these issues by requiring the National Weather Service to transition NWSChat to an up-to-date, cloud-based commercial platform.

Just last week, the National Weather Service announced that it would be upgrading its chat service to use the commercially available Slack collaborative platform. It was reassuring to see the Weather Service take this step to address the recent outages and issues with NWSChat.

This bill will help support the agency with clear congressional direction and corresponding authorization of appropriations language to help ensure a seamless transition of NWSChat to this new platform.

Reliable and uninterrupted communication is critical during severe weather events. The National Weather Service Communications Improvement Act will support the improvement of this lifesaving tool.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time
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Mr. BEYER. Madam Speaker, I also urge my colleagues to support H.R. 7361, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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