March 24, 2025
Mr. Feenstra (for himself, Mrs. Hinson, Mr. Sorensen, Mr. Graves, Mr. Haridopolos, Mr. Crenshaw, Ms. Craig, Mr. Fitzpatrick, Ms. McBride, Ms. Ross, Mrs. Radewagen, Mrs. Miller-Meeks, Mr. Moylan, Mr. Carbajal, Mrs. McClain Delaney, and Mr. Moskowitz) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology
To upgrade the communications service used by the National Weather Service, and for other purposes.
Section 1. Short title
This Act may be cited as the National Weather Service Communications Improvement Act
.
Sec. 2. National Weather Service communications
(a) System upgrade
The Director of the National Weather Service shall improve the instant messaging service used by personnel of the National Weather Service by implementing, not later than October 1, 2027, a commercial off-the-shelf communications solution that replaces the instant messaging service commonly referred to as NWSChat
.
(b) Requirements
The communications solution implemented under subsection (a) shall—
(1)
be hosted on the public cloud; and
(2)
satisfy requirements set forth by the Director of the National Weather Service to ensure such solution—
(A)
best accommodates future growth;
(B)
performs successfully with increased numbers of users;
(C)
is easy to use for the majority of users; and
(D)
is similar to systems already in commercial use.
(c) Funding
From amounts made available for Operations, Research, and Facilities, the Director of the National Weather Service shall allocate up to $3,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2026 through 2029 to carry out subsection (a).
(d) Limitation on funding
Amounts made available to carry out subsection (a) shall be derived from amounts appropriated or otherwise made available to the National Weather Service.