H.R. 1496 — Introduced in House

I 118th CONGRESS 1st Session H. R. 1496 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES March 9, 2023Mr. Feenstra (for himself, Mr. Carbajal, Mrs. Miller-Meeks, Ms. Bonamici, Mr. Miller of Ohio, Mrs. Hinson, Mrs. González-Colón, Mr. Crawford, Mr. Jackson of North Carolina, Ms. Ross, Mr. LaMalfa, Mr. Sorensen, Mrs. Radewagen, and Mrs. Foushee) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology A BILL To upgrade the communications service used by the National Weather Service, and for other purposes. 1. Short title This Act may be cited as the National Weather Service Communications Improvement Act. 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: 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) 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 2024 through 2027 to carry out subsection (a). (c) 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. . (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. .