Bill · S. 590· Senate(119-S-590)
Improving Flood and Agricultural Forecasts Act of 2025
- Introduced
- 2/13/2025
- Last activity
- 2/13/2025 — Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
- Sponsored by
- Brian Schatz
- Cosponsors
- None
- Introduced
- In Committee
What this bill would do
The Improving Flood and Agricultural Forecasts Act of 2025 directs the Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere to maintain the National Mesonet Program. This program focuses on obtaining environmental observations to improve forecasts for atmospheric, drought, fire, and water events. The initiative seeks to increase data density through various networks, including soil moisture and road weather observations. It also provides for financial and technical assistance to State, Tribal, private, and academic entities. Additionally, the Act establishes an advisory committee of experts to guide the program. The Under Secretary is required to provide annual briefings to relevant Congressional committees through 2035.
Yes· 3 of 13
Would farmers be better off under this?+6
The act specifically provides soil and moisture data to support operational agricultural forecasting.
Would people in rural areas be better off under this?+5
The program prioritizes providing assistance to entities in remote or underrepresented areas.
Does this put more money into scientific research?+5
The bill funds the expansion of environmental observation networks and supports research development priorities.
The opposite
No question was scored the opposite.
Who it would affect, and how
Potential Positive Impacts for People
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Enhanced Safety and Economic Stability: By increasing the quantity and density of environmental observations, the program supports forecasts, warnings, and hyper-local forecasts. This is intended to protect individuals, businesses, agricultural production, food security, military, and government agencies, allowing them to operate in a safe, efficient, and orderly manner (Section 2(b)(1)(A)).
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Improved Severe Weather Warnings: The program supports the National Weather Service in its goal to reach a 30-minute warning time for severe weather through better predictive model algorithms (Section 2(b)(1)(D)).
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Support for Agriculture and Emergency Management: The acquisition of soil and moisture data supports operational forecasting and local commercial, agricultural, and emergency management needs (Section 2(b)(2)(A)).
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Improved Transportation Safety: The expansion of environmental observational networks in roadway environments provides real-time road weather and surface conditions for surface transportation and related economic sectors (Section 2(b)(2)(C)).
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Assistance for Remote or Underrepresented Areas: The Under Secretary may provide technical and financial assistance for the maintenance of monitoring stations in underrepresented or remote areas where it is financially unfeasible for a single entity to operate them (Section 2(c)(4)(B)).
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Funding for Local Infrastructure: The Under Secretary may award at least 15 percent of the annual appropriation to State, Tribal, private, and academic entities to build, expand, or upgrade their mesonet equipment and capacity (Section 2(c)(1)).
Potential Negative Impacts for People
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Financial Requirements for Recipients: Entities seeking financial assistance must enter into an agreement to provide data to the Program and must demonstrate they can provide sufficient financial support from non-Federal sources (Section 2(c)(3) and 2(c)(6)).
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Long-term Maintenance Burdens: To receive assistance, an entity must be able to fully maintain the quality of the mesonet system and its associated data standards for at least 5 years (Section 2(c)(6)).
Groups and Interests Ranking
Every group the model scored this bill for, from -10 to +10. Hover a score for the reason it gave.
- Demographic And Interest Groups
- Good For Farmers+6Good For Rural Residents+5Good For Business Owners+3Good For Native Americans+2Good For Low Income Households+1
- Environment Energy And Infrastructure
- Improves Rural Development+4Improves Environmental Protections+3
- Education And Technology
- Increases Scientific Research Funding+5
- Economy And Finance
- Improves Economic Growth+2Increases Job Creation+1
- Governance And Ideology
- Improves Government Transparency+2
- National Security And Foreign Policy
- Improves Veterans Benefits+1
- Social Issues And Justice
- Improves Poverty Reduction+1
- 2/13/2025
- Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
- Introduced in Senate
One bill Congress.gov lists as related to this one — companions in the other chamber, earlier versions, and bills this one absorbed or was folded into.