Selected provisions in the final bill

• Recommends funding for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) to increase from $13.5 million in fiscal year 2019 to $14.5 million in fiscal year 2023
• Authorizes NIDIS to engage in partnerships with the private sector, academic institutions, and citizen scientists
• Recommends funding for NOAA activities relating to weather and climate information in agriculture to increase from $26.5 million in fiscal year 2019 to $28.5 million in fiscal year 2023
• Directs NOAA to develop a strategy for a national soil moisture monitoring network.

Prior to passing the bill, the Senate added a number of provisions amending the Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017 . The amended section of the bill:

• Recommends funding for NOAA’s weather laboratories and cooperative institutes to increase from $85.8 million in fiscal year 2019 to $91.8 million in fiscal year 2023
• Recommends funding for NOAA’s weather and air chemistry research program to increase from $30.8 million in fiscal year 2019 to $42.4 million in fiscal year 2023
• Authorizes an “Earth Prediction Innovation Center” focused on “advancing weather modeling skill, reclaiming and maintaining international leadership in the area of numerical weather prediction, and improving the transition of research into operations”
• Directs NOAA to “assess and prioritize options for entering into multi-year lease agreements for computing capabilities over options for purchasing computing hardware outright”
• Provides NOAA a special temporary authority to enter into “transaction agreements on such terms as the Under Secretary considers appropriate to carry out basic, applied, and advanced research projects” in support of the agency’s next generation satellite architecture
• Extends the authorization of the Commercial Weather Data Pilot program through fiscal year 2023
• Supports “increasing use of autonomous, mobile surface, sub-surface, and submarine vehicle ocean and fresh water sensor systems” within the Integrated Ocean Observing System

The amendment also incorporated the “Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control Amendments Act of 2017”

Selected provisions in the original Senate bill

• Recommends funding for NIDIS to increase from $13.5 million in fiscal year 2019 to $18.5 million in fiscal year 2023
• Authorizes NIDIS to engage in partnerships with the private sector, academic institutions, and citizen scientists
• Recommends funding for NOAA activities relating to weather and climate information in agriculture to increase from $26.5 million in fiscal year 2019 to $31.5 million in fiscal year 2023
• Directs NOAA to develop a strategy for a national soil moisture monitoring network