S. 786. A bill to clarify the duties and responsibilities of the
National Weather Service, and for other purposes; to the Committee on
Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

   Mr. SANTORUM. Mr. President, I rise to introduce the National Weather
Services Duties Act of 2005 to clarify the responsibilities of the
National Weather Service (NWS) within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Association, NOAA. This legislation modernizes the statutory description
of NWS roles in the national weather enterprise so that it reflects
today's reality in which the NWS and the commercial weather industry both
play important parts in providing weather products and services to the
Nation.

   Back in 1890 when the current NWS organic statute was enacted, and all
the way through World War II, the public received its weather forecasts
and warnings almost exclusively from the Weather Bureau, the NWS's
predecessor. In the late 1940s, a fledging weather service industry began
to develop. From then until December 2004, the NWS has had policies
sensitive to the importance of fostering the industry's expansion, and
since 1948 has had formal policies discouraging its competition with
industry. Fourteen years ago the NWS took the extra step of carefully
delineating the respective roles of the NWS and the commercial weather
industry, in addition to pledging its intention not to provide products or
services that were or could be provided by the commercial weather
industry. This longstanding non-competition and non-duplication policy has
had the effect of facilitating the growth of the industry into a billion
dollar sector and of strengthening and extending the national weather
enterprise, now the best in the world.

   Regrettably, the parent agency of the NWS, NOAA, repealed the 1991
non-competition and non-duplication policy in December 2004. Its new
policy only promises to "give due consideration" to the abilities of
private sector entities. The new policy appears to signal the intention of
NOAA and the NWS to expand their activities into areas that are already
well served by the commercial weather industry. This detracts from NWS's
core missions of maintaining a modern and effective meteorological
infrastructure, collecting comprehensive observational data, and issuing
warnings and forecasts of severe weather that imperils life and property.

   Additionally, NOAA's action threatens the continued success of the
commercial weather industry. It is not an easy prospect for a business to
attract advertisers, subscribers, or investors when the government is
providing similar products and services for free. This bill restores the
NWS non-competition policy. However, the legislation leaves NWS with
complete and unfettered freedom to carry out its critical role of
preparing and issuing severe weather warnings and forecasts designed for
the protection of life and property of the general public. I believe it is
in the best interest of both the government and NWS to concentrate on this
critical role and its other core missions. The beauty of a highly
competent private sector is that services that are not inherently involved
in public safety and security can be carried out with little or no
expenditure of taxpayer dollars. At a time of tight agency budgets, the
commercial weather industry's increasing capabilities offer the Federal
Government the opportunity to focus its resources on the governmental
functions of collecting and distributing weather data, research and
development of atmospheric models and core forecasts, and on ensuring that
NWS meteorologists provide the most timely and accurate warnings and
forecasts of life-threatening weather.

   The National Weather Service Duties Act also addresses the potential
misuse of insider information. Currently, NOAA and the NWS are doing
little to safeguard the NWS information that could be used by
opportunistic investors to gain unfair profits in the weather futures
markets, in the agriculture and energy markets, and in other business
segments influenced by government weather outlooks, forecasts, and
warnings. No one knows who may be taking advantage of this information. In
recent years there have been various examples of NWS personnel providing
such information to specific TV stations and others that enable those
businesses to secure an advantage over their competitors. The best way to
address this problem is to require that NWS data, information, guidance,
forecasts and warnings be issued in real time and simultaneously to all
members of the public, the media and the commercial weather industry. This
bill imposes just such a requirement, which is common to other Federal
agencies. The responsibilities of the commercial weather industry as the
only private sector producer of weather information, services and systems
deserve this definition to ensure continued growth and investment in the
private sector and to properly focus the government's activities.

   We have every right to expect these agencies to minimize unnecessary,
competitive, and commercial-type activities, and to do the best possible
job of warning the public about impending flash floods, hurricanes,
tornadoes, tsunamis, and other potentially catastrophic events. I
encourage my colleagues to support this important piece of legislation.