NOAA gets $163M annually to improve weather forecasts and warnings through 2030
H.R. 5089 — Weather Act Reauthorization Act of 2025 · Filed by Frank Lucas (R-OK) · 26 cosponsors · Introduced Sep 2, 2025 · Reported out
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
This bill reauthorizes and expands NOAA's weather research, forecasting, and warning programs through 2030, including tornado and hurricane prediction, tsunami warning systems, and ocean observations. It creates new commercial weather data programs, establishes computing and AI research initiatives, and funds workforce development—with total appropriations of roughly $163–$170 million annually for core research and $30 million annually for tsunami programs.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core function is reauthorizing and expanding NOAA's existing weather research, forecasting, and warning programs under the 2017 Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act, with new provisions for commercial data integration and computing infrastructure.
What the text implies
- Commercial weather data acquisition (Sec. 301–304) creates a new revenue stream and operational dependency on private-sector data providers; cost-benefit analysis is required but outcomes depend on implementation and appropriations.
- The Earth Prediction Innovation Center (Sec. 109) mandates public access to modeling systems and data, but allows commercial partners to host and manage systems under licensing agreements—creating potential capture risk if proprietary restrictions limit actual public access.
The full analysis lists 5 implications of this text.
Who stands to gain
commercial weather data providers; cloud computing and high-performance computing vendors; research institutions and universities (grants for tornado, hurricane, tsunami research)