Congress locks in NOAA weather data access—no surprise shutdowns allowed
H.R. 6184 — NOAA Data Preservation Act · Filed by Sarah Elfreth (D-MD) · 17 cosponsors · Introduced Nov 20, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill requires the Department of Commerce to maintain uninterrupted storage of NOAA's scientific data sets in the cloud and prohibits canceling contracts with cloud providers unless the department first develops a transition plan to another provider and coordinates with NOAA leadership. It ensures continuity of access to critical weather, ocean, and climate data that the public and researchers depend on.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core function is to mandate operational continuity for NOAA's cloud-based data storage by requiring advance planning before any service disruption. It is a straightforward public-data-access safeguard.
What the text implies
- Establishes a procedural floor for cloud service transitions that may increase operational costs for NOAA if providers raise rates or if transition planning requires additional staffing.
- Does not specify funding mechanisms, leaving unclear whether NOAA must absorb transition costs or whether Congress will appropriate additional resources.
- May indirectly protect incumbent cloud providers by raising the procedural bar for switching, potentially reducing competitive pressure on pricing.
Who it affects
Ordinary citizens and researchers benefit from guaranteed access to NOAA's weather, climate, and ocean data—essential for public safety, scientific research, and informed decision-making. The bill prevents service disruptions that could harm emergency response, agriculture, and environmental monitoring.
Who stands to gain
- cloud service providers (AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, or other NOAA contractors)
Named in the bill
NOAA, Department of Commerce, cloud service providers, Homeland Security Act of 2002, Section 2200
Where it stands
17 cosponsors: 14 Democrats, 3 Republicans.
- Nov 20, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Nov 20, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology and House Committee on Natural Resources · Congress.gov: “Referred to the Committee on Natural Resources, and in addition to the Committee on Science, Space, and…”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
2 lobbying clients named this bill on 3 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $200,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 9 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 41% of bills with at least one filing.
Sarah Elfreth, the sponsor, reported $478,564 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- American Zoo and Aquarium Association — $100,000 on 2 filings
- Defenders of Wildlife — $100,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 17, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the full bill text on Jul 5, 2026; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 17, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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