National Integrated Drought Information System Act of 2006

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5136) to establish a National Integrated Drought Information System within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to improve drought monitoring and forecasting capabilities, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on H.R. 5136, as amended, the bill now under consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Today, I rise in support of H.R. 5136, the National Integrated Drought Information System Act. I would like to thank Mr. Hall and Mr. Udall for their leadership on this important legislation. It is truly a bipartisan bill in every way.

Drought is a pernicious disaster. It can creep up on you in the form of pleasantly cloudless days. But once it has arrived it can destroy livelihoods, damage valuable ecosystems, and even threaten human health. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, better known as NOAA, estimates that we lose approximately $7 billion each year to this slowly emergent but devastating natural disaster. In 2002, drought killed over three-quarters of all of the Christmas tree saplings in my home State of Michigan. In 2005 and 2006, drought left 60 Michigan counties eligible for the U.S. Department of Agriculture relief programs. And my State got off easy.

Since we cannot manufacture more water, our best defense against this creeping threat is knowledge. We must provide clear and accurate warnings of coming droughts so that we can seek appropriate solutions and take appropriate action. Drought information should include enough details to make it useful to the people who work so hard to manage water resources and minimize the effects of drought on our daily lives. The National Integrated Drought Information System Act seeks to provide just that kind of information.

This bill authorizes the National Integrated Drought Information System, or NIDIS, in NOAA. The system would include a comprehensive drought forecasting and monitoring system and the research and development programs to support it. The bill requires NIDIS to build upon existing forecast and monitoring efforts and to do so in broad consultation with relevant Federal, State, tribal, and local agencies, as well as public and private organizations. H.R. 5136 emphasizes the importance of timely, preferably real-time, drought-related information that reflects local and regional differences in drought conditions.

In summary, this bill gives farmers, utilities, forest managers, waterway operators, tourism companies, reservoir managers, and the general public the tools they need to make thoughtful and informed choices about how to limit the impact of drought on our economy, our environment, and our quality of life.

I am pleased to support H.R. 5136, the National Integrated Drought Information System Act. Again, I commend Mr. Hall and Mr. Udall for this important and bipartisan legislation; and I urge all my colleagues to support H.R. 5136.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Texas, the cosponsor of this bill, Mr. Hall.

Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to urge all of my colleagues to support the National Integrated Drought Information System Act. I urge them to vote for it, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today, of course, in support of the bill to create a National Integrated Drought Information System, and I thank Mr. Ehlers for his very capable handling of the bill. And I thank Mr. Udall, anybody by the name of Udall stands for honor to me and has for many, many years, for his cosponsorship of the bill.

I am very pleased that the House has agreed to vote on this legislation, because it is important to nearly every State in our union. In our home State of Texas, drought is absolutely decimating crops and the economy. The total direct losses from drought in Texas are now at $4.1 billion for the year, and the broader economic damages from this drought bring the price tag to over $8 billion. My own home district in northeast Texas is experiencing the most severe damage statewide from the drought. In Missouri, farm ponds have been drying up in record numbers; and in Oklahoma the wheat crop rated 58 percent poor to very poor. It is undeniable that droughts have devastating impacts on our society.

While we cannot stop nature, we can do a better job, I think, of predicting, monitoring, and mitigating the problem. Currently, the drought system we have only provides limited help to local water managers and others concerned with drought, because the information is not sufficiently accurate, it is not thorough, or it is not up to date. Our Nation approaches droughts through crisis management, rather than through proactive solutions to manage the problem. The resources that are available to monitor droughts are very general in nature and only offer regional-scale data. Moreover, the data is not circulated in a way that is accessible on the local level by farmers and other interested parties.

The bill before us today addresses these shortcomings. By creating a comprehensive drought information system, we enable our local, State, and national leaders to be more proactive in their approach to droughts. This bill establishes an integrated system and designates NOAA as the lead agency. NOAA will coordinate with local, State, and Federal entities to create a comprehensive network of drought information and provide decision makers with the best tools to manage our resources. NOAA will do this by building a national drought monitoring and forecasting system, create a drought early warning system, provide an interactive drought information delivery system, and designate mechanisms for improved interaction with the public.

The NIDIS initiative will hopefully improve our analysis of conditions, provide us with more accurate seasonal forecasts, and equip us with a better understanding of climate interactions that produce droughts. I am pleased that organizations like the Farm Bureau, the Western States Water Council, and the Western Governors Association have supported this legislation.

Please join me in supporting this vital and important initiative.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to support H.R. 5136 with my colleague from Texas, Judge Hall. H.R. 5136 authorizes NOAA to establish a National Integrated Drought Information System to provide an early warning system to enable State and local governments to take steps to mitigate the effects of drought.

Drought is as devastating to our lives and our economy as other severe weather events. In recent years, the western United States has experienced severe drought conditions. The impacts of drought are costly in both lives and dollars. Drought conditions set the stage for wildfires, crop failures, decline in recreation and tourist activities, impacts on hydropower production, and other harmful effects.

And unlike other severe weather events, Mr. Speaker, drought conditions emerge over a long period of time. Reduced rain and snowfall deplete moisture in the soil, reduce the level of reservoirs, and reduce the flow in rivers. NOAA's current Drought Monitor and drought prediction efforts have provided information to assist with drought planning and mitigation, but I believe we can and should do more.

We need a more refined information system on a seasonal and long-term basis about the severity and persistence of drought conditions to better tailor drought mitigation plans at the regional and local levels. H.R. 5136 will also facilitate the consolidation of drought- related information in one location, providing the public and decision makers at all levels a single point of access for information on drought.

I want to thank Chairman Boehlert and Chairman Ehlers for their support of this legislation. In particular, again, I want to mention my good friend, the senior member from Texas, Judge Hall, for his leadership; and I would urge all Members to support this effort to improve our ability to deal with the impacts of drought.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 5136, the National Integrated Drought Information System Act of 2006.

The National Integrated Drought Information System within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is intended to improve drought monitoring and forecasting capabilities.

Droughts can lead to a deficiency in surface or subsurface water supplies, including rivers, streams, wetlands, ground water, soil moisture, economic or social impact, as well as substantial physical damage or injury to individuals, property, or the environment.

A drought is defined as ``a period of abnormally dry weather sufficiently prolonged for the lack of water to cause serious hydrologic imbalance in the affected area.'' The worst drought in 50 years affected at least 35 States during the long hot summer of 1988. In some areas the lack of rainfall dated back to 1984. In 1988, rainfall totals over the Midwest, Northern Plains, and the Rockies were 50-85 percent below normal. Crops and livestock died and some areas became desert. The economic and environmental impact is clear, and this legislation addresses a direct need.

This legislation establishes the National Integrated Drought Information System in order to provide an effective drought early warning system that acts as a comprehensive system that collects and integrates information on the key indicators of drought. The goal is to make usable, reliable, and timely drought forecasts and assessments of drought, including assessments of the severity of drought conditions and impacts.

Ideally, this information network would communicate drought forecasts, drought conditions, and drought impacts on an ongoing basis to decisionmakers at the Federal, regional, State, tribal, and local levels of government, as well as to the private sector and the public.

I urge my colleagues to support this measure.

Mr. Speaker, today I rise in support of H.R. 5136, the National Integrated Drought Information System Act. Drought may seem like something that is easy to detect but hard to do anything about. But that turns out to be wrong on both counts. It's tricky to figure out when a drought is developing; but if one knows a drought is on its way, one can take thoughtful steps to change water use to mitigate drought's often severe economic--and environmental--consequences. So we need to pay more attention to this costly phenomenon, and Mr. Hall's bill, building on existing Federal efforts, will enable us to improve drought forecasting and monitoring, which will save billions of dollars. While apple growers in my State are doing well today, they faced expensive and debilitating drought just 4 years ago, and will face it again in the future. In fact, in the last 5 years, every State in our Nation has faced drought. This bill will give all of our States the tools they need to reduce the impacts of future droughts.

I am pleased to support H.R. 5136, the National Integrated Drought Information System Act. I commend Mr. Hall and Mr. Udall for this important and bipartisan legislation, and I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 5136.