S. 1414

National Weather Service Communications Improvement Act

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118th CONGRESS

1st Session

S. 1414

AN ACT

To improve the instant messaging service used by the National Weather Service, and for other purposes.

1.

Short title

This Act may be cited as the National Weather Service Communications Improvement Act.

2.

National Weather Service communications

(a)

In general

Title IV of the Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017 (15 U.S.C. 8541 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following:

415.

National Weather Service communications

(a)

Improvement of instant messaging service

(1)

In general

The Director of the National Weather Service shall improve the instant messaging service used by personnel of the National Weather Service by implementing by October 1, 2027, a commercial off-the-shelf communications solution that replaces the instant messaging service commonly referred to as NWSChat.

(2)

Requirements

The communications solution implemented under paragraph (1) shall—

(A)

be hosted on the public cloud; and

(B)

satisfy requirements set forth by the Director to ensure that the solution—

(i)

best accommodates future growth;

(ii)

performs successfully with increased numbers of users;

(iii)

is easy to use for the majority of users; and

(iv)

is similar to systems already in commercial use.

(3)

Definition of public cloud

In this subsection, the term public cloud means an information technology model in which service providers make computing services, including compute and storage and develop-and-deploy environments and applications, available on-demand to organizations and individuals over the public internet.

(b)

No additional funds authorized

Funds to carry out this section may only come from amounts authorized to be appropriated to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration before the date of the enactment of the National Weather Service Communications Improvement Act.

.

(b)

Clerical amendment

The table of contents in section 1(b) of the Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017 is amended by inserting after the item relating to section 414 the following:

Sec. 415. National Weather Service communications.

.

Passed the Senate December 18, 2023.

Secretary