Senate Bill S.786 could kill NWS internet weather products

Follow up:

Here, is the bill,
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c109:s786:

and below is the Commercial Weather Services Association's press
release advocating passage of the bill. I'll just point out one of
the many duplicities in the press release. Note the particular
paragraph that reads, "This will mandate that the public, including
users like pilots, boaters and farmers, and the private sector, will
all have unrestricted real-time access to government information."
What the press release doesn't disclose is that, under the bill, this
"unrestricted real-time access" will be through a set of data portals
designed for volume access by commercial providers of products or
services. In other words, the data would be in a form that would be
essentially useless to the lay public, including pilots. The
non-competition clause of the bill would likely kill any user-friendly
Internet weather presentations by the NWS if similar presentations
were available commercially on the Internet.

--------------------------
Commercial Weather Services Association Says S.B. 786 Assures Both
Public and Industry Access

April 29, 2005 - The Commercial Weather Services Association (CWSA)
announced today its support for Senate Bill 786, "The National Weather
Services Duties Act of 2005." S.B. 786, one of three related bills
now before Congress, will benefit both the public and the private
sector.

The new legislation would require the National Weather Service (NWS)
to distribute government generated weather information "in real-time,
and without delay . . . in a manner that ensures that all members of
the public have the opportunity for simultaneous and equal access." No
such requirement currently exists.

This will mandate that the public, including users like pilots,
boaters and farmers, and the private sector, will
all have unrestricted real-time access to government information.

The bill will also update the 115-year-old mission of the NWS to fit
within the American weather framework of today, in which both the
agency and the Commercial Weather Industry now play important parts in
providing weather products, services, systems, networks and
communications to the nation.

"Through more than 55 years of innovation by the Commercial Weather
Industry and a policy of free and open exchange of government
information, the American public has become the beneficiary of the
best
weather information available anywhere in the world," said Steven
Root, President of the Commercial Weather Services Association (CWSA).
"Unfortunately, the performance of the National Weather Service in
fulfilling its key tasks of collecting and disseminating government
information has not always kept pace with public and private needs and
critical information the agency possesses is not always reaching the
public in time."

CWSA has noticed an increasing number of occurrences where the NWS has
not provided timely, key information during hurricanes, floods, and
severe snowstorms, exposing the public to heightened and serious
danger. Just as alarming, this key information was not made available
to the public or the Commercial Weather Industry including the media.
Such delayed or missing information has included real-time cooperative
observer and snow intensity reports delayed up to twelve hours during
a blizzard, hurricane
reconnaissance reports delayed during an intensifying storm, and
missed flood warnings.

S.B. 786 will provide for better information and warnings to the
public by requiring NWS to focus on a defined core mission and adhere
to its own non-competition/non-duplication policy, which NWS has had
in effect, in one form or another, for over 55 years. The National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA), the parent organization of the NWS, unilaterally repealed this
policy in December 2004. This NOAA action is not in accord with
long-standing government policies and programs designed to encourage
private-sector investment and development of products, services,
systems, networks, and communications facilities beneficial to the
nation. Root added, "Government duplication of existing products and
services readily available from the private sector is unnecessary and
detracts from the NWS mission of saving lives and property."

The result of the December repeal has been a growing uncertainty and
risk for private sector firms engaged in the weather enterprise and
threats to jobs throughout the industry. Accordingly, this NOAA
action also endangers the very existence of free weather information
to the public, an estimated 95% of which comes from the Commercial
Weather Industry including the media.

The bill requires the Secretary of Commerce, which directs and
controls the operations of NOAA and NWS, to determine what those
competitive and duplicative activities are and requires oversight
reports to Congress. The bill does not target any particular
government activity for elimination.

S.B. 786 endorses the concept of encouraging private-sector activities
and investment, rather than government expenditures, in the American
weather sector, a principle that was jointly adopted with bipartisan
support in both the House and Senate in November 2004 as part of the
appropriations legislation funding the National Weather Service
(Conference Report to H.R. 481 . The non-duplication provision of S.B.
786 is also in line with NWS's prior policy and the philosophy of
national policies on space transportation and other government
activities.

"CWSA believes that the public safety and well-being of the nation
would best be served by NWS concentrating on its long-standing and
critical core missions including disseminating government-generated
weather information and issuing severe weather warnings for the
protection of life and property of the public.

The NWS is the only source of official government weather warnings,
government data and computer models, all relied upon by numerous users
in government, industry and the public," said Root. "Activities that
shift the NWS focus away from this mission by duplicating products,
services, systems, networks and communications that are already widely
available from the private sector, many free to the public, do not
represent appropriate stewardship of public funds."

S.B. 786 was introduced April 14, 2005 by Senator Rick Santorum
(R-PA). It is one of three bills currently before Congress that would
reexamine and redefine the structure and mission of the National
Weather Service and its parent NOAA.

About the Commercial Weather Services Association

The Commercial Weather Services Association is the trade association
for professionals who make weather their business. Its members
collect, interpret and disseminate weather information to
weather-sensitive
businesses as well as the general public. In addition, CWSA members
engineer a variety of hardware and software systems, including weather
sensors and meteorological workstations and operate weather
information networks.

For more information about the Commercial Weather Services
Association, please visit:
www.weatherindustry.org