Findings

Congress finds the following: (1) The Fifth United States National Climate Assessment reported that human-caused climate variability such as extended droughts, longer wildfire seasons, heavy rainfall, and sea level rise affects the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. (2) According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the number and cost of extreme weather and climate disasters have increased over time and will continue to increase in the United States due to climate change, increased urbanization, and development in weather prone areas. (3) According to the National Centers for Environmental Information, from 2020 to 2024 alone, weather and climate disasters cost the United States over $746,700,000,000 and led to 2,520 deaths. (4) Americans rely on weather information provided by NOAA every day for emergency disaster alerts, forecasting, data collection, and more. (5) Staffing reductions at the National Weather Service and NOAA have resulted in decreased capacity to forecast extreme weather events, the elimination of some products and services, and the deterioration of environmental scientific research, which poses a threat to public safety. (6) The 5 former living National Weather Service leaders wrote an open letter expressing their deep concern that the staff and program cuts at NOAA may result in the loss of life. (7) NOAA’s Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters product has been eliminated, reducing publicly available data that tracked the economic impact of United States weather and climate trends since 1980.