National Weather Service Communications Improvement Act

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office] [H.R. 2296 Introduced in House (IH)] <DOC> 119th CONGRESS 1st Session H. R. 2296 To upgrade the communications service used by the National Weather Service, and for other purposes. _______________________________________________________________________ IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES March 24, 2025 Mr. Feenstra (for himself, Mrs. Hinson, Mr. Sorensen, Mr. Graves, Mr. Haridopolos, Mr. Crenshaw, Ms. Craig, Mr. Fitzpatrick, Ms. McBride, Ms. Ross, Mrs. Radewagen, Mrs. Miller-Meeks, Mr. Moylan, Mr. Carbajal, Mrs. McClain Delaney, and Mr. Moskowitz) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology _______________________________________________________________________ A BILL To upgrade the communications service used by the National Weather Service, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. This Act may be cited as the ``National Weather Service Communications Improvement Act''. SEC. 2. NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE COMMUNICATIONS. (a) System Upgrade.--The Director of the National Weather Service shall improve the instant messaging service used by personnel of the National Weather Service by implementing, not later than October 1, 2027, a commercial off-the-shelf communications solution that replaces the instant messaging service commonly referred to as ``NWSChat''. (b) Requirements.--The communications solution implemented under subsection (a) shall-- (1) be hosted on the public cloud; and (2) satisfy requirements set forth by the Director of the National Weather Service to ensure such solution-- (A) best accommodates future growth; (B) performs successfully with increased numbers of users; (C) is easy to use for the majority of users; and (D) is similar to systems already in commercial use. (c) Funding.--From amounts made avail