NWS politics

The tropics look to be quiet this week, so I will discuss some of the political issues going on with the National Weather Service that deserve attention.

Today is the last day for the public to comment on NOAA's proposed changes to its Policy on Partnerships in the Provision of Environmental Information. For those of you who wish to comment on the proposed change, you can click here.

NOAA proposes to change Section 4 to read as follows:

4. The nation benefits from government information disseminated both by Federal agencies and by diverse nonfederal parties, including commercial and not-for-profit entities. NOAA recognizes the government best serves the public interest by cooperating with private sector and academic and research entities to meet the varied needs of specific individuals, organizations, and economic entities. NOAA will take advantage of existing capabilities and services of commercial and academic sectors to avoid duplication and competition in areas not related to the NOAA mission. NOAA will give due consideration to these abilities and consider the effects of its decisions on the activities of these entities, in accordance with its responsibilities as an agency of the U.S. Government, to serve the public interest and advance the nation's environmental information enterprise as a whole.

For comparison, the present Section 4 reads as follows:

4. NOAA recognizes the public interest is served by the ability of private sector entities and the academic and research community to provide diverse services to meet the varied needs of specific individuals, organizations, and economic entities. The nation benefits from government information disseminated both by Federal agencies and by diverse nonfederal parties, including commercial and not-for-profit entities. NOAA will give due consideration to these abilities, and consider the effects of its decisions on the activities of these entities, in accordance with its responsibilities as an agency of the U.S. Government, to serve the public interest and advance the nation's environmental information enterprise as a whole.

I've been too busy with hurricane season to do much research on the ramifications of this change. Wunderblogger Skyepony has set up a disscussion page about this issue, though. I did contact an official at the National Weather Service Employees Organization (NWSEO) last week to ask what he thought the greatest threats facing the NWS were, and he did not mention this issue at all. The top issue in his mind was the proposed budget cuts coming for NWS, which I will discuss later this week. I also asked about the the National Weather Service Duties Act of 2005, Senate Bill S.786, introduced April 14 by Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa. This bill would make it illegal for the National Weather Service (NWS) to issue non-severe weather forecasts, should a company in the private sector be able to provide them and lodge a formal request with the Secretary of Commerce for the NWS to stop issuing the products. The Santorum bill was of little concern to the NWSEO, he indicated, since there is no interest in the Senate subcommittee where the bill sits in pursuing it, and the bill still has no co-sponsor. Santorum has been quiet about the bill of late, and this bill's unpopularity has done him harm in the re-election campaign he is currently losing in Pennsylvania. My April blog discussing the matter can be found here.

Assuming the tropics stay quiet, I'll be back tomorrow to talk about the upcoming NWS budget cuts or the new NWS gag order issued after Katrina.

Jeff Masters