H.R. 4546 would make several significant changes to NOAA including creating a Deputy Assistant Secretary for Science and Technology to coordinate science across the agency; reorganizing the agency around four areas – the National Weather Service, Research and Education, Operations and Services, and Resources Management; and creating the position Chief Operating Officer to manage the agency’s day-to-day operations.

The Subcommittee approved by voice vote an amendment by Subcommittee Ranking Minority Member Mark Udall (D-CO) that requires NOAA to notify Congress and the public before closing or transferring any of its facilities.

Chairman Ehlers said, “Since NOAA was created by Executive Order in 1970, Congress has passed a hodgepodge of issue-specific legislation for the agency, resulting in a confusing collection of laws that are not coordinated by an overarching mission. This organic act legislation fixes that problem and helps transform NOAA to better deal with the current and future challenges of understanding and managing our Earth’s environment.”

Ranking Member Udall said, “We have a great deal of work to do to ensure that NOAA has the resources and authorities it needs to meet its statutory responsibilities and to accomplish its resource management and public safety missions. This bill makes a good start on what I anticipate will be a full agenda for this Committee in the next Congress.”

NOAA, which was created by Executive Order in 1970 by President Richard Nixon, has never received a clear, overarching mission from Congress and its programs have been authorized in a disjointed, piecemeal manner. In its recently released Final Report to the Congress and the President, the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy strongly urged Congress to pass an organic act that would clearly define NOAA’s mission and authority. That recommendation was echoed by a panel of expert witnesses at a May Science Committee hearing on the Commission’s Preliminary Report.

Ehlers’ bill directly responds to the Commission’s recommendation by stating that the mission of NOAA is: to understand and predict changes in the Earth’s oceans and atmosphere; to conserve and manage coastal, ocean, and Great Lakes ecosystems; and to educate the public about these topics. The bill also describes the specific functions NOAA should carry out to fulfill its mission, such as issuing weather forecasts and warnings.

In July, the Science Committee held a hearing on H.R. 4546 and received testimony on it from several ocean and atmospheric policy experts. The input of the witnesses, as well as feedback from numerous meetings with various stakeholders, were incorporated into a Manager’s Amendment. The amendment, which was agreed to by voice vote, struck several provisions that authorized new and existing programs at NOAA and made the focus of H.R. 4546 the NOAA organic act. The Committee intends to move some of those sections as separate legislation next year.

The Subcommittee’s passage of H.R. 4546 today represents the first official action taken in the House on the recommendations of U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy.

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