I thought I'd share this. The Senate and President are all for NOAA creating a Climate Service...let's hope the House will feel some pressure and allow it to happen.
James Partain
NOAA Regional Climate Services Director
Alaska Region
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Climate Change --
Senate Bill Would Restore Funds
For NOAA Climate Service Blocked in House
Funding for a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration climate service, which had been
barred under a House spending bill, has been restored in the Senate version on the floor this
week, Senate Democratic aides said Oct. 18.
A total of $161.5 million would be set aside for the proposed NOAA climate service under a
three-bill package of appropriations measures moving this week to fund federal departments,
including the Commerce Department, which oversees NOAA, and the transportation and agriculture
departments.
The Senate measure, a substitute amendment (S. Amdt. 738) offered by Senate Appropriations
Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), would reverse a ban on using NOAA funds for the
climate service that House Republicans had included in their version of the appropriations bill
(H.R. 2112) in June.
The Obama administration applauded restoration of the funding in an Oct. 17 statement of
administration policy on the Senate bill. “A climate service will improve the performance of
roughly $340 million in related programs that are currently spread across” several different
NOAA programs, according to the statement.
Reid Hopes to Complete Work on Bills
Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) hopes to complete work by the end of the week on the
spending package, which would provide funding for the departments after mid-November, when the
current stopgap measure expires. But that would require relatively quick action on a growing
list of amendments slated for votes.
NOAA Service Detailed
NOAA has defended the need for its proposed National Climate Service, under which the agency
would consolidate functions and improve its ability to respond to growing requests for climate
data. NOAA's plan is to provide long-term climate forecasts much the way the National Weather
Service provides short-term weather forecasts.
But House Republicans, including Rep. Ralph Hall (R-Texas), the chairman of the House Committee
on Science, Space, and Technology, have sought to block NOAA from launching what they argue is
an administration plan to establish an advocacy organization for climate change mitigation
policies (185 DEN A-14, 9/23/11).
The House in a continuing resolution (Pub. L. No. 112-10) for the last fiscal year barred NOAA
from using funds through Sept. 30 to “implement, establish, or create” a climate service. House
Republicans are expected to resist Senate efforts to provide the funding.
Sen. Benjamin Cardin (D-Md.), a member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee
and proponent of the climate service, told BNA Oct. 18 that Senate Democrats will resist efforts to
eliminate the funding for the NOAA program.
“I think the opposition in the House is narrowly focused—-their agenda is pretty extreme,”
Cardin said. “It seems to me there is now pretty broad support for NOAA's functions, and most
of what NOAA does is very popular with both Republicans and Democrats. So I'm hoping that that
view will prevail and we'll be able to keep those resources” intact for the climate service,
Cardin said.