Signed into law by PresidentBarack Obamaon March 6, 2014
The National Integrated Drought Information System Reauthorization Act of 2013 (H.R. 2431) is a bill that would reauthorize the National Integrated Drought Information System, a program that examines the impact of droughts and tries to respond to them on a federal level.[1] The bill would extend the program until 2018.[2]
The National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) Act was signed into law in 2006. The Western Governors' Association described the need for NIDIS in a 2004 report, Creating a Drought Early Warning System for the 21st Century: The National Integrated Drought Information System. The NIDIS Act calls for an interagency, multi-partner approach to drought monitoring, forecasting, and early warning, led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
A drought or drouth is a natural disaster of below-average precipitation in a given region, resulting in prolonged shortages in the water supply, whether atmospheric, surface water or ground water. A drought can last for months or years, or may be declared after as few as 15 days. It can have a substantial impact on the ecosystem and agriculture of the affected region and harm to the local economy. Annual dry seasons in the tropics significantly increase the chances of a drought developing and subsequent bush fires. Periods of heat can significantly worsen drought conditions by hastening evaporation of water vapour.
The One Hundred Thirteenth United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, from January 3, 2013, to January 3, 2015, during the fifth and sixth years of Barack Obama's presidency. It was composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives based on the results of the 2012 Senate elections and the 2012 House elections. The seats in the House were apportioned based on the 2010 United States Census. It first met in Washington, D.C. on January 3, 2013, and it ended on January 3, 2015. Senators elected to regular terms in 2008 were in the last two years of those terms during this Congress.
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, which along with the United States House of Representatives—the lower chamber—comprises the legislature of the United States. The Senate chamber is located in the north wing of the Capitol, in Washington, D.C.
Barack Hussein Obama II is an American attorney and politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American to be elected to the presidency. He previously served as a U.S. senator from Illinois from 2005 to 2008.
Background
United States Drought Monitor from February 4, 2014
The National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) Act was signed into law in 2006 (Public Law 109-430). The Western Governors' Association described the need for NIDIS in a 2004 report, Creating a Drought Early Warning System for the 21st Century: The National Integrated Drought Information System.[4] The NIDIS Act calls for an interagency, multi-partner approach to drought monitoring, forecasting, and early warning, led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).[5] The law also created the U.S. Drought Portal.[2] NIDIS is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the Climate Program Office.[2]
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is an American scientific agency within the United States Department of Commerce that focuses on the conditions of the oceans, major waterways, and the atmosphere.
At the time that this legislation was being consider in committee, there were serious on-going water shortages in the United States.[2] A drought that started in 2012 caused "some of the Great Lakes to drop to record lows," hurt farms, and effected shipping on the Mississippi River.[6]
The Great Lakes, also called the Laurentian Great Lakes and the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of interconnected freshwater lakes primarily in the upper mid-east region of North America, on the Canada–United States border, which connect to the Atlantic Ocean through the Saint Lawrence River. They consist of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, although hydrologically, there are four lakes, Superior, Erie, Ontario, and Michigan-Huron. The connected lakes form the Great Lakes Waterway.
The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system on the North American continent, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. Its source is Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota and it flows generally south for 2,320 miles (3,730 km) to the Mississippi River Delta in the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains all or parts of 32 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces between the Rocky and Appalachian mountains. The main stem is entirely within the United States; the total drainage basin is 1,151,000 sq mi (2,980,000 km2), of which only about one percent is in Canada. The Mississippi ranks as the fourth-longest and fifteenth-largest river by discharge in the world. The river either borders or passes through the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana.
The Congressional Research Service (CRS), known as Congress's think tank, is a public policy research arm of the United States Congress. As a legislative branch agency within the Library of Congress, CRS works primarily and directly for Members of Congress, their Committees and staff on a confidential, nonpartisan basis.
The public domain consists of all the creative works to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable.
The bill would revise NIDIS functions to require the NIDIS, among other things, to: (1) provide certain information, forecasts, and assessments described in the Act on both national and regional levels; (2) build upon existing forecasting and assessment programs and partnerships through designation of one or more cooperative institutes to assist with NIDIS functions; and (3) continue ongoing research and monitoring activities related to drought.[7]
The bill would reauthorize NIDIS through FY2018.[7]
Congressional Budget Office report
This summary is based largely on the summary provided by the Congressional Budget Office, as ordered reported by the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology on December 5, 2013. This is a public domain source.[8]
Assuming appropriation of the authorized amounts, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that implementing the legislation would cost $60 million over the 2014-2018 period and $8 million after 2018. Enacting H.R. 2431 would not affect direct spending or revenues; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply.[8]
H.R. 2431 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and would impose no costs on state, local, or tribal governments.[8]
Rep. Ralph Hall, speaking in support of the bill, said that "the National Integrated Drought Information System has been a highly effective program that provides the best available information and tools to monitor and predict droughts, assess the potential impacts, and better prepare for and mitigate the effects of droughts."[2]
Supporters of the bill argued that the system is necessary to collect information needed to analyse weather and climate data.[6] Executive Director of the Western States Water Council Tony Willardson argues in favor of the bill, saying that "it's hard to analyze data you don't have... NIDIS is a very important tool for evaluating the impacts of drought. It's what we've been looking for, for a long time, as a clearinghouse of drought information."[6]
↑ Creating a Drought Early Warning System for the 21st Century: The National Integrated Drought Information System, "Archived copy"(PDF). Archived from the original(PDF) on 2013-02-18. Retrieved 2014-02-07.
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