The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA): The President’s Budget Request and Congressional Appropriations for FY2003

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA): The President’s Budget Request and Congressional Appropriations for FY2003

Order Code RL31567
Report for Congress
Received through the CRS Web
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA): The President’s Budget Request and
Congressional Appropriations for FY2003
Updated December 6, 2002
Wayne A. Morrissey
Science and Technology Information Analyst
Resources, Science, and Industry Division
Congressional Research Service ˜ The Library of Congress

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA): The President’s Budget Request and
Congressional Appropriations for FY2003
Summary
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is funded in
the Commerce, Justice, and State, the Judiciary and Related Agencies (CJS) annual
appropriations. NOAA is the largest agency in the Department of Commerce (DOC)
and accounts for 56% of DOC’s total budget request for FY2003. NOAA does not
have a single organic act that requires the agency budget, as a whole, to be authorized
on an annual basis; many NOAA programs are authorized under different public laws
and committees of jurisdiction. Congress mandated changes in NOAA’s budget
reporting structure for FY2003 that are more closely aligned with how the CJS
appropriations subcommittees report funding for NOAA’s line offices. NOAA also
reports its annual budget request in terms of seven strategic goals for results-based
management, and for reporting financial information to DOC, in compliance with the
1993 Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA).
For FY2003, President Bush requested a total of $3.21 billion in appropriations
for NOAA. Of this amount, $2.28 billion would be for Operations, Research, and
Facilities (ORF); $811.4 million for Procurement, Acquisitions, and Construction
(PAC); and $114.1 million for NOAA’s Other Accounts. Total budget authority
requested by the President for FY2003, including mandatory spending ($123.9
million), would be $3.33 billion, which is $50 million, or 1.5%, less than FY2002
appropriations of $3.38 billion. NOAA also received $2.8 million in emergency
supplemental appropriations for satellite security, as approved in the Department of
Defense Appropriations Act of FY2002 (P.L. 107-17).
Major highlights of the President’s budget request for FY2003 included: 1) a
proposal to transfer the National Sea Grant College Program to the National Science
Foundation, which would account for a $62.5 million decrease in funding for
NOAA’s Oceans, Coastal, and Great Lakes Research Programs; 2) $45.9 million for
NOAA’s Fleet Replacement account to procure the second of five congressionally
authorized fishery research vessels; 3) $26.4 million for homeland security-related
activities; and 4) $8.6 million for an Energy Initiative at NOAA. The President
requested a total of $348.5 million for Coastal Conservation activities authorized by
Congress in FY2001. R&D funding for FY2003 at NOAA would be $575 million.
The President’s budget also proposed that NOAA, and other federal agencies, take
on financial management responsibilities for its retirees under the Civil Service
Retirement System (CSRS) and all NOAA retirees’ health benefits. Adjustments to
base funding for NOAA line offices would offset these mandatory expenditures.
On July 19, 2002, the Senate Appropriations Committee reported S. 2778
(S.Rept. 107-218), proposing a total of $3.35 billion in appropriations for NOAA.
P.L. 107-206, the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for 2002, provided
NOAA with $33.5 million in funding for homeland security and other emergency-
related expenditures, and rescinded $8.1 million from FY2002 appropriations. No
House appropriations bill has been introduced to date.

Contents
Major Issues for Congress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
National Sea Grant College Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
The National Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellite System . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
The Civil Service Retirement System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Homeland Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Climate Change Research Initiative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
FY2003 President’s Budget Request for NOAA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Operations, Research, and Facilities (ORF) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
National Ocean Service (NOS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Navigation Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Ocean Resources Conservation and Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Ocean and Coastal Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Fisheries Research and Management Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Protected Resources Research and Management Services . . . . . . . . . 16
Habitat Conservation Research and Management Services . . . . . . . . . 17
Enforcement and Surveillance Services Funding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Climate and Atmospheric Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Weather and Air Quality Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Oceans, Coastal, and Great Lakes Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Information Technology/R&D/Science Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
National Weather Service (NWS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Local Warnings and Forecasts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Central Forecast Guidance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Systems Operations and Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Systems Acquisition/Construction (PAC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
National Environmental Satellite Data
and Information Service (NESDIS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Environmental Satellite Observing Services (ESOS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
NOAA Data Centers and Information Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Satellite Observing Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Program Support (PS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Corporate Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Facilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
The Office of Marine and Aviation Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Fleet Replacement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Procurement, Acquisitions, and Construction (PAC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Systems Acquisition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Fleet Replacement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
NOAA’s Other Accounts and Mandatory Funding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Congressional Appropriations for FY2003 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

P.L. 107-206–FY2002 Supplemental Appropriations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
NOAA Authorization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
NOAA Research and Development (R&D) Funding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Appendix: Acronyms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
List of Tables
Table 1. NOAA Funding Request and Appropriations for FY2003 . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Table 2. National Ocean Service Request and Appropriations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Table 3. National Marine Fisheries Service Request and Appropriations . . . . . 15
Table 4. Oceanic and Atmospheric Research Request and Appropriations . . . . 18
Table 5. National Weather Service Request and Appropriations . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Table 6. National Environmental Satellite Data
and Information Service Request and Appropriations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Table 7. Program Support Request and Appropriations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Table 8. NOAA Budget Authority Expired, or Expiring as of 9/30/2002. . . . . . 38
Table 9. NOAA R&D Funding Requested for FY2003 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA): The President’s
Budget Request and Congressional
Appropriations for FY2003
Major Issues for Congress
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is the federal
agency responsible for observation and research of the Earth’s oceans and
atmosphere, assessments of marine resources, long- and short-term environmental
predictions, and public forecast and warning about weather and climate. NOAA’s
two overarching missions are: 1) environmental assessment and prediction and 2)
environmental stewardship. NOAA was created in 1970, under President Nixon’s
Executive Reorganization Plan No. 4, and is the largest agency in the U.S.
Department of Commerce (DOC). NOAA is funded in the annual Commerce,
Justice, and State, the Judiciary and Related Agencies (CJS) Appropriations bill. The
NOAA request accounted for about 56% of the President’s request for the entire
Department of Commerce (DOC) for FY2003. NOAA receives the largest amount
of DOC funding authorized for federal research and development.
A number of potential budget issues for Congress came out of President Bush’s
FY2003 budget request for NOAA. (See FY2003 President’s Budget Request for
NOAA, below.) These include proposals: 1) to transfer the National Sea Grant
Program to the National Science Foundation; 2) to accelerate deployment of the
National Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellite System Program; 3) to transfer to
NOAA and other federal agencies responsibilities for managing and funding
retirement benefits for their employees who are currently under the older Civil
Service Retirement System (CSRS); 4) to enhance security at NOAA’s satellite
facilities and to create redundancy in the agency’s major telecommunications and
computing systems; and 5) to implement the President’s “Clear Skies” Climate
Change Research Initiative in NOAA.
National Sea Grant College Program
Many view the President’s proposal to transfer the National Sea Grant College
Program–currently under NOAA’s Ocean, Coastal, Great Lakes Research Programs
(OCGLRP)–to the National Science Foundation (NSF) as the primary issue for
Congress in the FY2003 NOAA budget. This proposal would reduce OCGLRP
funding by $65.2 million. The proposal was prompted by the Administration’s
concerns about whether federal formula grants given by NOAA to state Sea Grant
programs were being distributed fairly, competitively and meritoriously. In FY2002,

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NSF received the Administration’s distinction as being one of the best managed
agencies in the federal government. It appeared to the Administration that NSF was
already funding grants for similar research as that performed under NOAA’s Sea
Grant Program. Thus, the President, with the support of the newly-appointed
Administrator of NOAA, decided the Sea Grant program might operate more
effectively and fairly within an agency whose statutory mission was managing federal
funding for “basic research” and, therefore, the transfer was proposed.

Resistance to the transfer was soon met by some Members of Congress, state
Sea Grant program representatives, and university and industry participants in the Sea
Grant Program. Many of these challenged the President’s decision to transfer Sea
Grant because it did not take into consideration the intrinsic nature of the NOAA
program, which is marine resources-based and tied to U.S. commerce, such as the
fishing, recreation, and tourism industries. Others cited the hidden cost to NSF of
maintaining a research infrastructure, including managing marine research vessels
and laboratories, and providing the oceanographic expertise NOAA provides.
Officials at NOAA have long pointed out the synergy and trust developed between
state Sea Grant programs and NOAA, which opponents of the transfer say has
benefitted local economies that are marine resources-based. Still others argued that
unlike NSF, the nature of much of the research being performed with Sea Grant
funding has tended to be more “applied” than basic in nature.
In recent legislation to reauthorize NOAA’s Sea Grant College Program for
FY2003 through FY2007 (H.R.3389/S. 2428), attempts have been made to address
the Administration’s primary concerns about fair, competitive, and merit-based
allotment of Sea Grant funding. Authorizing language contained in both House and
Senate bills stipulates that portions of funding extended to state Sea Grant programs
in excess of FY2003 levels is to be set aside solely for competitive, merit-based
grants, and not be used for administration of the National Sea Grant College
Program. Further, the bill encourages coordinated grant program planning between
the NOAA Sea Grant and NOS Coastal Ocean Programs, and NSF, which may be
conducting related research activities.
Supporters of this legislation believe the Sea Grant program would operate most
effectively in its current status under Ocean, Coastal, and Great Lakes Research
Programs in NOAA. There appears to be strong opposition to the President’s transfer
proposal and strong support for the Sea Grant authorizing legislation among the
academic research community and commercial fishing industries which currently
operate in the Pacific, Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, and the Great Lakes where there are
active state Sea Grant programs. Marine environmental research sponsored under
Sea Grant programs, in part, underpins many local marine resources-based
economies. For example, these grants fund research on non-indigenous species,
marine diseases and health, and the impact of such phenomenon on local fishing and
shell fish industries, sport and recreational fishing, and coastal recreational activities.

For some state Sea Grant program administrators, however, language in both the
President’s budget and in pending reauthorization bills might be construed as
undermining their authority as to how they decide federal grants should be awarded.
However, proponents of the reauthorization bills, who also agree with Administration
concerns, have pointed out that congressional direction would attempt to distribute

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more equitably both formula and competitive research grants to participating state
Sea Grant programs. Further, there are provisions in the reauthorization legislation
to review the progress in expanding the program to new eligible Sea Grant consortia,
such as the Pacific U.S. territories. Many who support keeping the National Sea
Grant College in NOAA have posited that it will not be transferred out of the agency
because of corrective actions taken by congressional authorizing committees to
address many of the Administration’s concerns about fairness in grant allocations.
The National Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellite System
President Bush requested $237.3 million for the NPOESS program under
NESDIS, which is now scheduled to be operating by FY2008, when the last of the
POES satellites is planned to be launched. NOAA says the goal of NPOESS is two-
fold: 1) it will merge NOAA’s polar orbiting satellite program and the DOD Defense
Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) for the sake of economic and operational
efficiency; and 2) it will put in place state-of-the-art environmental monitoring
technology and incorporate data processing and management systems for improving
weather forecasting and producing other environmental data products. NASA, the
third partner in NPOESS, would provide launch and maintenance services for the
program.

Officials at NESDIS claim that full deployment of NPOESS is of importance
to NOAA’s National Weather Service so that it can continue to provide near-real-
time weather forecasting. NESDIS also claims it will aid in the development of
future “climate-related services,” such as regional climate assessments and extended-
range climate forecasts. While NOAA officials have testified in Congress as to the
exigency of fully implementing this program ever since plans were unveiled during
the Clinton Administration, recent events which have challenged homeland security
have led Bush Administration officials to state that a fully-deployed NPOESS would
also play a critical role in national defense.
Although many Members of the 107th Congress support the concept of
NPOESS, some have questioned the $6.2 billion spent to date on this program vis-a-
vis its progress and achievements to date. H.R. 4775 (P.L. 107-206), which provided
supplemental emergency appropriations to NOAA for FY2002, originally contained
directions to rescind $8.1 million provided for NPOESS in FY2002, because of slow
implementation of the program. The Act instead rescinded that same amount of
funding from other NOAA appropriations.
Other congressional concerns have been raised about the ability of NOAA to
collect, process, and manage future data that will be needed to support the National
Weather Service as well as NESDIS’s capacity to provide environmental data
products many NOAA data users rely on. NOAA has reported that it is already
challenged trying to manage the Earth Observing System (EOS) data it had agreed
to for NASA. In addition, the agency has identified significant shortfalls in delivery
of environmental data products it provides to the National Weather Service. Many
NOAA data users have expressed discontent about perceived deficiencies in
processing and distribution of environmental satellite data products for which
NESDIS is responsible.

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The President’s FY2003 budget request for NPOESS would increase funding
for various agency efforts aimed at expediting the compilation, assimilation, and
processing of its environmental data. NOAA has promised to honor its data
management responsibilities to NASA, and reports that a significant part of the
funding request for NPOESS would help to prepare the agency for the “deluge of
data” expected within the next decade from the NPOESS mission and other satellite
data programs. NOAA is currently demonstrating a dedicated data integration unit
for NPOESS, which would aid in compiling and processing data streams from a
number and variety of future environmental satellite missions. In addition, NOAA
has been demonstrating a prototype satellite command and control system developed
as part of the NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP). Part of these activities include
testing telecommunications systems, sighting antennae which support NPOESS’s
data acquisition system, and ground-truthing NPP functions and operations in
preliminary testing phases with existing satellites.
NPOESS system architects and engineers seem confident that the funding
currently proposed by the President for many of these proposed data management
efforts would appear to be adequate at the present time and can go a long way to
stimulate further development of the infrastructure necessary to meet the future data
management and distribution needs of NESDIS. Successful operation, however, may
depend on the performance of contractors who are currently building the systems and
hardware for the program and their ability to keep to NOAA’s timetable for NPOESS
deployment. NOAA asserts that those components of NPP currently in
demonstration phase, including the command and control and data integration units
for NPOESS, will have to become fully operational by FY2005, when the first NPP
satellite is scheduled to be launched. If this goal can be met, then NOAA will be able
to give the go-ahead order to shift from research to deployment, implementation, and
full-scale operation of NPOESS by FY2008.
The Civil Service Retirement System
Under the President’s FY2003 budget, NOAA, like many other federal agencies,
is faced with funding and managing mandatory benefits for its employees and retirees
under the old Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS). A number of federal agency
officials have charged that these proposed obligations come at a time when many of
them are hard pressed to fund traditional discretionary programs.
The FY2003 NOAA budget requested by the President contains adjustments to
base funding to accommodate $129 million in proposed CSRS and NOAA Corps
retirement funding. CSRS funding would be apportioned across all NOAA budget
line offices. For NOAA, providing for new mandatory funding has come at the
expense of rolling some programs that were previously funded as line items into base
funding, which results in even greater competition for discretionary funding for those
programs. At this stage of the FY2003 budget process it appears that the CSRS
proposal is under active consideration by Congress. The Administration has urged
federal agencies to consider that there are relatively few remaining federal employees
who are covered by CSRS, and to consider the minimal adjustments to base funding
as percentage of total budget authority in the annual request.

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That may be the reason why federal agencies seem to be putting up little, if any,
resistance to OPM’s divestiture of those financial responsibilities. As an example,
NOAA’s obligations would account for less than 1/3 of 1% percent of the total
budget authority requested for the agency for FY2003. In addition, NOAA has
administered health benefits and mandatory retirement funding for retired NOAA
Corps officers for a number of years, and for FY2003 NOAA would obligate some
$37 million of mandatory funding. Of late, however, those entitlements have been
transferred to the U.S. Coast Guard for disbursement to retirees. As a consequence,
financial officers at NOAA foresee little hardship in taking on additional
responsibilities for administering another $90 million in CSRS retirement pay.
Homeland Security
In the current heightened state of alert for possible future terrorist attacks on the
United States, Congress could determine that funding for homeland security
initiatives needs to assume a higher priority than that for some traditional scientific
research programs in NOAA. Many who perform scientific research in the agency
are concerned about possible changes in budget priorities, and redirection of human
and fiscal resources to a proposed Department of Homeland Security. (See CRS
Current Legislative Issues: Creating A Department of Homeland Security website at
[http://www.congress.gov/erp/legissues/html/isdhs2.html]
For many federal agencies, the FY2003 budget brings with it additional financial
responsibilities for improving homeland security and reducing vulnerability to
possible terrorists attacks. In NOAA’s case, this means funding redundant
operational systems so that critical agency functions would not be interrupted during
and after a possible terrorist attack on its federal facilities. The President has
requested $26.4 million for NOAA for a Critical Infrastructure Protection Initiative
being coordinated by the Department of Commerce. This funding would provide
back-up for NOAA’s telecommunications, satellites systems and command and
control centers, and weather/ climate supercomputing facilities. NOAA identifies
those infrastructure components as possible critical points of failure and, in the case
of potential disruption of satellite products and services to NOAA’s data users, a
single point of failure. In some cases, added physical security has elicited a need for
improving structural integrity of NOAA facilities.
Another national security-related concern of the President is ensuring that
energy continues to be provided by power utilities in times of crisis. For FY2003,
the President has requested $6.1 million for a pilot program aimed at long-term
protection of the nation’s energy supplies. The President has charged NOAA to
become more involved in national energy planning, to ensure that plans are sensitive
to possible climatic change, and fluctuating average weather conditions over
extended periods of time. For example, long term regional drought could potentially
diminish or even interrupt services at some hydropower facilities. Moreover, a
particularly severe winter could tax reserves of heating fuels as well as increase
demands on the Nation’s electricity supply. Other concerns that would be addressed
in NOAA’s Energy Initiative are economic ones, and relate to development of
intelligent energy conservation technologies and systems.

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Climate Change Research Initiative
Some Members of Congress and Bush Administration officials are concerned
about the United States becoming party to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol that would
regulate some international greenhouse gas emissions to slow climate change.1 In
response, President Bush proposed a domestic Climate Change Research Initiative.
CCRI is aimed at providing incentives for U.S. industry to reduce greenhouse gases
on a voluntary basis. This initiative is part of a wider Administration effort known
as “Clear Skies,” intended to set out to reduce a suite of atmospheric pollutants, but
which stops short of identifying atmospheric emissions of CO as a pollutant. Also,
2
as the name suggests, CCRI would fund a number of climate-related scientific
research activities and, in effect, supersede federal climate change research activities
currently organized under the U.S. Global Change Research Program created in 1989
by P.L. 101-606. For FY2003, the President requested $18 million for NOAA’s part
of the CCRI, and one of the agency’s major charges would be to establish a weather-
climate “supercomputer modeling center of excellence,” housed at NOAA’s
Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in Princeton, NJ.
A number of climate scientists are applauding the effort of the Administration
to provide the technological capability needed to assess further the scientific basis of
global climate change. Atmospheric scientists in NOAA claim that investing in
better computing powers and capabilities may be exactly what is needed to resolve
many of the uncertainties about the scientific evidence of global climate change that
have been plaguing policymakers for many years now. This initiative is also aimed
at criticism about the effectiveness of the U.S. Global Change Research Program in
coordinating interagency activities and setting research priorities. For more
information on science in the global climate change debate see CRS Issue Brief
IB89005, Global Climate Change. Other information on U.S. domestic regulatory
policy and international negotiations on greenhouse gases may be found in the CRS
Global Climate Change Electronic Briefing Book.
FY2003 President’s Budget Request for NOAA
For FY2003, President Bush requested a total of $3.21 billion in appropriations
for NOAA (see Table 1, below). Of this amount, $2.28 billion was requested for the
Operations, Research, and Facilities (ORF) account, which funds NOAA’s budget
line offices; $811.4 million for Procurement, Acquisitions, and Construction (PAC);
and $114.1 million for NOAA’s “Other Accounts.” The request is 1.9% greater than
the President’s FY2002 request of $3.15 million, and 5% less than FY2002
appropriations of $3.38 billion. Total budget authority requested for NOAA for
1 Under the terms of the 1997 U.N. Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change, the United States
would be committed to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, consisting primarily of carbon
dioxide, 8% below 1990 levels by the year 2003. The United States has signed but has not
ratified the treaty. See CRS Report RL30692, Global climate change: the Kyoto Protocol.

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FY2003 would be $3.33 billion.2 All funding tables below were created by CRS and
are organized according to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees’ CJS
budget reporting structure.
Table 1. NOAA Funding Request and Appropriations for FY2003
($ Millions)
FY’02
FY’02
FY’03
S. 2778
Request
Actual1
Request2
S.Rept.3
Operations, Research, and Facilities (ORF)
NOS
364.5
413.9
385.3
403.5
NMFS
598.0
579.2
603.5
587.9
OAR
330.2
356.1
296.9
395.74
NWS
658.5
672.4
725.3
682.0
NESDIS
131.7
142.45
151.9
133.8
Program Support
182.5
180.5
213.26
202.9
Total ORF7
2,177.4
2,256.5
2,281.1
2,336.8
deoblig./transfers
(88)
(88)
(95)
(69.0)
Non-ORF
PAC
764.9
836.6
811.4
903.4
Other
123.7
158.8
114.1
110.1
Total Non-ORF
888.6
995.4
925.5
1,013.5
Total Approp.8
3,066.6
3,251.9
3,206.6
3,350.3
Mandatory Funds9
95.7
113.0
123.9
52.0
Total BA FY2003
$3,161.7
$3,364.9
$3,330.5
$3,402.3
*Numbers may not add due to rounding.
Table notes:
1. FY2002 amounts (actual) included in the conference report on H.R. 2500 (H.Rept. 107-
278). H.R. 2500 became P.L. 107-77, November 28, 2001.
2. NOAA request totals as summarized in NOAA FY2003 Budget in Brief, at
[http://www.noaa.gov].
2 NOAA appropriations for FY2003 are tracked in CRS Report RL31309, Appropriations
for FY2003 for Commerce, Justice, and State, the Judiciary and Related Agencies. The
agency’s Office of Legislative Affairs also provides organizational, budgetary, legislative,
and programmatic information at [http://www.legislative.noaa.gov/].

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3. Amounts included in S.Rept. 107-218, July 24, 2002. The Senate bill is included here for
comparison with the President’s request for FY2003 because it was the first CJS
appropriations bill for FY2003 to be acted upon. Constitutionally, appropriations bills
originate in the House, but no House CJS appropriations bill has been introduced as of the
date of this report.
4. Reflects restoration of $63.5 million to maintain the Sea Grant Program within NOAA.

5. The NESDIS FY2002 total includes $2.75 million for NOAA homeland defense-related
activities provided in the Defense Appropriation Bill for FY2002 (S.Rept. 107-109).
6. For FY2003, PS funding request includes three subcategories: 1) Corporate Services (CS)
– $79.8 million for ORF and $16.1 million for PAC; 2) FAC – $24.6 million for Facilities
(FAC) for ORF funding only; and Office of Marine and Aviation Operation (OMAO) –
$108.8 million for ORF and $62.5 million for PAC. The Senate Appropriations Committee
approved $89.5 million and $10 million respectively for CS; $95.9 and $74.5 million for
OMAO; and $17.5 million for FAC (S.Rept. 107-218).
7. Totals for ORF include mandatory transfers within NOAA and funding provided by other
federal agencies. For FY2003, the Senate recommended that NOAA establish a “Business
Management Fund” to manage overhead costs (S.Rept. 107-218, July 24, 2002)
8. The President requested $284 million in “Conservation Spending” for FY2002, which
was authorized in Title VIII of P.L. 106-552, Department of the Interior Appropriations for
FY2001. Conferees approved a total of $223.3 million for this activity for FY2002 (H.Rept.
107-278). For FY2003, the President requested a total of $348.5 million in conservation
spending, including: $184.5 million for NOS; $52.8 million for NMFS; $1.2 for OAR and
NESDIS; $90 million for the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund; and $20 million for
the Pacific Salmon Treaty. The Senate Appropriations Committee approved a total of $480
million for conservation, of which $264.5 million would be for ORF, $100.5 million for
PAC (including $60 million for Coastal and Estuarine Land Conservation Program
(CELCP)), and $115 million in Other Accounts funding for Pacific coastal salmon
conservation (S.Rept. 107-218).

9. For FY2003, the President proposed adjustments in NOAA discretionary base funding
to offset mandatory spending of $129 million. Of this amount, $92.2 million would be used
to pay retired NOAA employees and their health benefits under CSRS; $37 million would
be for NOAA Corps retirees’ pay (OMAO). Those mandatory obligations are now funded
by OPM. The President noted that offsets in discretionary spending would be accommodated
across all NOAA line offices. The Senate Appropriations Committee did not provide such
funding when it reported S. 2778, and the Committee’s appropriations do not reflect the
President’s request (S.Rept. 107-218, pp. 4-5).
Highlights of the FY2003 President budget request for NOAA include:
! A proposal to transfer the National Sea Grant College Program to
the National Science Foundation (NSF), which would result in a
$62.4 million reduction in base funding of for Ocean and Great
Lakes Research Programs in OAR.

CRS-9
! A request of $419 million to be divided equally between NOAA and
the Department of Defense (DOD) to fund NPOESS, NESDIS’s
polar satellite convergence program.
!
A request of $348.5 million for ongoing “coastal conservation
spending” as authorized by Title VIII of P.L. 106-552, Department
of the Interior Appropriations Act for FY2001.
! A request of $26.4 million for DOC’s Homeland Security Critical
Infrastructure Protection (CIP) initiative, and an additional $8.7
million for a NOAA “Energy Initiative.”
! A request of $18 million for the President’s Clear Skies/Climate
Change Research Initiative to create a “supercomputer modeling
center of excellence” at NOAA’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Lab
(GFDL) in Princeton, N.J.
! A request for Congress to authorize funding of $2.8 million for
NESDIS satellite command and control security, and oversight and
enforcement of licencing for satellite data and imagery.
! A request of $0.8 million for 15 new hires for the Corps of
Commissioned Officers (NOAA Corps).
! A proposal to establish a “Business Management Fund” to
administer agency–wide overhead costs, and consolidate and
centralize those functions externally from NOAA line offices.
! An expected legislative proposal to Congress to authorize funding
for all NOAA line offices, and other departments and agencies, to
cover Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) expenses. New
mandatory obligations would total $92 million, an amount which is
currently funded by the Office of Personnel Management. Another
$36.7 million in mandatory funding is requested for NOAA’s Corps
of Commissioned Officers’ military retirement pay, which is
disbursed by the U.S. Coast Guard.
Operations, Research, and Facilities (ORF)
NOAA’s ORF account funds a number of atmospheric and oceanic research and
operational programs that primarily support NOAA’s mission, and which are carried
out under NOAA’s six budget line offices: NOS, NMFS, OAR, NWS, NESDIS and
Program Support (PS). These offices are discussed in the order presented in the
NOAA budget request and the order is not intended to indicate relative importance.
Many of these programs also contribute to federal agency crosscutting research
activities coordinated by the White House National Science and Technology Council
(NSTC), including the U.S. Global Change Research Program and the Interagency
High Performance Computing Initiative. NOAA also provides funding for the
DOC’s Minority Serving Institutions Initiative (MSI). This section of the report

CRS-10
includes detailed information on NOAA’s ORF budget line offices, information on
the President’s FY2003 budget request for ORF, and actions taken by Congress on
FY2003 CJS appropriations. General information on funding for PAC and NOAA’s
Other Accounts may be included in the ORF budget line office entries; however,
more detailed information on PAC and Other Accounts funding follows the ORF
section.
Annual budget authority for ORF in NOAA is tallied after adding 1) all
appropriations authorized by Congress to be carried over from previous fiscal years
(deobligations), 2) financing credits from debt payments, 3) funding transfers made
to ORF from Other Accounts, and 4) revenue from authorized offsetting collections.
In general, the above are scored as adjustments to base funding and serve as a starting
point for the upcoming fiscal year budget request (see Table 1, above). Inflation rates
and salary and benefit increases are also included in base funding. However, budget
surpluses realized by NOAA are viewed by congressional appropriation committees
as unauthorized budget authority and, therefore, are subject to congressional approval
pursuant to Title II, §605 of “General Provisions,” of the CJS appropriations act.
Examples of ORF adjustments to base include mandatory funds transferred from
NOAA’s Other Accounts such as the Coastal Zone Management Fund transfer (see
p. 33), or from other federal agencies such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture,
which are transfers of funding to the Promote and Develop American Fishery
Products (PDAF)–Saltonstall-Kennedy Funds in NOAA’s Other Accounts. Most of
the latter funding in turn is transferred to the NMFS budget line in ORF. Such
funding provides additional spending authority for ORF but is revenue neutral and,
consequently, does not increase annual appropriations requested for ORF.
NOAA is authorized to collect various user fees and accept voluntary monetary
donations, which in some cases may provide additional spending authority for ORF.
However, this “income” is scored as offsetting collections, which do not increase
ORF appropriations. Amounts in offsetting collections that exceed congressionally
authorized levels are deducted from annual base funding and deposited in the U.S.
Treasury as general revenue. Other reductions in base funding may be realized when
long-term financing debts are payed off in the current fiscal year, which is known as
a deobligation. Congress may include other budget directives for NOAA in CJS
appropriations bill reports under Title II §206 of “general provisions.”
National Ocean Service (NOS)
The primary mission of NOS is to ensure safe navigation for commercial and
recreational marine vessels through production and update of nautical maps and
charts, and monitoring tide and water levels in U.S. water ways. In addition, NOS’s
Office of Response and Restoration aids in recovery and restoration of marine
ecosystem health. NOS also conducts coastal and oceanic scientific research,
administers the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972, and manages programs
which aim to protect the coastal and estuarine environments.
For FY2003, President Bush requested $385.3 million in ORF funding for NOS,
and $20 million for NOS PAC (see Table 2, below). Further, the President requested
$5.6 million in budget offsets for NOS that would be derived from the Environmental

CRS-11
Improvement and Restoration Fund (EIRF); and another $3 million from the Coastal
Zone Management Fund (CZMF) would be transferred to NOS. Both of these funds
are found under NOAA’s Other Accounts.
Table 2. National Ocean Service Request and Appropriations
($ Millions)
FY’01
FY’02
FY’03
S. 2778
Actual
Est.
Request
Approp.
Navigation Services
115.4
120.2
122.2
125.2
Mapping & Charting
58.8
74.7
78.5
80.5
Geodesy
22.3
25.1
25.4
26.5
Tide & Current Data
15.1
13.3
18.3
18.2
Ocean Resources Conservation
and Assessment/Management
124.6
154.8
122.6
150.8
Ocean Assessment Program
72.8
94.8
75.0
96.1
Response & Restoration
24.0
28.4
18.4
19.4
Oceanic & Coastal Research
9.5
10.1
10.5
14.6
Coastal Ocean Science/COP
18.2
21.6
18.8
20.6
Ocean and Coastal Management
150.2
138.9
140.5
127.5
Ocean Management
32.4
34.2
35.6
34.7
Costal Management
117.8
104.7
105.0
92.8
ORF Total
390.2
413.9
385.3
403.5
PAC/Construction
53.9
87.8
20.0
102.4
Other (EIRF)
152.9
5.0
5.6
–
NOS Total
597.0
506.7
410.9
505.9
The total FY2003 ORF funding requested for NOS of $385.3 million is $28.6
million, or 6.9%, less than FY2002 appropriations of $413.9 million, and 5.7%
greater than the $364.5 million requested by the President for FY2002. The FY2003
request also proposed terminating $131.1 million in funding from a number of NOS
programs. Some $12.4 million adjustment to NOS base funding would accommodate
the hire of new personnel and increased rent payments to the General Services
Administration (GSA). The President also requested $6.9 million for CSRS retirees’
pay and benefits.
Navigation Services. For FY2003, the President requested a total of $122
million for navigation services, $2.0 million more than FY2002 appropriations.
NOAA has perennially urged Congress to provide increased funding to help NOS
reduce a backlog of nautical chart updates. NOS also operates state-of-the-art
hydrographic equipment used for sea floor mapping, and has developed navigational
charts which can be transmitted and displayed electronically on navigation systems.

CRS-12
Mapping and Charting. The President requested a total of $78.5 million for
nautical mapping and charting, $3.7 million more than FY2002 appropriations. Much
of the increase would be used for digital conversion of many hand-drafted nautical
charts which have served the commercial shipping and recreational boating
communities to date. Digital conversion would make those available electronically
and available on such media as the Internet, or capable of being transmitted by radio
signals via the satellite Global Positioning System (GPS) to onboard marine
navigation systems. NOS also conducts R&D to develop new marine cartographic
data products for scientific research, commercial use of marine resources, and
military, commercial and recreational navigation.

NOAA’s hydrographic data collection activities aid in the production of digital
bathymetric (sea floor) maps for previously unmapped sections of the ocean bottom.
Data are collected using both side- and height-ranging radar on NOAA and other
government and privately owned marine-going vessels. NOS proposes to have many
of its bathymetric maps and electronic nautical charts available on the Internet as part
of a federally sponsored National Geospatial Data “One-Stop, E-Gov” Initiative. The
President also requested $9.9 million for additional “Vessel Lease/Time Charter” on
non-NOAA marine vessels to further expand NOAA’s hydrographic surveying
capacity. The President’s budget stated, “[hydrographic] funding would provide
critical survey data to directly enhance safety of mariners, passengers and the national
economy from threats both natural or human in origin.”

Geodesy. NOS’s operational Geodesy programs validate geodetic
measurement of the Earth’s surface produced by land surveyors, aid marine
navigational guidance, and to a limited degree aid in aeronautical navigation. The
President requested $24.4 million for NOS geodesy programs, including funding for
operations of the NOS National Spatial Reference System (NSRS). NSRS is a
nation-wide network of 35 radio-transmitter towers known as Continuously
Operating Reference Stations (CORS), which provides geodetic data and information
predominantly used by marine transportation operations. NSRS can pinpoint a
marine vessel’s location and measure distances traveled with accuracy. Further, map
makers and surveyors may use these reference beacons to measure elevation above
sea level.
Other NOS geodesy programs use the Global Positioning Satellites (GPS) with
traditional surveying methods to ground-truth CORS data to certify geodetic
measurements of both horizontal and vertical components on marine maps and
nautical charts. To a limited extent, NSRS is used by the aviation industry for
navigational guidance and altitude checks. Still another aspect of NOS geodesy is
to perfect and validate an accurate Earth model, or “geoid,” which NOAA claims
could have implications for energy savings such as marine transportation fuel costs.
NOS envisions future, remotely piloted, computer-controlled marine navigational
guidance systems.
Marine Tide and Current Data. For FY2003, $18.3 million was requested to
fund NOAA’s PORTS program, which provides real-time port information services
such as weather, channel depth soundings, and tide-level monitoring. Funding would
also be provided for certain components of the NOS Coastal Storms program, which

CRS-13
was established in FY2002 to provide education and outreach to coastal communities
about coastal storms and flooding.
Ocean Resources Conservation and Assessment. Total funding of
$122.6 million was requested for Ocean Resources Conservation and Assessment
(ORCA), $32.2 million less than FY2002 appropriations. The President suggested
those reductions would come from terminating some programs and rolling others into
NOS base funding. Prospective rollovers would include funds for the Coastal Storms
Program, part of which would be rolled into Tide and Current Data, part into
Mapping and Charting base funding, and part into ORCA’s Ocean Assessment
Program (OAP).
Estuarine and Coastal Assessment. For FY2003, the President requested
$75 million, $19.8 million less than FY2002 appropriations. That amount would
include base funding of $48.8 million for OAP. NOS scientists assist in local,
regional, and state recovery and restoration efforts in the marine environment.
NOS’s Office of Response and Restoration aids in the recovery and restoration of
marine ecosystems after environmental catastrophes such as marine oil spills; for
FY2003, $18.4 million was requested. In addition, a portion of ORCA funding
supports six NOS science centers which conduct coastal ocean science and marine
health research. For FY2003, $10.5 million was requested for Oceanic and Coastal
Research programs for research on Pfisteria, fish and shellfish toxins, and forensic
sciences for fish kills.

Coastal Ocean Science. COS is conducted by NOS’s Coastal Ocean
Program (COP), whose activities have been ongoing since 1992. For FY2003, $18.8
million was requested for COP. COS programs encompass a wide range of marine
scientific research and support operational and maintenance activities which range
from monitoring the health of coastal and estuarine environments to helping protect
coastal communities from marine or nonpoint source pollution.3 Research is
performed on a wide variety of marine ecosystems and habitats, and includes studies
on hypoxia (oxygen deficiency in marine environments), and restoration of the South
Florida ecosystem.
Ocean and Coastal Management. For FY2003, $105.0 million was
requested for Coastal Management funding to help states pay for programs
authorized by the Coastal Zone Reauthorization Amendments of 1990 (P.L. 104-450,
expired Sept. 30, 1999). The President stated this funding would be used to “ensure
sustainable use of the coastal areas.” Some Coastal Management funding is used to
preserve marine and estuarine areas which NOAA considers to be ecologically
unique and nationally significant. NOS administers Coastal Zone Management Act
(CZMA) grants for which $69 million was requested for FY2003; an additional $6.6
million was requested for CZMA administrative expenses. In addition, $10 million
was requested for implementation grants for the non-point pollution program.
3 See also CRS Report RS20810, Marine Protected Areas: An Overview and CRS Report
RS20232, Coastal Nonpoint Pollution Program: Status and Legislative Issues.

CRS-14
NOS operates the National Estuarine Research and Reserves System (NERRS)
and manages some marine protected areas under the Coastal Management funding
line. NERRS is comprised of a number of what NOAA characterizes as “key”
estuarine habitats, which have been acquired through matching federal-state
conservation grants. For FY2003, $16.4 million was requested for NERRS, the same
amount appropriated for FY2002. The PAC funding request was $10.1 million for
NERRS construction/land acquisition, which is a reduction of $17.9 million below
FY2002 appropriations.
One explanation for the decreased funding request is that NERRS land
acquisition funding nearly doubled in FY2001, as part of President Clinton’s Land
Legacy Initiative. The proposed cut for FY2003 would return land acquisition
funding for NERRS to historic levels of about $10 million annually. In addition, the
President requested $3 million for NOAA marine protected areas (MPAs),
established by the Endangered Species Act of 1972, reflecting little change from
FY2002 funding levels.
The President requested $35.6 million under NOS’s Ocean Management
funding line for National Marine Sanctuaries (NMS) program, a system of marine
biological conservation parks. This amount is almost 2% more than the $34.9
appropriated for FY2002. The NMS program seeks to improve protection of
important marine resources, including coral reefs, endangered marine mammals,
sensitive marine habitats, and significant cultural resources. In addition, the
President requested $10 million in PAC funding for construction, $4.8 million less
than FY2002 appropriations. These funds would be used to upgrade or construct
marine research and education centers on NMS sites. The budget request states that
the President will propose authorizing legislation for NOAA to accept gifts and
donations for the NMS program which would help to offset some maintenance costs
at these facilities.
National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)
NMFS is responsible for conservation and management of fisheries, and
enforcement of fishery regulations authorized primarily under the Magnuson-Stevens
Fishery Conservation and Management Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the
Sustainable Fisheries Act, and the Endangered Species Act (ESA) (see NOAA
Authorization, p. 36). Scientific research and conservation efforts that support
federal regulations required by these laws is conducted at NMFS fishery research
centers and laboratories, and fishery research operations at sea.4
4 For additional information on NMFS conservation, research, and management programs
refer to: CRS Issue Brief IB10074, Fishery, Aquaculture, and Marine Mammal Legislation
in the 107th Congress; CRS Report RL30120, The Marine Mammal Protection Act:
Reauthorization Issues for the 107th Congress; CRS Issue Brief IB10072, Endangered
Species: Different Choices; CRS Report RS20810, Marine Protected Areas: an Overview;
and CRS Report RL30215, The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management
Act: Reauthorization Issues for the 107th Congress.

CRS-15
For FY2003, President Bush requested $603.5 million in ORF funding for
NMFS, and $17 million for NMFS PAC (see Table 3).
Table 3. National Marine Fisheries Service Request
and Appropriations
($ Millions)
FY’01
FY’02
FY’03
S. 2778
Actual
Est.
Request
Approp.
Fisheries Research
and Management
376.9
342.7
348.8
277.0
Science & Technology
225.1
230.5
237.7
176.3
Conservation & Management
151.8
112.2
111.1
100.7
Protected Resources Research and
Management
143.6
150.7
157.2
111.3
Science & Technology
96.8
109.1
103.9
77.4
Conservation & Management
46.8
41.5
53.3
33.9
Habitat Conservation Research
and Management
48.2
44.5
46.4
*40.2
Sustainable Habitat Management
27.2
26.5
33.2
–
Fisheries Habitat Restoration
21.0
18.1
13.2
–
Enforcement and Surveillance
/Partnerships
38.5
41.3
51.0
47.1
ORF Total
**634.1
579.2
603.4
***587.8
PAC Construction
/Fleet Replacement
62.5
37.2
17.0
24.0
Other (PCSRF and Fishery Accounts)
119.1
175.0
120.8
110.1
NMFS Total
815.6
791.4
741.2
721.9
Table notes:
* Sustainable Habitat Management and Fisheries Habitat Restoration not broken out in Senate
appropriation tables (S.Rept. 107-218).
** FY2001 ORF total includes $26.8 million for Data Acquisition (OMAO after FY2001).
*** Includes $112.2 million in base funding for NMFS overhead costs.

An additional $120.8 million would be provided for NMFS activities from Other
Accounts. The ORF funding request for NMFS was $24.3 million, or 4.2%, greater
than FY2002 appropriation of $579.2 million, and $5.5 million, or 0.9%, more than
the President’s FY2002 request of $598 million. NMFS research programs and
fishery information and assessment activities are a prime example of how R&D
funding is tied to the missions of NOAA and the Department of Commerce. NMFS
operational responsibilities are directly linked with American commerce, and mostly
with the U.S. fishing industry. Since FY1994, NMFS funding has grown
significantly. FY2002 ORF appropriations for NMFS, while about $36 million less

CRS-16
than FY2001 appropriations, are still two and a half times greater than FY1994
appropriations of $224 million.
Fisheries Research and Management Services. For FY2003, the
President requested $348.8 million for activities performed under this budget line.
The request includes $237.7 million for supporting science and technology, and
$111.1 million for conservation and management activities. Science and technology
activities include programs for stock assessments, data collection, and assessment of
the impact of incidental taking of marine mammals and endangered species in fishery
operations. NMFS also conducts R&D on instrumentation and systems which assist
these programs. For example, NMFS has developed forecast models to predict the
sizes of populations of marine resources species in marine ecosystems and fisheries.
Further, NMFS collects scientific data about living marine resources and their
habitats. Funding provided for fishery conservation and management activities at
NMFS also aids in implementing the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA)
and development of federal regulations for fisheries. NMFS oversees operations of
the Regional Fishery Management Councils, which are coordinating bodies
responsible for developing fishery management plans and recommending fishery
regulations. NMFS also represents the United States at meetings directed at
developing cooperative measures to enforce international fishing agreements.
Protected Resources Research and Management Services. The
President requested $157.2 million for these NMFS activities, of which $103.9 million
and $53.3 million would be provided for supporting science and conservation
activities, respectively. Programs under this budget line include what NOAA calls
accurate and timely analysis on the biological and ecological aspects of conservation
of the nation’s living resources to produce policies that support NOAA’s goal to
recover protected species. Science and technology and conservation and management
of protected species, the President’s requested stated, “together support research on
and management programs focused on protection, recovery and conservation of
protected living marine resources and the environment upon which they depend.”

Science and technology funding requested for FY2003, which would be cut 25%
under the Senate Appropriations Committee mark (S. 2778), would include funding
for recovery of endangered large whales, protection of sea turtles and Stellar sea lions
and other marine mammals, and for the Columbia River Biological Opinions program.
Nearly $1 million would be specifically targeted for Alaskan marine mammals
research. Further, $2.4 million would be provided for Atlantic and Pacific salmon
science activities, and $10.5 million for Antarctic Research.
The amounts requested for conservation programs, which would be cut 36%,
under S. 2778, would be used to fund conservation of Atlantic salmon, Pacific coastal
salmon, California sea lions, and Atlantic right whales, as well as cooperative
conservation programs with Alaska natives for marine mammals, and the further
expansion of the Marine Mammal Stranding Information Network. Funding of $90
million from NOAA’s Other Accounts was requested for NMFS for its Pacific Coastal
Salmon Recovery Fund (PCSRF), and $20 million would be for U.S. Pacific Salmon
treaty obligations.

CRS-17
Habitat Conservation Research and Management Services. Funding
of $46.4 million was requested for habitat conservation programs in NMFS. Of this
amount, $34 million was requested for Sustainable Habitat Management, which
included $11 million for coral reefs programs. Further, $13.2 million was requested
for Fisheries Habitat Restoration programs.
Enforcement and Surveillance Services Funding. Increases of $9.7
million were proposed for enforcement of fisheries, which would amount to a total
request of $51 million for these activities for FY2003. Of this amount, $5.4 million
was requested to continue implementing a Vessel Management System (VMS) that
would allow NMFS to monitor catch from as many as 1,500 fishing vessels at a time.
PAC funding of $15 million was requested by the President for construction of
a fishery facility in Honolulu, HI, and $2 million was requested for renovation of a
Galveston, TX, fishery laboratory.
Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR)
All of OAR’s research programs are tied directly to NOAA’s operational
responsibilities. For FY2003, about 15% of annual OAR funding was proposed for
extramural grants. These grants are extended to individuals, universities, and research
centers that participate in NOAA research activities, and are provided for oceanic and
atmospheric research that is deemed to benefit the NOAA mission. All research,
including extramural research, is performed at NOAA’s 12 Environmental Research
Laboratories (ERLs), other NOAA research facilities, or Joint Institutes, which are
programs and facilities shared by one or more NOAA line offices, and other federal
agencies and academic institutions performing similar research.

For FY2003, President Bush requested $296.9 million in ORF funding for OAR,
and $10.6 million in PAC funding (see Table 4, below).
The ORF amount is $59.2 million, or 16.6%, less than FY2002 ORF
appropriations of $356.1 million, and 10.1% less than the President’s request of
$330.2 million for FY2002. For FY2003, ORF funding for OAR would be divided
in a ratio of about 4:1 between NOAA’s so-called “dry” and “wet” research programs.
Dry research programs focus mainly on 1) climate research and atmospheric research,
2) climate and observation services research, 3) weather and air quality research, and
4) information technology, R&D, and science education. Wet research programs are
focused on Oceans, Coastal, and Great Lakes Research Programs, and include the
National Sea Grant College Program and the National Undersea Research Program.
The President proposed eliminating $28.9 million in OAR programs that were
funded in FY2002 by Congress, but not requested by the President. Also proposed
was a transfer of the $2.3 million National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program from
OAR to NWS, because tsunami detection is operational. A total of $11.1 million was
requested for mandatory pay and inflationary costs in OAR, $6.1 million of which was
for CSRS retiree pay.

CRS-18
Table 4. Oceanic and Atmospheric Research Request
and Appropriations
($ Millions)
FY’01
FY’02
FY’03
S. 2778
Actual
Est.
Request
Approp.
Climate & Atmospheric Research
133.7
150.2
171.0
159.2
OAR Labs & Joint Institutes
46.3
49.1
54.6
49.1
Climate & Global Change Program
72.2
73.7
72.8
74.7
Climate Observations & Services
11.0
23.6
41.6
30.6
Climate Partnership Programs
4.2
3.8
2.0
4.8
Weather & Air Quality Research
44.8
55.5
59.1
57.4
Laboratories & Joint Institutions
41.9
43.9
48.1
43.9
U.S. Weather Research Program
2.5
10.3
10.0
4.8
Weather & Air Partnership Programs
0.3
1.3
1.0
8.8
Ocean, Coastal, Great Lakes Research
120.4
137.6
54.2
166.3
Laboratories & Joint Institutes
17.4
19.3
20.9
19.3
National Sea Grant Program
62.1
62.4
*0.0
63.4
National Undersea Research Program
13.8
16.3
13.9
30.8
Ocean Exploration
4.0
14.0
14.2
20.0
Ocean & Coastal Partnership Program
23.1
25.7
5.1
32.9
Information Technology/
R&D/Science Education
15.7
12.8
12.8
12.8
ORF Total
**327.4
356.1
297.1
395.7
PAC Systems Acquisition/Construction
22.9
27.7
10.6
17.1
Total OAR/NOAA Research
350.4
383.8
307.7
412.8
Table notes:
* Reflects President’s proposal to transfer the National Sea Grant College Program to NSF.
** FY01 ORF total includes $12.9 million for Data Collection, under OMAO after FY01.
Climate and Atmospheric Research. This research is divided between
short-term, inter-annual, and long-term climate research. For example, the first two
activities study the El Niño and La Niña phenomena, while the last includes research
on longer term phenomena such as the North Atlantic and Pacific Ocean Decadal
Oscillations, sunspot cycles, and other climate fluctuations that may occur over
decades to centuries. NOAA participates in the interagency U.S. Global Climate
Change Research Program (USGCRP) through its Office of Global Programs (OGP).
For FY2003, $171 million was requested for climate research, which is NOAA’s
largest “dry” research component. The request is 12.2% greater than the appropriation
for FY2002. Of that amount, $54.6 million was requested for various atmospheric
research programs conducted at OAR laboratories and joint institutes. In addition,
$72.8 million was requested for NOAA’s Climate and Global Change Program.
(Information on NOAA’s and other federal agencies’ climate change research
programs may be found in CRS’s Electronic Briefing Book on Climate Change at
[http://www.congress.gov/brbk/html/ebgcc1.html].)

CRS-19
For FY2003, the President requested $41.6 million for climate observations and
services, $18 million more than FY2002 appropriations. This increase would be for
programs recommended under the President’s U.S. Climate Change Research
Initiative (CCRI), and would include $5 million for a climate modeling center for
research, assessment, and policy applications to be located at NOAA’s Geophysical
Fluid Dynamics Lab (GFDL). Related programs include research with NASA, DOE,
and NSF on aerosol/climate interactions, a carbon monitoring program with DOE, and
a regional integrated science program with NSF. Another aspect of Climate Services
would involve building both ocean and atmospheric observing systems to address
scientific research questions, such as the connections between climate and weather.
The President’s request states that the increase would aid in establishing an
operational monitoring program for forecasting climate-related information of
importance to various U.S. economic sectors. Prospective climate services operations
would be jointly managed by OAR, NESDIS, and NWS.
Weather and Air Quality Research. The President requested a total of
$52.9 million for weather and air quality research programs conducted at dedicated
OAR laboratories and joint institutes. Most ($48.1 million) would be for Weather and
Air Quality Research Labs. One of those is the Space Environment Center (SEC),
which is engaged in solar weather research for the U.S. Space Program. SEC
researchers also investigate how solar activity affects sectors of U.S. commerce, such
as telecommunications and electric power industries. Some $8.2 million was
requested for SEC for FY2003. NOAA’s Forecast Systems Lab (FSL) maintains a
network of 35 National Wind Profilers, which collect wind, temperature, and
precipitation data used in real-time models of local weather conditions at sea. FSL
research and modeling provides nationwide guidance for issuing storm forecasts,
including severe weather watches and warnings. Funding of $11.9 million was
requested for FSL, for its continued operation and maintenance.
U.S. Weather Research program (USWRP). The President requested
$10 million for the USWRP, an amount slightly less than that appropriated for
FY2002. This amount would include $3.9 million in base funding for improving
prediction of hurricane landfall and quantitative precipitation forecasts. Other
USWRP activities include research on weather modification, and the launch of an
Energy Security Initiative to assist the operations of the U.S. energy sector, improve
aviation weather services, and enhance extended range weather forecasting.
NOAA claims the USWRP has increased NWS forecasters’ knowledge about
severe storms and improved their skills for forecasting severe weather events. New
for FY2003, the President proposed, as part of a broader agency-wide energy
initiative, an Energy Security Initiative to be conducted by the USWRP, which would
aid the energy industry in improving electrical load forecasting and hydropower
facility management; $6.1 million was requested for that effort. In addition, $1
million was requested to establish a joint partnership between NOAA, DOD, and FAA
to conduct Tornado/Severe Storm Research at NOAA’s Severe Storm Lab (NSSL),
in Norman, OK, and to develop technological improvements for severe storm
detection beyond current NEXRAD weather radar’s abilities.

CRS-20
Oceans, Coastal, and Great Lakes Research. OCGLR is the “wet”
research component of OAR and investigates ways to protect marine, coastal, and
estuarine environments from pollution, hypoxia (marine oxygen deprivation), and
harmful algae blooms and to control non-indigenous species such as the zebra mussel.
These programs support research and development of non-fishery marine resources
of benefit to U.S. commerce. OCGLR research is conducted at a number of dedicated
NOAA laboratories throughout the United States, and is conducted by NOAA
scientists in partnership with state, regional, and local economic development
agencies. While much of this research is focused on coastal and ocean ecosystems,
another major focus is the U.S. Great Lakes region.
For FY2003, the President requested $54.2 million for OCGLR, a decrease of
$83.5 million below FY2002 appropriations. Some $62.4 million (75%) of that
decrease reflects the President’s proposal to transfer the National Sea Grant College
Program to NSF. A total of $33.2 million was requested for ocean research programs.
Of this, $13.9 million was requested for the National Undersea Research Program
(NURP), which develops sea floor observatories and subaquatic marine technologies.
Also, NURP has operational responsibilities to promote healthy coasts, foster marine
stewardship, and sponsor public education and outreach programs about the marine
environment. Further, $14.2 million was requested for the Ocean Exploration
Initiative, which is a joint OAR/NOS/NMFS effort to promote undersea exploration,
research, and technology in the deep ocean and, “areas of special concern, such as the
U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and National Marine Sanctuaries.”
Some $20.9 million was requested to fund OCGLR’s dedicated Laboratories and
Joint Institutes where most “wet” OAR research is conducted, including the Pacific
Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL) in Seattle, WA; the Atlantic
Oceanographic and Meteorological Lab (AOML) in Florida, and the Great Lakes
Environmental Research Lab in Michigan (GLERL). Despite the President’s proposal
to transfer the National Sea Grant College program to NSF, many traditional Great
Lakes programs would continue to be conducted at NOAA’s GLERL, for which $9.1
million was requested for FY2003. Although this funding is used to support scientific
research operations at OCGLR facilities, funding would also be used, in part, to guide
NOAA management decisions and policies aimed at developing coastal and marine
resources, increasing knowledge about coastal marine processes and their relationship
with environmental change, and developing marine technology and marine resources
for U.S. commerce.

Information Technology/R&D/Science Education. Other “dry” OAR
programs include the OSTP High Performance Computing and Communications
(HPCC) Initiative, for which $12.8 million was requested for FY2003. NOAA is
working to improve its computing capabilities to produce extended weather forecasts
and to predict climatic fluctuation and change, which NOAA scientists claim can only
come about with more computational power and greater processing speed. A portion
of HPCC funding would be used to develop new computer applications and
algorithms for enhancing climate supercomputing within the agency. This effort will
likely benefit others in the field of climate research.
The President also requested $7 million in PAC funding to upgrade the
supercomputer at NOAA’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Lab in Princeton, NJ.

CRS-21
Another $3.6 million in PAC funding was requested to continue developing a
Comprehensive Large-Array [data] Stewardship System (CLASS), which NOAA
claims might more efficiently manage large volumes of oceanic, atmospheric, and
environmental data across the agency, as well as provide additional capacity for
managing NASA Earth Observing Satellite (EOS) data which NOAA archives.
National Weather Service (NWS)
For FY2003, President Bush requested $725.3 million in ORF funding and $75.6
million in PAC funding for NWS to sustain what NOAA has coined as America’s “no
surprise” weather service (see Table 5). The ORF request is $52.9 million, or 7.9%,
greater than FY2002 funding of $672.4 million, and $64.8 million, or 10.1% greater
than the $658.5 million requested for NWS in FY2002. In addition, the President
requested $52.3 million in adjustments to base funding, $28.4 million of which would
fund NOAA CSRS retirees’ pay. Further, an increase of $2.3 million was requested
for NWS to accept transfer of the National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program and
warning systems from OAR, and put them into operational service. Some $18.7
million in terminations were also proposed.
Table 5. National Weather Service Request and Appropriations
($ Millions)
FY’01
FY’02
FY’03
S. 2778
Actual
Est.
Request
Approp.
Operations & Research
548.0
581.1
632.0
587.7
Local Warnings & Forecasts
510.5
539.2
586.5
544.2
Central Forecast Guidance
37.4
41.9
45.5
43.5
Systems Operation & Maintenance
81.4
91.2
93.3
94.3
ORF Total
629.4
672.3
725.3
682.0
PAC Systems Acquisition/
Construction
63.4
70.7
75.6
66.8
NWS Total
692.8
743.0
800.9
748.8
Local Warnings and Forecasts. Of the ORF total for NWS, $568.1 million
was requested for local warnings and forecasts which is $11.4 million more than
FY2002 appropriations. Some $7.4 million of that would be slated for upgrade and
maintenance at existing Weather Forecast Offices (WFOs). Funding of $1.9 million
was requested to modernize the Cooperative [weather] Observer Program Network,
which provides NWS with highly detailed real-time weather observations by
individuals in local communities. In addition, $1.7 million was requested for
deployment of weather data buoys in Alaska.
Owing to severe weather in the spring of 2002, public attention was drawn to
NOAA Weather Radio (NWR), and the critical role it can play in alerting the public
to weather emergencies. Congress has already authorized funding for many areas
where the demand for expansion of NWR has been the greatest. Primarily this effort

CRS-22
has consisted of building more NWR transmitting towers (repeaters), so that severe
weather forecasts and weather warnings can reach more people. Meanwhile, other
local governments that are newly affected by severe weather have also asked their
congressional representatives to assist them in building repeaters. For FY2003,
considering demand is expected to subside, the President requested $2.3 million for
NWR, which was funded at $4.4 million in FY2002.
On the other hand, the President requested a tripling of funds ($4.5 million) for
the NWS Advanced Hydrological Prediction Service (AHPS), which was funded at
$1.5 million for FY2002. The AHPS develops and operate models which forecast
flooding on major streams and waterways using real-time weather data in flood-prone
areas. Those results are relayed to regional NOAA’s River Forecast Centers (RFCs),
which in turn project river stages and relay that information to WFOs and local
emergency managers for community-based warnings and emergency actions. Several
states across the nation that have been afflicted by severe inland flooding are already
participating in the program, and many newcomers wishing to participate are
requesting federal funding or grants through their states so they can take advantage of
AHPS.5
Also new for FY2003, the President proposed $2.5 million for an Aviation
Weather Initiative to improve U.S. aviation safety and enhance the economic
efficiencies of commercial, private, and military air transport. NOAA claims this joint
DOT, DOC, NASA initiative would improve NWS aviation weather services by
“increasing the total number of quality aviation weather observations; transferring
applied research data and products for operational use; and developing and
implementing training for forecasters, pilots, and air traffic controllers.” The goal of
this initiative, NOAA reported would be to “improve awareness of aviation weather
hazards.”
Central Forecast Guidance. For FY2003, $45.5 million was requested for
CFG, which coordinates and processes weather observations from WFOs across the
nation. In turn, CFG issues short-term warning and severe weather forecasts to all
potentially affected WFO areas. The primary component of CFG is the National
Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), which is composed of six science-
based, service-oriented centers whose function is to produce environmental prediction
products in near-real time.6 NCEP Central Operations at NWS’s Central Computer
5 Legislation to address problems and concerns about inland flooding was introduced on July
12, 2001, and referred to the House Committee on Science. H.R. 2486 would authorize
$1.15 million annually for FY2003-FY2007 for NWS to conduct research and modeling to
forecast accurately inland flooding associated with tropical cyclones and to develop an index
that defines risks and dangers associated with inland flooding. That bill was reported on
June 5, 2002 (H.Rept. 107-495); however, it may be superseded by H.R. 4791, which
proposes a total of $3.6 million for FY2003-FY2005 for those activities under U.S. Weather
Research program in OAR. (See NOAA Authorization below.)
6 Those include the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, OK; the Tropical Prediction
Center/National Hurricane Center in Miami, FL; the Aviation Weather Center in Kansas
City, MO; and the Hydrometeorological Prediction Center, Marine Prediction Center, and
MD Climate Prediction Center in Camp Springs, MD.

CRS-23
Facility compiles data received from all of the six NCEP centers, performs numerical
forecast modeling, and conveys those results to WFOs.
NCEP’s Environmental Modeling Center (EMC) develops data assimilation
techniques that are used to generate products used by meteorologists for making long-
term weather forecasts. EMC also experimentally integrates numerical meteorological
modeling R&D projects conducted at universities and OAR research labs into NWS
forecast models, experimentally. EMC can assimilate environmental data collected
from a variety of sources. These data can be used operationally to validate and check
NESDIS environmental satellite-based instrumentation or NWS weather radar.
Additionally, after cross-validating various environmental data, EMC can alert
NESDIS satellite command and control centers to make orbital corrections, re-
calibrate satellite sensors, or advise WFOs of possible weather instrument and radar
errors.

Systems Operations and Maintenance. ORF funding of $93.3 million
was requested for public warning and forecast systems and associated technology that
support NWS operations. Those include NEXRAD Next Generation Doppler
Weather Radar systems ($43.9 million requested); the Advanced Weather Interactive
Processing System (AWIPS) ($37.1 million requested); and the Automated Surface
Observation System (ASOS) ($8.7 million requested). Further, $3 million was
requested for a NWS Telecommunications Gateway System backup to be built in
Berryville, VA. That project would be part of the Department of Commerce’s
“Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP)” homeland security initiative to “insure
uninterrupted delivery of critical data necessary for the protection of life and property,
and the economic well being of the Nation.”
Systems Acquisition/Construction (PAC). For FY2003, the President
requested $75.6 million in PAC funding for NWS. Of that amount, $64.9 million was
to acquire and deploy new NWS systems. Some $5.1 million would be used for
instrument upgrades for the ASOS network. NWS plans to add all-weather
precipitation monitors in FY2003 to existing ASOS units and to install cloud ceiling
height detection instruments (ceilometers) on all 346 proposed ASOS units by 2005.
Further, the President requested $16.3 million to upgrade AWIPS hardware and to
develop software that would better enable NEXRAD data integration at WFOs.
AWIPS is the “brain” and centralized telecommunications component of NWS’s latest
generation of forecast and warning technologies that serve WFOs. Another $8.2
million was requested for NEXRAD products improvement to increase warning lead
times for tornadoes and to improve forecast accuracy for severe thunderstorms and
flash floods.
Another $7 million was requested to continue replacement of the old NWS
Weather Balloon Radiosonde Network, which monitors meteorological conditions in
the Earth’s lower atmosphere/upper air and is the principal data source for weather
forecast models. The request is $2 million greater than FY2002 appropriations. NWS
plans to modernize the system by creating 21 radiosonde telemetry sites which can
receive relayed weather conditions data measured by individual radiosonde units via
satellite. Previously radiosonde units had to be physically retrieved before their data
could be analyzed.

CRS-24
In addition, PAC funding of $10.6 million was requested for critical facility
modernization, which entails renovation of an older WFO facility in Key West, FL,
improved climate control engineering at other WFOs, and other construction-related
expenses for a number of Alaskan WFOs. Further, the newly constructed Alaska
Tsunami Warning Center is preparing to receive transfer of the program from OAR,
and would begin full-scale operations for tsunami warnings.
NOAA’s Weather and Climate Supercomputer Facility would continue to be
upgraded, as party of the DOC’s CIP initiative. For FY2003, $21.2 million was
requested for operations and maintenance of NOAA’s Class VIII Supercomputer at
the Central Computer Systems, which also serves as the computational system for the
National Centers for Environmental Prediction. This would also fund the transition
of NWS to a new generation of weather and climate supercomputers which will
become operational in FY2002. In addition, $7.1 million was proposed for an off-site
emergency Weather and Climate Supercomputer backup system as part of DOC’s CIP.
National Environmental Satellite Data
and Information Service (NESDIS)
NESDIS funds the launch and deployment of NOAA polar orbiting
environmental satellites (POES) and geostationary orbiting environmental satellites
(GOES). POES circle the Earth from pole-to-pole providing continuous and regularly
repeated environmental data. GOES, which can be “parked” in geostationary orbit,
can observe any location in the northern mid-latitudes of the western hemisphere for
extended periods of time. GOES are predominantly used for tracking and
characterizing major storms, such as hurricanes, typhoons, and other large weather
systems. Sensors onboard GOES satellites enable meteorologists to measure total
moisture content of such storms, which is important for determining total possible
amount, intensity and duration of precipitation, and potential for coastal and inland
flooding.

NESDIS’s other responsibilities are compiling and archiving environmental data,
producing environmental information products, and developing data services for those
clients requiring atmospheric, marine, solid earth, and solar-terrestrial sciences data
collected by NOAA. NESDIS also preserves and makes available historical
environmental data through NOAA Data Centers, which were developed to facilitate
public access to archived environmental satellite data products.
For FY2003, the President requested $151.9 million in ORF funding for
NESDIS, and $612.8 million for NESDIS PAC (see Table 6, below). The ORF
request is $9.5 million, or 6.2% more than the $142.4 million appropriated by
Congress for FY2002. Some $5 million in terminations were proposed, including $2
million for the GOES Data Archives project, and $3 million for the NESDIS Regional
Climate Centers. In addition, a $10.7 million increase in base funding was requested
for increased personnel costs and rental payments to GSA, of which $6.2 million
would be provided for CSRS retirees’ pay.

CRS-25
Table 6. National Environmental Satellite Data
and Information Service Request and Appropriations
($ Millions)
FY’01
FY’02
FY’03
S. 2778
Actual
Est.
Request
Approp.
Environmental Satellite
Observing Systems
60.2
77.9
91.8
75.2
Satellite Command & Control
19.8
32.5
37.1
32.7
Product Processing & Distribution
19.7
21.0
27.7
18.2
Product Develop., Readiness & Application
20.7
23.3
25.8
24.3
Commercial Remote Sensing License/Enforce.
0.0
1.2
1.2
0.0
NOAA Data Centers & Information Services
64.8
64.4
60.1
58.6
Archive, Access, and Assessment
43.6
44.6
43.3
38.2
Coastal Data Development
6.0
4.5
4.5
4.5
Regional Climate Centers
2.9
3.0
0.0
3.6
Environmental Data Systems Modernization
12.3
12.3
12.3
12.3
ORF Total
125.0
142.3
151.9
133.8
PAC System Acquisition/Construction
515.0
561.9
612.8
608.6
NESDIS Total
640.0
704.2
764.7
742.4

Environmental Satellite Observing Services (ESOS). For FY2003, the
President requested $91.8 million in ORF funding for ESOS. ESOS is comprised of
three subactivities: Satellite Command and Control; Product Processing and
Distribution; and Product Development, Readiness, and Application.
Satellite Command and Control (SCC). SCC is responsible for operating
NESDIS satellite systems, for collecting and processing satellite data, and for
developing new products that would ensure continuity of satellite operations. SCC
services operate around the clock. Of the ORF total, the President requested $37.1
million for routine operations and maintenance of the NESDIS satellite system
infrastructure.
The NESDIS satellite Command and Data Acquisition (CDA) station in
Fairbanks, AK, collects and processes environmental satellite data, and aids in the
development of new satellite data products which have applications for other NOAA
operations. For FY2003, an increase of $2.2 million was requested for the CDA.
Other SCC funding would provide for the acquisition and throughput of data from
NOAA’s and DOD’s current polar orbiting satellites (POES) and the Defense
Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP), whose data are relayed to the NOAA
Satellite Operations Control Center in Suitland, MD, and, in turn to NWS National
Weather Centers. In addition, PAC funding of $0.3 million was requested to deter
security breaches at SCC centers–a homeland security measure for NESDIS.

Product Processing and Distribution (PPD). The President requested $27.7
million for PPD, which are NESDIS operations that process and analyze data from

CRS-26
NOAA, DOD, and other earth-observing satellites (EOS). PPD staff also supply and
interpret data, and consult with EOS data users. PPD supports NOAA’s search and
rescue operations, and supplies about 85% of the processed data that the NWS needs
for weather forecasting. The President requested an increase of $3.1 million to ensure
that PPD data management operations are sustained and improved; to increase data
processing capacity to handle a growing data stream from 18 current earth observation
satellites; and to ensure that a growing client base for NESDIS data and information
products receives timely and improved services. Another $2.0 million was requested
specifically to expedite delivery of satellite data products to NWS and DOD, 65% of
which, NOAA claims, “currently cannot be supplied in a timely manner.”
Product Development, Readiness, and Application. The President
requested $25.8 million to fund continued development of the Joint Center for
Satellite Data Assimilation, whose primary function will be to expedite data
integration and develop various satellite data products for use in computer modeling
projects which emulate weather and climate connections and improve the accuracy of
extended, long-range weather forecasts. NESDIS, NWS, OAR, and NASA will
jointly manage the data processing center, for which $3.4 million was requested for
FY2003. Additionally, $0.5 million was requested for “Environmental Algorithm
Development for Climate Monitoring and Hazards” which, NOAA claims, would
maximize and exploit the information content of NESDIS satellite data as a medium
for monitoring climate change, and serve as the foundation for national climate
services operations. In addition, NESDIS would develop a new line of satellite data
derived products that could be used for predicting fires, and assessing fire risk,
desertification, ENSO (El Niño)-related drought, and insect-borne diseases.
NOAA Data Centers and Information Services. A total of $60.1 million
was requested for NOAA Data Centers (NDCs), which is $4.3 million less than
FY2002 appropriations. These operational centers archive, process, and classify
substantial amounts and various types of environmental data provided by satellites and
ground-based environmental monitoring stations. To make those post-processed data
available to the public, NDCs process environmental data and operate product
distribution services at the National Climatic (NCDC), Oceans (NODC), and
Geophysical (NGDC) Data Centers. NDCs provide data sets, data products, and
satellite imagery according to each center’s scientific specialization. For example,
GOES and POES satellite data are made available as visual images or digital data files
on CDs from NGDC, or may be ordered on the Internet from NGDC. Most of these
products may be obtained at the minimal cost of reproduction for scientific
researchers, or at more competitive rates for commercial users. Many Members of
Congress have continued to stress the importance of preserving historical satellite
data, so those may be exploited to the fullest extent for scientific research.
Archive, Access, and Assessment. For FY2003, The President requested
$43.3 million for satellite data processing, delivery, and assessment activities. Some
$1.7 million of that would fund “Regional Climate Services and Assessments.”
NOAA claims regional climate assessments could be prepared using extant archived
environmental data and could serve as the basis for a climate data and information
delivery service that would be federally managed, but whose services would be
distributed regionally. NESDIS plans to develop climate services of a national scale;
regional and local climate services would be provided by state-managed climate

CRS-27
services programs. The President also proposed to terminate the current federally-
operated Regional Climatic Data Centers. NESDIS officials envision a national
climate service that would provide archived climate data, analytical information, and
statistics serving U.S. economic sectors, including energy, agriculture, and natural
resources-based commerce.
The President also requested funding of $1.3 million for NESDIS to update its
World Ocean Database, which would enable it to distribute oceanographic data
products. Another $0.5 million was requested for “Extending America’s Climate
Record,” and making paleoclimatological databases available on the Internet. Some
$0.3 million was requested for archiving Solar X-ray Imager data of solar activity for
eventual public distribution. Funding of $4.5 million was requested for a proposed
Coastal Data Development program. Further, $12.3 million was requested for the
NESDIS Environmental Data Systems Modernization Program, the same amount as
that appropriated for FY2002.
Satellite Observing Systems. For FY2003, $612.8 million in PAC funding
was requested for NESDIS to maintain continuity of satellite observing systems (SOS)
for monitoring severe weather. Some of that funding would be used to upgrade
NOAA’s satellite systems telecommunications infrastructure for homeland security.
Some $587.6 million of PAC funding was an increase of $29.2 million above FY2002
enacted levels, requested to procure SOS hardware, which is either off-the-shelf
technology or currently being developed. NOAA claims this funding would be critical
for “ensuring continuity and seamless functioning of NESDIS satellite observing
systems.”
National Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellite System. Some $237.3
million of SOS funding was requested to complete NPOESS which is jointly funded
by NOAA and the Department of Defense. NPOESS will soon support NOAA’s
statutory responsibility for operating U.S. civilian weather satellites and collecting and
disseminating data to the NWS for public welfare and to protect property from severe
weather.7 Because of overlap in service between the time NPOESS would be
deployed and the POES program terminated, NOAA claims the former would be
available for emergency backup during that time in the event of POES service loss.
The President requested $122.9 million to launch and deploy the remaining POES
hardware, to fund supporting ground services, and to provide operations and
maintenance funding for the remainder of the POES program.

GOES Satellite Program. For FY2003, $227.4 million in PAC funding was
requested for post-launch operations and maintenance for GOES satellites. For the
FY2003 budget, the GOES program underwent extensive internal review of its
proposed delivery schedule. NOAA concluded delivery would be driven by five
major factors: 1) satellite continuity; 2) launch/early orbit failure; 3) unpredicted,
premature failure mitigation; 4) production, launch, and on-orbiting testing
constraints; and 5) on-orbiting fuel reserves and storage. Consequently, a savings of
$41.7 million would be realized by delaying the launch and deployment of GOES-N
7 NESDIS is required to collect, archive, and distribute civilian weather data in the Land
Remote Sensing and Commercialization Act of 1984 (P.L. 98-365, 15 U.S.C. 4201 et seq).

CRS-28
series, for which a total of $208.7 million was requested for FY2003. An increase of
$14.6 million was requested for future planning and development for new
instrumentation that would be used on the latest generation of GOES satellites. Of the
total amount of PAC funding proposed for GOES, contingency funding would be
requested for emergency backup launch services or emergency lease time on other
international GOES satellite systems, such as the European Space Agency’s
meteorological satellite, EUMETSAT, in the event of a service loss.

In addition, the President requested $2.8 million for Homeland Security-“Critical
Single Point of Failure” funding to provide backup of NESDIS satellite data, products,
and services critical for NWS operations. Some $13.4 million in PAC funding was
requested for Construction, which includes $4.6 million for Homeland Security-
“Continuity of Critical Facilities for Satellite Operations” and would be provided for
NESDIS’s “Satellite Command and Data Acquisition (CDA) Infrastructure Program.”
These funds would be used to provide service backup capability and redundancy in
the event of a catastrophe that might destroy the infrastructure and buildings of either
CDA. This funding would ensure that NOAA is able to continue all of its critical
satellite functions, products, and services provided by the two Satellite Operations and
Control Centers. Funding was also requested to modernize and renovate the facilities
of the two chief command and control centers for satellite operations. In addition,
$8.9 million was requested to backup the NOAA Satellite Operations Facility in
Suitland, MD, which NOAA claims is at risk of mission disruption and failure.

Coastal Remote Sensing. The President requested $6.0 million for what
NOAA calls “long-standing requirements for an imagery capability for observation
of coastal zones areas, hydrological phenomena, and certain atmospheric processes.”
NOAA and NASA would work together to develop satellite instrumentation which
would continuously monitor coastal ocean areas for harmful algal booms, coral reef
deterioration, and air pollution changes. Also, satellite sensors would serve NMFS’s
“Fisheries Oceanography and Habitat Characterization” studies and support marine
navigational guidance systems.
EOS Data Archive and Access System Enhancement. Some $3 million
was requested to address growing concerns of NOAA, NASA, and public data users
about NESDIS’s capacity to fully archive, develop, and make publically available
NASA’s EOS data, for which NOAA has a Memorandum of Agreement to provide
services for NASA, as well as managing its own data.
Program Support (PS)
For FY2003, President Bush requested $213.2 million in ORF funding and $78.6
million PAC funding for NOAA Program Support. The ORF request is a net increase
of $78.2 million, or 18.1% more than the $180.5 million appropriated by Congress for
FY2002, and 16.8% greater than the President’s request of $182.5 million for FY2002
(see Table 7, below). PS includes three funding subcategories: Corporate Services,
NOAA Facilities, and Office of Marine and Aviation Operations. For FY2003, $36.7
in mandatory spending is proposed for NOAA Corps officers retirement pay, and $6
million was requested for civilian CSRS retirees’ pay. Mandatory funding would be
transferred from NOAA’s Other Accounts on behalf of OMAO to the U.S. Coast

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Guard, which manages disbursement of retirement pay for NOAA Corps
commissioned officers.
Table 7. Program Support Request and Appropriations
($ Millions)
FY’01
FY’02
FY’03
S. 2778
Actual
Est.
Request
Approp.
Corporate Services
70.1
71.8
79.8
89.5
Undersecretary & Assoc. Offices*
21.4
21.8
25.8
27.0
Policy Formulation & Direction**
48.7
50.0
54.0
62.5
Facilities
11.2
19.1
24.6
17.5
NOAA Maint., Repairs & Safety
9.2
11.1
12.0
9.5
Environmental Compliance
2.0
2.0
2.0
2.0
Project Planning & Execution
0.0
6.0
10.6
6.0
Office of Marine & Aviation
Operations
22.8
89.6
***108.8
95.9
Marine Services O&M/Data Acq.
0.0
****63.9
74.0
68.5
Fleet Planning & Maintenance
11.0
11.1
12.0
11.9
Aviation Ops./Aircraft Services
11.8
14.7
16.8
15.5
ORF Total
104.1
180.5
213.2
202.9
PAC Systems Acquisition/
Fleet Replacement
39.5
62.4
78.5
84.5
Other
15.4
16.2
1.0
0.0
Program Support Total
159.0
259.1
292.7
287.4
Table notes:
* Includes funding for congressionally mandated studies.
** Includes Other/Ed. & Minority Serving Institutions.
*** Includes $6.0 million for NOAA Corps with respect to the President’s CSRS proposal.
**** Beginning in FY2002 marine data acquisition funding transferred from NOS/NMFS.
Corporate Services. The President requested $79.8 million in ORF funding
for Corporate Services, of which $25.8 million would be for the Undersecretary of
Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and Associate Offices in Washington, DC, and
$54 million would be for Policy Formulation and Direction. Adjustments to base
funding requested include an increase of $0.5 million for personnel costs, $0.1 million
of which would be for CSRS pay for NOAA retirees. Funding is also included for the
Office of the Federal Coordinator for Meteorology. In addition, funding of $4 million
was requested for a comprehensive enterprise-wide approach to information technology
security at NOAA. Further, $15 million was requested for NOAA’s participation in
DOC’s Educational Partnership Program with Minority Serving Institutions.
In addition, Some $16.1 million in PAC funding was requested for NOAA
obligations for the Commerce Administrative Management System (CAMS). CAMS
is the DOC’s financial management and accounting system, which is currently being

CRS-30
implemented in NOAA, so that all of DOC’s agencies meet statutory obligations under
the Federal Managers’ Financial Integrity and Chief Financial Officers Acts.

Facilities. For FY2003, the President requested $24.6 million in ORF funding
for NOAA facilities, which is $5.5 million, or 28.8%, greater than FY2002
appropriations of $19.1 million.
Facilities Maintenance, Repairs, and Safety. Funding of $12.0 million would
be used to improve the physical infrastructure of administrative buildings and facilities
in which NOAA researchers and other employees work. This funding is slightly more
than FY2002 appropriations of $11.9 million, and provides for repairs and
rehabilitation of NOAA employee facilities, for land acquisition for NOAA-owned
facilities, and rent for GSA-owned facilities. In addition, it is to be used to meet
employee health and safety requirements at NOAA administrative buildings,
specialized laboratories, and remote observatories that support the agency’s mission.
Specific project funding includes $0.7 million requested for NOAA’s Western
Regional Center in Seattle, WA, which NOAA claims is in a state of disrepair, and
another $4.5 million was requested for Boulder [CO] facilities. A decrease of $3.4
million in FAC funding was requested because of a proposed transfer of the NOAA
Columbia River Facilities to NMFS.
Environmental Compliance and Project Planning and Execution. The
President requested $12.6 million for environmental compliance at NOAA facilities
and facility operations and planning. Of this total, $2 million was requested for general
environmental cleanup obligations at NOAA facilities. In addition, $10 million was
requested under project planning for NOAA’s responsibility for Pribilof Island
Cleanup, which is required by P.L. 104-91. Funding for this arctic environmental
restoration program is $4.0 million more than FY2002 appropriations. The President
proposed to transfer the balance of funds for this activity from Program Support PAC
account to the ORF account. Funding of $0.6 million was requested for an Energy
Management program “to reduce NOAA facility operating costs through actively
pursuing energy commodities at competitive prices, identifying and implementing
energy-savings opportunities, and applying renewable-energy technologies and
sustainable designs at NOAA-managed facilities.” NOAA claims this program will
pay for itself in 5 years.

The Office of Marine and Aviation Operations. OMAO provides NOAA
with marine and aviation support services and manages its fleet of marine vessels and
aircraft. For FY2003, the President requested a total of $108.8 million in ORF funding
for OMAO, 21.3% more than FY2002 appropriations of $89.7 million. In addition, an
adjustment to base funding of $30 million was requested for proposed increases in
salaries, contracting fees, and rent payments. Of that amount, $5.9 million would be
provided for CSRS retirees’ pay. For FY2003, the President requested Congress to
authorize expanded funding reserves in the “NOAA Corps Retirement Account.”
These extra reserves, NOAA claims, would be used to cover the growing costs of
NOAA Corps retirees’ benefits. A new accounting and financial management plan for
this fund would also include mandatory health care benefits for retired officers, who
are not old enough to receive Medicare benefits. This fund would also be used to
administer retirement pay for civilian NOAA Corps personnel. In addition, the
President requested nearly $37 million for retired NOAA Corps officer pay.

CRS-31
Marine Operations and Maintenance. ORF funding of $86 million was
requested to operate and maintain NOAA’s current fleet of 16 marine research vessels.
Further, $0.8 million was requested to hire and train 15 additional NOAA Corps
Officers, which pilot NOAA marine vessels and aircraft, to fill vacant positions and
relieve active officers from extra duties and time at sea. That action would increase the
number of active Corps officers to 254. The NOAA Corps also assists in search and
rescue operations at sea, and the Secretary of Commerce can mandate the Corps to
assist in DOD military operations in time of war.
Congress has directed NOAA to continue bidding for marine research ship time
on vessels owned by the University National Oceanographic Laboratory System
(UNOLS) fleet, and to form partnerships with the Office of Naval Research (ONR) and
the National Science Foundation (NSF) to perform NOAA research on their marine
vessels. Congress has also encouraged NOAA to acquire additional marine and
hydrographic data collection services from the private sector. Currently, 50% of
NOAA’s marine data collection activities are outsourced. For FY2003, OMAO
proposed a total of 8,216 operating days at sea, 4,440 of which would be on outsourced
vessels. Total funding requested for Marine Services support for NOAA was $124
million; $67 million of that for in-house operations (O&M), and $57 million for
outsourced services. Further, in-house funding would be divided between fleet O&M
and Fleet Maintenance and Planning. Outsourced funding would be divided between
contracts for private sector and UNOLS-hosted vessel time for research, and other
contracts for hydrographic data collection.

Fleet Planning and Maintenance. A total of $12 million in ORF funding was
requested for NOAA fleet planning and maintenance. Of that amount, $2.5 million
was requested for additional UNOLS research ship time off the West Coast of the
United States. Another $0.6 million was requested for operations of a retired Navy
Vessel (AGATE PASS) that was converted by NOAA for a number of coastal research
needs. Further, $4.1 million was requested to refurbish the NOAA ship
FAIRWEATHER, which would collect hydrographic data needed for updating nautical
charts in navigable waters of Alaska.
Aviation Operations. For NOAA, $16.8 million in ORF funding was requested
to fund NOAA Aircraft Services, which entails operation and maintenance of a fleet
of 13 aircraft. NOAA claims many of those aircraft are essential for 24-hour hurricane
observations and severe winter storm predictions; others are used for research purposes
and collection of atmospheric and environmental data. Further, $8.4 million in PAC
Systems Acquisition funding was requested to upgrade remote-sensing instrumentation
on one of the agency’s hurricane-reconnaissance jet aircraft. NOAA claims this
funding would provide new instrumentation that could generate composite maps that
provide precipitation data associated with tropical storm systems and other information
of importance to National Weather Service forecasters. Forecasters in turn would use
that information to apprize local emergency managers about the severity of storms and
flooding potential, to aid those managers in deciding whether to evacuate citizens.
Fleet Replacement. A total of $54.1 million in PAC funding was requested
for fleet replacement, of which $45.5 million would be obligated to purchase the
second of five new NOAA fisheries research vessels (FRV2) authorized by Congress
in FY2001. FVR2 would soon replace the veteran ship ALBATROSS IV in the North

CRS-32
Atlantic. Another $3.2 million was requested for repair and upgrade of the NOAA ship
WHITING, to extend its life 6-10 years. Terminations of $39.9 million from the PS
PAC account were requested because of completed refurbishment or conversion of
several NOAA ships in FY2002.
Procurement, Acquisitions, and Construction (PAC)
In FY1998, NOAA established an account to fund long-term, capital intensive
expenditures called Procurement, Acquisitions, and Construction (PAC). Examples
of items funded under PAC include acquiring hardware; deploying environmental
satellites; developing and procuring new technologies–e.g., NWS modernized weather
systems; planning and constructing new NOAA facilities; and procuring new or
refurbished aircraft and marine research or fishery research vessels (FRVs). PAC
funding is allotted to all six NOAA line offices.

For FY2003, President Bush requested a total of $811.4 million for PAC, 3% less
than the $836.6 million Congress appropriated for FY2002, and 6% greater than the
$764.9 million requested by the President for FY2002 (see Table 1, p. 7.) The largest
portion of PAC funding would be for Systems Acquisition, which includes funding for
procurement and launch of NESDIS’s satellite hardware, upgrades of “next generation”
weather forecasting and warning technologies; emergency backup systems for NOAA’s
“critical” communications and computational infrastructure; advanced computing
technology for weather and climate forecast modeling; marine research vessels and
atmospheric research aircraft; and construction or major rehabilitation of various
NOAA facilities, including WFOs and NOAA research labs. The President requested
additional spending authority for PAC of $3.2 million for FY2003, to be derived from
FY2002 fleet financing deobligations.

Systems Acquisition. For FY2003, the funding request for systems
acquisition was $699.4 million, distributed among all NOAA line offices. The greatest
proportion of PAC funding, $599.4 million, would be provided to NESDIS to acquire
and launch POES and GOES satellite systems and to phase in the NPOESS program,
for which $237 million of this funding was requested (see discussion, p. 3). Another
$64.9 million was requested for NWS to develop “next generation” weather forecasting
related technologies, and to engineer redundancy and physical backup of NWS systems
to minimize disruption from catastrophic damages to primary telecommunications
systems, losses of computational ability, or destruction of NWS Weather Forecast
Offices. In addition, $10.6 million in PAC funding was requested to enhance
OAR/NOAA Research data archival, management, and modeling activities.

Also, funding was included for developing NESDIS backup contingency plans,
for engineering upgrades at NOAA satellite control facilities, and for developing a
coastal remote sensing operations program. NESDIS proposed to develop an advanced
data management system for NASA EOS data, and funding for processing,
assimilating, and distributing NPOESS data. Another $24.5 million in PAC funding
was requested for Program Support, including $16.1 million for Corporate Service to
implement DOC’s Administrative Management System within NOAA. Finally, $8.2

CRS-33
million was requested for OMAO for newly developed instruments for hurricane
research aircraft.

Construction. Total PAC funding requested for construction was $61.1 million.
Funding requested for major construction projects being planned or started in FY2003
included $20 million for construction of new NERRS and Marine Sanctuary Program
(MSP) Visitors Centers. That amount includes conservation funding authorized for
land acquisition to expand the reach of NERRS, MSPs, and NOAA marine protected
areas. Some $17 million was requested to refurbish the Honolulu and Galveston
fishery laboratory facilities. Another $10.6 million would upgrade heating and air
conditioning systems at some NWS Weather Forecast Offices, and $13.4 million would
be for building improvements at the Fairbanks, AK, satellite Command and Data
Acquisition (CDA), and Suitland, MD, Satellite Command and Control facilities.
Fleet Replacement. Total PAC funding requested for updating the NOAA
marine fleet for FY2003 was $54.1 million, $45.4 million of which would be used to
purchase a new Fisheries Research Vessel. Other funding would be provided to
commission a converted retired Navy vessel for NOAA research use.
NOAA’s Other Accounts and Mandatory Funding
Additional spending authority for various NOAA programs and mandatory
funding is provided from Other Accounts, which include the Pacific Coastal Salmon
Recovery Fund (PCSR); the Coastal Zone Management Fund (CZMF); the Promote
and Develop American Fisheries Products Fund (PDAF); and the Environmental
Improvement and Restoration Fund (EIRF), as well as a number of additional fishery-
related accounts. NOAA also has Mandatory Funding obligations such as paying
retired NOAA Corps officers and, for FY2003, the President requested Congress to
provide federal agencies with funding to manage CSRS retiree benefits.
For FY2003, the President requested $114.1 million for NOAA’s Other Accounts.
This total includes $75 million that would be transferred to ORF from NOAA’s
Promote and Develop American Fisheries Fund (PDAF), after which $4.1 million
would remain in the PDAF for industry grants. Another $3 million would be
transferred to NOS’s ORF account from the Coastal Zone Management Fund to cover
costs of implementing the 1972 Coastal Zone Management Act. The President also
requested a total of $90 million for the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund for
FY2003,8 and $20 million for NOAA obligations under the U.S.-Canada Pacific
8 “Through FY ‘02, $258 million has been appropriated for the [PCSR] fund. It has funded
800 projects ... related to salmon habitat restoration, planning and assessment, research and
monitoring, enhancement, outreach and education,” testimony of Donald Knowles, Director,
NOAA Office of Protected Resources, before the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on
Oceans, Atmosphere and Fisheries, May 14, 2003, on legislation to authorize the Secretary
of Commerce to provide funds to Northwest Pacific states and tribes for salmon habitat
restoration.
According to NOAA, total Pacific salmon funding (including treaty funding) requested
(continued...)

CRS-34
Salmon Treaty. The President also requested $1.1 million for other fishery-related
accounts used to fund different NOAA programs that support the U.S. fishing industry.
Those include U.S. international fishery treaty obligations, industry insurance
financing, and potential liabilities for damages incurred while on non-NOAA marine
vessels, or damages to other non-NOAA property, such as fishing gear.
There are additional sources of spending authority for NOAA which are not
scored as discretionary spending, but are mandatory obligations required by federal
law. Those include the Environmental Improvement and Restoration Fund (EIRF) that
collects user fees from petroleum industries operating offshore to offset the potential
costs of oil and hazardous material releases. Those fees are used to offset costs of
response, damage assessment, and restoration of marine natural resources and habitats.
For FY2003, budget authority of $11.1 million would be provided from the EIRF and
transferred to ORF for damage assessment activities conducted by NOS and NMFS.
Other mandatory obligations include the Coastal Zone Management Fund (CZMF)
offsetting collections, a portion of which is transferred to NOS; the USDA to NOAA
PDAF transfer; the NOAA Corps Officers Retirement Fund, transferred to the U.S.
Coast Guard; and a proposal to fund NOAA CSRS retirement pay. For FY2003, total
mandatory spending requested for NOAA was $123.9 million.
Congressional Appropriations for FY2003
The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, State, Justice, the
Judiciary, and Related Agencies held hearings on the President’s FY2003 budget
request for NOAA on March 14, 2002.9 Constitutionally, all appropriations legislation
is introduced by the House of Representatives; however, as of this date, no House
appropriations bill for CJS appropriations has been filed.
The U.S. Government is currently operating under a 5th continuing resolution until
January 11, 2003 (H.J.Res. 124). Some congressional officials have indicated the
House Appropriations Committee may take up CJS Appropriations for FY2003, when
the 108th Congress convenes. That not withstanding, on July 24, 2002, the Senate
Committee on Appropriations reported S. 2778, its version of CJS Appropriations for
FY2003 (S.Rept. 107-218). (See Table 1, p. 7.) The committee’s recommendations
include a total of $3.35 billion for NOAA, which is $216.7 million, or about 4.4%,
more than the President’s request of $3.21 billion for FY2002, and almost 7.0% more
than the FY2002 funding level of $3.13 billion. FY2003 ORF funding levels approved
8 (...continued)
for FY2003 is $195.9 million, 18.1% less than FY2002 appropriations of $231.3 million.
The FY2003 amount includes $78.4 million in base funding for NMFS.
9 Department of Commerce, Justice, and State, the Judiciary and Related Agencies
Appropriations for FY2003: Hearings before a Subcommittee of the Committee on
Appropriations. House of representatives. 107th Cong., 2nd Session. Subcommittee on the
department of Commerce, Justice, and State, the Judiciary, and Related Agencies. Part 5,
National oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Washington, D.C., GPO: 2002. pp. 247-
352.

CRS-35
by the Committee would be $2.337 billion, including $78.2 million in transfers from
Other Accounts. ORF funding would be divided as follows:
! $403.5 million for NOS;
! $587.9 million for NMFS;
! $395.7 million for OAR;
! $682.0 million for NWS;
! $133.8 million for National Environmental Satellite Data and
Information Service; and
! $202.9 million for Program Support, including $89.5 million for
Corporate Services, $95.9 million for the Office of Marine Aviation
Operations, and $17.5 million for Facilities.
Total appropriations recommended for PAC for FY2003 would be $903.4 million,
and divided as follows:
! $102.4 million for NOS;
! $24.0 million for NMFS;
! $17.1 million for OAR;
! $66.8 million for NWS;
! $608.6 million for NESDIS; and
! $84.5 million for Program Support.

The Committee approved a total of $110.1 million for NOAA’s Other Accounts
including: 1) $95 million for the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund ($5.0 million
more than the President’s FY2003 request); 2) $20 million for Pacific Salmon Treaty
obligations; 3) $1.4 million for various fishery accounts; 4) a transfer of $3.0 million
to ORF from CZMF; and 5) a $3.0 million cut for fisheries financing.
The reported version of S. 2778 requires the National Sea Grant College Program
to remain in NOAA, funded at $63.4 million for FY2003. Conservation spending
approved for FY2003 would be $480 million, with $264.5 million of that intended for
ORF; $100.5 million for PAC, and $115 million for Pacific coastal salmon funding.
In addition, the bill would provide $20.0 million for exploration of the world’s oceans,
$6.0 million more than FY2002 levels; create a new initiative, Ocean Health, funded
at $10 million; provide $1 million to establish a NEPA office in NMFS, and encourage
NOAA to improve its fisheries management capabilities; provide $4.0 million for
NOAA responsibilities under the National Invasive Species Act; and to encourage
NOAA to develop plans for a national system of ocean observation platforms,
including a relocatable underwater laboratory/habitat to be deployed in the Florida
Keys. The Committee further approved $2.0 million for Arctic Research; would
provide $14 million for minority colleges and universities to train future scientists;
provide $3.5 million for fisheries and shellfish restoration in the Chesapeake Bay; and
establish a Business Management Fund in NOAA.

The Committee did not approve $18 million requested for NOAA’s part in the
President’s Climate Change Research Initiative (CCRI), but instead it noted its support
for climate research activities being conducted under the U.S. Global Change Research
Program. The report did not address the proposed NOAA”Energy Initiative,” but
would provide a $23.2 million increase for homeland security programs, including

CRS-36
NWS weather and climate supercomputing backup, and for other programs in NESDIS
recommended under the President’s Critical Infrastructure Protection Initiative.
Further, the report addresses the President’s proposal to transfer financial
responsibilities for CSRS and retiree health benefits for all civilian employees to
federal agencies. The Senate Appropriations Committee noted that because the Senate
Government Affairs Committee, which has authorizing jurisdiction over such matters,
had not considered the proposal, funding tables in S.Rept. 107-218, exclude amounts
proposed for those benefits. S. 2778 is under consideration of the full Senate.
P.L. 107-206–FY2002 Supplemental Appropriations
This law provides emergency supplemental appropriations for homeland security
activities in NOAA and in other agencies. The President signed H.R. 4775 into law on
August 2, 2002. The origins of this funding for NOAA were in S. 2551. However, no
funding for NOAA had initially been included in the original House version of
H.R.4775. On June 3, 2002, S. 2551 was incorporated into H.R. 4775 as an amendment
in the nature of a substitute bill. On July 19, 2002, conferees reported out H.R. 4775,
the Homeland Security Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for FY2002
(H.Rept. 107-593).

Appropriations for NOAA under this Act totaled $33.5 million, including $4.8
million in ORF funding for homeland security expenses incurred by the agency in
FY2002. Of the funding provided for ORF, $2.0 million was targeted for the National
Ocean Service to address critical mapping and charting backlog requirements, and $2.8
million was targeted for the National Environmental Satellite Data and Information
Service to develop a backup capability for NESDIS, so it could continue to provide
critical satellite products and services of importance to the National Weather Service.
Other funding of $2.5 million was provided to NOAA for a coral reef mapping
program, and $25.1 million would be slated for various fishery programs in New
England. In addition, the National Weather Service received $7.2 million for a
supercomputer backup, for weather-climate interaction research to be funded under
NOAA’s Procurement, Acquisition, and Construction account. The original S. 2551
had proposed an $8.1 million rescission from funding provided for NPOESS in
FY2002. Instead, when H.R. 4775 (amended) was enacted, the $8.1 million was
rescinded from funding authorized under §817 of P.L. 106-78, the Norton Sound
Fisheries Agriculture Transfer.
NOAA Authorization
NOAA does not have a single “organic act” that statutorily mandates funding for
the agency as a whole be authorized on a regular basis. The National Weather Service,
a line office of NOAA, does have an Organic Act (15 U.S.C. § 313) which dates back
to the early 1800s. The closest thing to an agency-wide authorization for NOAA
occurred in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Authorization Act

CRS-37
of 1992 (15 U.S.C. 313 note),10 where funding for all of the agency’s “dry” programs
were reauthorized through FY1995. Title VI also included the specifics for
implementing a “NWS Weather Modernization Initiative,” and §108 created the U.S.
Weather Research Program (USWRP).

While the President’s annual request for NOAA funding is considered by both the
House and Senate CJS Appropriations subcommittees, budget authority for various
NOAA programs falls under the jurisdiction of the House Science and Resources
Committees, and the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
Historically, NOAA’s “wet” and “dry” programs have been authorized under separate
legislation.
In the House, funding for most of NOAA’s dry programs are authorized by the
Science Committee, whose jurisdiction includes NWS, NESDIS, and most atmospheric
oceanic research programs under OAR. Jurisdiction over “wet” programs is divided
between the House Committees on Science and Resources, which report separately on
NOAA appropriations bills that fund ocean and coastal conservation programs,
hydrographic (marine mapping and charting) data , marine science and fisheries.

This split jurisdiction has occasionally led to confusion and debate about which
committee has legal authority over the budgets of what NOAA programs. In general,
the House Resources Committee has claimed jurisdiction over: 1) most commercial
fishery and marine resources-related programs, marine species conservation and
protection (NMFS); 2) marine navigation-related programs, including hydrographic
surveys, hydrographic data collection, and nautical charting (NOS); and 3) the Coastal
Zone Management Act (NOS). The House Science Committee has claimed jurisdiction
over Ocean, Coastal, and Great Lakes Research (OAR). The two committees have
shared jurisdiction over the National Sea Grant College Program. The Commerce,
Science, and Transportation Committee of the Senate has jurisdiction over legislation
authorizing both NOAA “wet” and “dry” programs; however, legislation is considered
by different subcommittees along the same lines as the House.
As a consequence of not having a single organic act governing the entire agency,
several different public laws authorize funding for NOAA programs, and they may be
reauthorized in different years. Table 8, below, lists those public laws whose
authorizations and appropriations for NOAA programs are due to expire at the end of
FY2002, or have already expired.
However, the original law which created the program does not itself expire; the
most current act which authorizes funding for the program does. Congress may
authorize funding annually for any government program in an appropriations bill. This
commonly occurs after a particular reauthorizing act has expired and until a new one
is passed.
Legislation that would reauthorize specific NOAA programs was enacted in the
107th Congress and is summarized briefly below. Additional details on these bills,
including authorized funding levels, if any, may be found on Congress’s Legislative
Information System (LIS) website: [http://www.congress.gov/].
10 Title VI, of P.L. 102-567, The NASA Authorization Act of 1992.

CRS-38
Table 8. NOAA Budget Authority Expired, or Expiring as of 9/30/2002.
Appropriations and FY’03 Request ($ millions)
FY2002 FY2003
Enacted Request
NMFS – Endangered Species Act, P.L. 100-478 (expired 9/92)
101.5 110.8
Marine Mammal Protection Act, P.L. 103-238 (expired 9/99)
31.7 30.8
Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Conservation and Mgmt. Act, P.L. 104-297 (expired 9/99)
251.6 277.4
NOAA Marine Fisheries Program Authorization Act

188.2 163.3
Interjurisdictional Fisheries Act
3.2 3.2
Anadromous Fishery Conservation and Management Act

3.1 2.4
CJS Appropriations FY2002, P.L. 107-77*
37.2 17.0
CSRS FY2003 Legislative Proposal**
– 15.5
NOS – Coastal Zone Management Act, P.L. 104-150
139.2 120.7
Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control Act of 1988, P.L.105-383
14.1 14.1
Hydrographic Services Improvement Act, P.L. 105-384
120.2 119.1
CJS Appropriations FY2002, P.L. 107-77*
79.1 2.5
CSRS
– 6.8
OAR – CJS Appropriations FY2002, P.L. 107-77*
53.2 32.4
CSRS
6.1
NWS – CJS Appropriations FY2002, P.L. 107-77*
70.7 75.6
CSRS
– 28.4
NESDIS – CSRS
– 6.2
PS/Corporate Services – CJS Appropriations FY2002, P.L. 107-77*
89.0 95.9
CSRS
0.1
Office of Marine and Aviation Operations
14.7 25.2
CSRS
9.0
Facilities – CJS Appropriations FY2002, P.L. 107-77*
13.1 14.1
CSRS
– 0.5
_______ _______
Grand Totals
$1,209.8 $1,177.1
Source: Table prepared by CRS with data from FY2003 NOAA Budget in Brief.
Table notes:
* FY2002 Commerce, Justice, State, and the Judiciary and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, congressional add-ons.
**Civil Service Retirement System – FY2003 legislative proposal to transfer obligations to federal agencies.

CRS-39
P.L. 107-299 (H.R. 3389), the National Sea Grant College Program Act
Amendments of 2002. This legislation, as passed by the House, would retain the
National Sea Grant College Program within NOAA, rather than transferring it to NSF as
the President had proposed. The bill sets total authorization levels of $400 million for
that program for FY2003-FY2008. It contains congressional direction about encouraging
cooperative work among Sea Grant, NOS’s Coastal Oceans Program (COP), and NSF.
In addition, it authorizes funding for COP for FY2003, and directs that a portion of Sea
Grant funding be awarded on a merit and competitive basis, for which total funding of
$75 million would be authorized for FY2004-FY2008. Another $130 million would be
authorized for “Coastal Ocean Research.” In addition, the bill calls for a report on the
progress of colleges/organizations applying for Sea Grant College Status.
H.R. 3389 was introduced on November 30, 1991, and was referred to the House
Committees on Resources and Science. The bill was reported (amended) by the House
Committee on Resources on March 7, 2002 (H.Rept. 107-369, part I), and was reported
(amended) by the House Committee on Science on April 15, 2002 (H.Rept. 107-369, part
II). The bill passed the House 407-2 on June 19, 2002 and was then sent to the Senate
where it was read twice and placed on Senate Legislative Calendar No. 463. H.R. 3389
passed the Senate on October 11, 2002 (amended) by unanimous consent. The House
agreed to the Senate amendment by voice vote on October 12, 2002, and the Act was
cleared for the White House. The president signed the Act into law on October 26, 2002
as P.L. 107-299.
P.L. 107-253 (H.R. 2486), the Inland Flood Forecasting and Warming System Act
of 2002, authorizes appropriations for the Secretary of Commerce through the U.S.
Weather Research Program (USWRP), established by §108 of the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration Authorization Act of 1992 (15 U.S.C. 313 note), for
[flooding] research and modeling, and to develop, test, and deploy a new flood warning
index. Total funding of $6.05 million would be authorized for FY2003 through FY2005,
of which $4.5 million would be provided to develop “forecasting and warning systems
for inland flooding related to tropical cyclones,” and an inland flood warning index to
characterize risks and dangers of potential flooding. In addition, $1.55 million would be
provided for competitive grants to universities to aid in this effort. This bill also requires
interagency planning and coordination of flooding research with the NSF, NASA, and
other appropriate federal agencies. A Jackson-Lee amendment (H.Amdt. 526) agreed to
July 11, 2002, provides $100,000 of total funding, “to assess through research and
analysis long-term trends in frequency and severity of inland flooding; and how shifts in
climate, development, and erosion patterns might make certain regions vulnerable to
more continual damage in the future.”
H.R. 2486 was referred to the House Committee on Science on July 12, 2001, and
subsequently to the Subcommittee on Environment, Technology and Standards. On
December 12, 2002, the subcommittee held a mark up session and forwarded the bill to
the full Committee (amended) by voice vote. The House Committee on Science reported
H.R. 2486 (amended) on June 5, 2002 (H.Rept. 107-495). On July 11, 2002, the title of
the measure was amended, and the bill (amended) passed the House 413-3. It was then
sent to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. On September
19, 2002 the committee ordered the measure reported favorably without amendment,
with written report (S.Rept.107-310). On October 16, H.R. 2486 passed the Senate by

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Unanimous Consent, and the measure was sent to the President. The President enacted
H.R. 2486 as P.L. 107-253 on October 29, 2002.

H.R. 4883 (Young), the Hydrographic Services Improvement Act Amendments of
2002, including provisions of H.R. 4882, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration Commissioned Officer Corps Act of 2002. Title I of this bill would
reauthorize the Hydrographic Services Improvement Act of 1998 (33 U.S.C. 892),
authorizing $885.5 million in total funding for FY2003- FY2007, including $50 million
for homeland security-related projects. The bill would amend the original act to direct
the Administrator of NOAA to “design, maintain, and operate real-time hydrographic
monitoring to enhance navigation safety and efficiency.” In addition, H.R. 4883 calls for
a NOAA plan for contracting with the private sector for additional services including
photogrammetry (aerial photography), remote sensing, geospatial reference services for
marine navigation, and hydrographic surveys. Further, the bill would call for a cost
effectiveness study comparing NOAA National Ocean Service hydrographic data
collection and other hydrographic services with those of the private sector.
Title II of H.R. 4883 (originally H.R. 4882, a stand alone bill, later incorporated into
H.R. 4883), would revise and modernize provisions of law governing NOAA’s
commissioned officer corps (NOAA Corps), and authorize the number and position of
active Corps officers from FY2003-FY2008. Title II addresses personnel matters of the
NOAA Corps including: 1) appointment and appropriation of officers, 2) separation and
retirement of officers (computation of retired pay), 3) transfer of officers to active
military duty in time of war or national emergency, 4) rights and benefits of NOAA
Corps officers (veterans benefits and medical and dental care), and 5) repeal or
amendment of previous laws affecting the NOAA Corps. If enacted, Title II would
supercede the Coastal and Geodetic Survey Commissioned Officer Corps Act of 1948
(33 U.S.C. 853a et seq). No funding for the NOAA Corps is authorized under this title.
H.R. 4883 was introduced on June 6, 2002, and was referred to the House
Committee on Resources, and was then referred to the Subcommittee on Fisheries
Conservation, Wildlife and Oceans, which held a mark up session on June 20, 2002. The
bill was forwarded to the full Committee by unanimous consent with provisions of H.R.
4882 incorporated into H.R. 4883 as Title II of that bill. The full Committee held a mark
up session on H.R. 4883 on June 26, 2002, and reported the bill (amended) on July 26,
2002 (H.Rept. 107-621). On November 15, 2002, the measure was considered, and
passed the House without objection. On November 20, 2002, the measure passed the
Senate without amendment by unanimous consent; and was cleared for the White House.
No further action has been reported to date.
NOAA Research and Development (R&D) Funding
Historically, the annual request for R&D funding for NOAA has not appeared as a
line item in either the President’s annual budget submission, NOAA budget justification
documents, or congressional appropriations documents in any given fiscal year. In the
FY2003 Budget in Brief, however, NOAA included a table of total R&D funding
requested for each of its ORF line offices. Alternatively, an “R&D crosscut analysis” has
been prepared annually as an internal document by NOAA’s Office of Financial

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Administration (OFA), and submitted to OMB prior to the President’s annual budget
release. That first R&D crosscut, referred to as “the Congressionals,” is submitted to
OMB when final congressional appropriations for the current fiscal year are known,
usually by December. Request figures for the upcoming fiscal year are preliminary,
however. Those will be updated after federal agencies receive budget “passbacks” from
OMB, and final request amounts for NOAA are decided upon. For more information on
federal R&D funding requested for FY2003, see CRS Issue Brief IB10083, Research and
Development Funding: Fiscal Year 2003.
For FY2003, President Bush requested $574.8 million for NOAA R&D11 (See
Table 9, below). This is 18% of the $3.21 billion in total appropriations requested for
the agency. The request was 27.4% less than FY2002 R&D appropriations of $792
million, and 15.9% less than FY2001 appropriations of $684 million.
Table 9. NOAA R&D Funding Requested for FY2003
($Millions)
FY’01
FY’02
FY’02
FY’03
Actual
Request
Approp.
Request
NOS
56
64
61
55
NMFS
254
298
302
122
OAR
257
269
314
284
NWS
20
23
28
28
NESDIS
9
13
12
11
PS
8
9
66
66
OMAO (FM&P)
6
8
9
9
Total R&D*
$610
$684
$792
$575
Source: NOAA Office of Financial Administration (OFA), January 11, 2002.
Table note:
*After FY2000, R&D facilities funding is indistinguishable from other facilities funding and is
included as part of the annual ORF and PAC totals for the agency.
Of NOAA’s R&D funding requested for FY2003, 37% would go to Oceanic and
Atmospheric Research (OAR), which conducts research at 12 environmental research
labs (ERLs), other NOAA R&D facilities, and joint institutes that support NOAA
operational programs in weather, climate, atmosphere, and oceanic, coastal and Great
Lakes research. OAR also extends extramural grants for states, institutions, and
individuals through the National Sea Grant College, the National Underwater Research
(NURP), and the nascent Ocean Exploration program. NMFS would receive almost 40%
of total R&D funding for fishery and endangered marine species research. OAR and
11 NOAA-OFA estimated totals for R&D requested for FY2003 were provided 12/31/2001.

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NMFS together would receive 77% of all NOAA R&D funding requested for FY2003,
and extramural grants would account for 15% of that.
A reduction for R&D in the FY2003 request can primarily be attributed to three
major factors: 1) The President proposed to transfer the Sea Grant Program to NSF,
which would decrease R&D funds for Ocean, Coastal, and Great Lakes programs (OAR)
by $34 million; 2) OFA required an actual accounting of R&D requested for NMFS; in
prior years that request was estimated by use of a formula; and 3) a new accounting
method for R&D expenditures, included in the FY2003 request, changes former practices
as follows:
! Operations and maintenance at R&D facilities is funded by the ORF
Facilities account;
! Planning and constructing new facilities at which R&D may be
conducted is funded by the PAC Construction account;
! Procurement of major equipment and instrumentation that may be used
in R&D programs is funded under PAC Systems Acquisitions;
! Instrumentation and equipment used by individuals performing R&D
is funded by individual ORF research programs; and
! New aircraft and marine vessels used for NOAA research are procured
with PAC funding under OMAO (Program Support).
The rationale behind these accounting changes stems from the NOAA budget
office’s determination that NOAA facilities, equipment, and vessels are used for more
than R&D programs alone, support other NOAA-wide research missions, and are only
incidental to the conduct of R&D at the agency. Consequently, for FY2003, NOAA’s
Office of Financial Administration (OFA) decided it would no longer score those
functions as R&D expenditures, as it may have done in previous years. One exception,
however, was marine data acquisition, which is funded under OMAO Marine Services
(ORF), and whose funding is included in the R&D request total.
Highlights of the FY2003 R&D request included funding of $21 million proposed
for NMFS fishery resource information, collection, and analysis; and slight increases for
research grants to states for endangered species conservation and management programs
(NMFS). Other R&D funding increases were requested for Climate and Observation
Services (OAR); operations and research for Central Forecast Guidance (NWS); the U.S.
Weather Research Program (OAR); the Ocean Exploration Initiative (OAR); and Aircraft
Services (Program Support). A decrease in PAC funding for R&D on Satellite
Observation Systems was proposed; however, the amount in question would be
reprogrammed to ORF (NESDIS). Because no House CJS Appropriations bill for
FY2003 has been introduced to date, and the U.S. Government is operating under a
continuing resolution until January 11, 2003, it would be difficult for NOAA to assess
how it would allocate funding for R&D for FY2003. Another factor is P.L. 107-299
which restores the National Sea Grant Program under the NOAA Research budget line
(see Authorizations, p. 39). The President did not request funding for this program
which constitutes a significant portion of NOAA Coastal, Ocean and Great Lakes
research, for FY2003. Operating at FY2002 funding levels, the agency technically would
have additional spending authority of $217 million, or 27.4%, for R&D, than that which
was proposed by the President for FY2003.

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Appendix: Acronyms
AHPS
Advanced Hydrological Prediction Service (NWS)12
ASOS
Automated Surface Observing System (NWS)
AOML
Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Lab (OAR)
AWIPS
Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (NWS)
CAMS
Commerce Administrative Management System (DOC)
CCRI
Climate Change Research Initiative (White House)
CDA
[Satellite] Command and Data Acquisition Facility (NESDIS)
CFG
Central Forecast Guidance (NWS)
CIP
Critical Infrastructure Protection/Homeland Security Initiative (DOC)
CJS
Commerce, Justice, State, the Judiciary, and Related Agencies
Appropriations Act
CLASS
Comprehensive Large-Array [data] Stewardship System (OAR)
COP
Coastal Ocean Programs (NOS)
COS
Coastal Ocean Science (NOS)
CSRS
Civil Service Retirement System (White House–OPM)
CS
Corporate Services (Program Support for NOAA Headquarters)
CZMA
Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972
CZMF
Coastal Zone Management Fund–established by CZMA
DMSP
Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DOD/NWS)
DOC
Department of Commerce
DOD
Department of Defense
DOE
Department of Energy
DOT
Department of Transportation
EEZ
U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone (DOC)
EIRF
Environmental Improvement and Restoration Fund (NOS/NMFS)
EMC
Environmental Modeling Center (NWS)
ENSO
El Niño-Southern Oscillation
EOS
Earth Observing System (NASA)
EPPMSI
Educational Partnership Program with Minority Serving Institutions
ERL
Environmental Research Lab system (OAR)
ESOS
Environmental Satellite Observing Systems (NESDIS)
EUMETSAT European Space Agency Meteorological Satellite
FAC
NOAA Facilities Account (Program Support)
FRV
Fishery Research Vessel (NMFS)
FSL
Forecast Systems Lab for Numerical Meteorological Modeling (NWS)
GFDL
Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Lab for Climate Modeling (OAR)
GLERL
Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab (OAR)
GOES
Geostationary Orbiting Environmental Satellite (NESDIS)
12 The acronyms in parentheses at the end of some entries indicate either NOAA line office
or other executive agency.

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GPRA
Government Performance and Results Act of 1993
GSA
General Services Administration
HPCC
High Performance Climate Computing Initiative (OAR)
MPA
Marine Protected Area (NOS)
MSP
Marine Sanctuaries Program (NOS)
NASA
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
NCDC
National Climatic Data Center (NESDIS)
NCEP
National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NWS)
NCO
NCEP Central Operations (NWS)
NDC
National Data Centers (NESDIS)
NEPA
National Environmental Policy Act of 1970
NERRS
National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NOS)
NESDIS
National Environmental Satellite Data and Information Service
NEXRAD
Next Generation Doppler Weather Radar (NWS)
NGDC
National Geophysical Data Center (NESDIS)
NMFS
National Marine Fisheries Service
NMS
National Marine Sanctuaries Program (NOS)
NOAA
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
NOAA Corps NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps (OMAO)
NODC
National Ocean Data Center (NESDIS)
NOS
National Ocean Service
NPOESS
National Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellite System (NESDIS)
NSF
National Science Foundation
NSRS
National Spatial Reference System (NOS)
NSSL
National Severe Storms Lab (OAR)
NSTC
National Science and Technology Council (White House–OSTP)
NURP
National Underwater Research Program (OAR)
NWR
NOAA Weather Radio (NWS)
NWS
National Weather Service
O&M
Operations and Management (NOAA-wide)
OAP
Oceans Assessment Program (NOS)
OAR
Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, also called “NOAA Research”
OCGLRP
Ocean, Coastal, and Great Lakes Research Program (OAR)
OGP
Office of Global Programs (OAR)
OMAO
Office of Marine and Aviation Operations (Program Support)
ONR
Office of Naval Research (U.S. Navy)
OPM
Office of Personnel Management (White House)
ORCA
Ocean Resources Conservation Assessment (NOS)
ORF
NOAA Operations, Research and Facilities Budget Account
OTHER
NOAA programs not directly funded under ORF or PAC
PAC
NOAA Procurement, Acquisition, and Construction Budget Account
PCSRF
Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund (Other Accounts)
PDAF
Promote and Develop American Fisheries /Saltonstall-Kennedy Funds
POES
Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellite (NESDIS)
PPD
[Satellite] Product Processing and Distribution (NESDIS)

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PS
NOAA Program Support
R&D
Research and Development
RFC
River [stage] Forecast Center (NWS)
SCC
Satellite Command and Control facility (NESDIS)
SEC
Space Environment Center (OAR)
SOS
Satellite Observing Systems (NESDIS)
UNOLS
University National Oceanographic Laboratory System (NSF/NRL)
USDA
U.S. Department of Agriculture (See PDAF)
USGCRP
U.S. Global Change Research Program (NSTC)
USWRP
U.S. Weather Research Program (OAR)
VMS
Vessel Management System (NMFS)
WFO
Weather Forecast Office (NWS)