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S. 258119th CongressScience, Technology, Communications
TORNADO Act
Sponsored by Sen. Roger F. Wicker (R-MS) · 9 active : 7 Republicans, 2 Democrats
Latest action: Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 88.
Where it standsBefore the Senate6 senators score as swing votes
Hasn’t passed either chamber
- Senate: next
- House: not yet
- President: not yet
Summary
, via Congress.govTornado Observations Research and Notification Assessment for Development of Operations Act or the TORNADO Act
This bill requires the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to evaluate and improve its communications about hurricanes, tornadoes, winter storms, and other hazardous weather events.
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Specifically, NOAA must establish a Risk Communication Office to evaluate the effectiveness of NOAA's communications and to identify ways to provide simpler and clearer information to the public about hazardous weather events. NOAA must also (1) establish a research program to modernize its communication systems, and (2) establish a pilot program to implement the research with respect to communications about tornadoes.
Additionally, the bill requires NOAA to develop a strategic plan for implementing the Warn-on-Forecast System, which aims to provide more advanced warnings of thunderstorm-related events (e.g., tornadoes). The bill also requires NOAA to evaluate its tornado rating system and to conduct post-storm assessments of significant events.
The bill also provides statutory authority for NOAA's Verification of the Origins of Rotation in Tornadoes Experiment (known as VORTEX-USA), a collaborative project between meteorologists and social scientists to study the conditions that contribute to dangerous tornadoes in the Southeast and the best ways to communicate these events to the public.
Finally, the Government Accountability Office must report on the National Weather Service's communication technology, particularly with respect to timely notices of hazardous weather events.
Committees and subjects
Committees
- Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation · SenateReported by · Markup by · Referred to
Subjects
- Atmospheric science and weather
- Congressional oversight
- Earth sciences
- Emergency communications systems
- Emergency planning and evacuation
- Floods and storm protection
- Government information and archives
- Government studies and investigations
- Natural disasters
- Performance measurement
- Research and development
How the Senate breaks down
- 6Swing 70–100
- 57Middle 30–70
- 37Entrenched 0–30
Members fall into . All 100 senators have enough data to score.
Key players in the Senate
Ranked by swing score, 0–100 · swing-v2Bars show each input from 0 to 100: ideology gap, scorecard gap, . is the seat’s partisan lean, and shows how much of the input data a score has.
Similar past votes, Senate
Earlier behind swing-v3’s inputLoading similar votes
Cosponsors
9 activeShow all 9 cosponsors
- Chuck Grassley (R-IA)
- Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS)
- Gary C. Peters (D-MI)
- Jerry Moran (R-KS)
- Raphael G. Warnock (D-GA)
- Ted Cruz (R-TX)
- Tim Sheehy (R-MT)
- Todd Young (R-IN)
- Marsha Blackburn (R-TN)
How the swing score works
Ideology gapHow far a member’s DW-NOMINATE voting score sits from their party’s median in the same chamber.
Scorecard gapHow far their Heritage Action and LCV ratings stray from their party’s average, using the groups’ votes on similar bills where available.
Cross-pressureHow strongly their district or state leans toward the other party, from our own computed partisan lean.
Similar votesHow often they voted against their own party on earlier roll calls about this bill or similar ones.
Committee bonusMembers of the committees handling the bill decide whether it moves, so they get a boost.
Cosponsor checkThe sponsor and active cosponsors have already committed, so they drop toward entrenched.
