116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION S. 2597 AN ACT To require the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminis- tration to make certain operational models available to the public, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 2 † S 2597 ES SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Learning Excellence 2 and Good Examples from New Developers Act of 2020’’ 3 or the ‘‘LEGEND Act of 2020’’. 4 SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 5 In this Act: 6 (1) ADMINISTRATION.—The term ‘‘Administra- 7 tion’’ means the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 8 Administration. 9 (2) ADMINISTRATOR.—The term ‘‘Adminis- 10 trator’’ means the Under Secretary of Commerce for 11 Oceans and Atmosphere and Administrator of the 12 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 13 (3) EARTH PREDICTION INNOVATION CEN- 14 TER.—The term ‘‘Earth Prediction Innovation Cen- 15 ter’’ means the community global weather research 16 modeling system described in paragraph (5)(E) of 17 section 102(b) of the Weather Research Forecasting 18 and Innovation Act of 2017 (15 U.S.C. 8512(b)), as 19 redesignated by section 4(g). 20 (4) MODEL.—The term ‘‘model’’ means any 21 vetted numerical model and associated data assimila- 22 tion of the Earth’s system or its components— 23 (A) developed, in whole or in part, by sci- 24 entists and engineers employed by the Adminis- 25 tration; or 26 3 † S 2597 ES (B) otherwise developed using Federal 1 funds. 2 (5) OPERATIONAL MODEL.—The term ‘‘oper- 3 ational model’’ means any model that has an output 4 used by the Administration for operational func- 5 tions. 6 (6) SUITABLE MODEL.—The term ‘‘suitable 7 model’’ means a model that meets the requirements 8 described in paragraph (5)(E)(ii) of section 102(b) 9 of the Weather Research Forecasting and Innovation 10 Act of 2017 (15 U.S.C. 8512(b)), as redesignated by 11 section 4(g), as determined by the Administrator. 12 SEC. 3. PURPOSES. 13 The purposes of this Act are— 14 (1) to support innovation in modeling by allow- 15 ing interested stakeholders to have easy and com- 16 plete access to the models used by the Administra- 17 tion, as the Administrator determines appropriate; 18 and 19 (2) to use vetted innovations arising from ac- 20 cess described in paragraph (1) to improve modeling 21 by the Administration. 22 4 † S 2597 ES SEC. 4. PLAN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF PLAN TO MAKE 1 CERTAIN MODELS AND DATA AVAILABLE TO 2 THE PUBLIC. 3 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Administrator shall develop 4 and implement a plan to make available to the public the 5 following: 6 (1) Operational models developed by the Ad- 7 ministration. 8 (2) Models that are not operational models, in- 9 cluding experimental and developmental models, as 10 the Administrator determines appropriate. 11 (3) Applicable information and documentation 12 for models described in paragraphs (1) and (2). 13 (4) Subject to section 7, all data owned by the 14 Federal Government and data that the Adminis- 15 trator has the legal right to redistribute that are as- 16 sociated with models made available to the public 17 pursuant to the plan and used in operational fore- 18 casting by the Administration, including— 19 (A) relevant metadata; 20 (B) data used for operational models used 21 by the Administration as of the date of the en- 22 actment of this Act; and 23 (C) a description of intended model out- 24 puts. 25 5 † S 2597 ES (b) ACCOMMODATIONS.—In developing and imple- 1 menting the plan under subsection (a), the Administrator 2 may make such accommodations as the Administrator 3 considers appropriate to ensure that the public release of 4 any model, information, documentation, or data pursuant 5 to the plan does not jeopardize— 6 (1) national security; 7 (2) intellectual property or redistribution rights, 8 including under titles 17 and 35, United States 9 Code; 10 (3) any trade secret or commercial or financial 11 information subject to section 552(b)(4) of title 5, 12 United States Code; 13 (4) any models or data that are otherwise re- 14 stricted by contract or other written agreement; or 15 (5) the mission of the Administration to protect 16 lives and property. 17 (c) PRIORITY.—In developing and implementing the 18 plan under subsection (a), the Administrator shall 19 prioritize making available to the public the models de- 20 scribed in subsection (a)(1). 21 (d) EXCLUSION OF CERTAIN MODELS.—In devel- 22 oping and implementing the plan under subsection (a), the 23 Administrator may exclude models that the Administrator 24 6 † S 2597 ES determines will be retired or superseded in fewer than 5 1 years after the date of the enactment of this Act. 2 (e) PLATFORMS.—In carrying out subsections (a) 3 and (b), the Administrator may use government servers, 4 contracts or agreements with a private vendor, or any 5 other platform consistent with the purpose of this Act. 6 (f) SUPPORT PROGRAM.—The Administrator shall 7 plan for and establish a program to support infrastruc- 8 ture, including telecommunications and technology infra- 9 structure of the Administration and the platforms de- 10 scribed in subsection (e), relevant to making operational 11 models and data available to the public pursuant to the 12 plan under subsection (a). 13 (g) TECHNICAL CORRECTION.—Section 102(b) of the 14 Weather Research Forecasting and Innovation Act of 15 2017 (15 U.S.C. 8512(b)) is amended by redesignating 16 the second paragraph (4) (as added by section 4(a) of the 17 National Integrated Drought Information System Reau- 18 thorization Act of 2018 (Public Law 115–423; 132 Stat. 19 5456)) as paragraph (5). 20 SEC. 5. REQUIREMENT TO REVIEW MODELS AND LEVER- 21 AGE INNOVATIONS. 22 The Administrator shall— 23 (1) consistent with the mission of the Earth 24 Prediction Innovation Center, periodically review in- 25 7 † S 2597 ES novations and improvements made by persons out- 1 side the Administration to the operational models 2 made available to the public pursuant to the plan 3 under section 4(a) in order to improve the accuracy 4 and timeliness of forecasts of the Administration; 5 and 6 (2) if the Administrator identifies an innovation 7 for a suitable model, develop and implement a plan 8 to use the innovation to improve the model. 9 SEC. 6. REPORT ON IMPLEMENTATION. 10 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 2 years after the 11 date of the enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall 12 submit to the appropriate congressional committees a re- 13 port on the implementation of this Act that includes a de- 14 scription of— 15 (1) the implementation of the plan required by 16 section 4; 17 (2) the process of the Administration under sec- 18 tion 5— 19 (A) for engaging with interested stake- 20 holders to learn what innovations those stake- 21 holders have found; 22 (B) for reviewing those innovations; and 23 (C) for operationalizing innovations to im- 24 prove suitable models. 25 8 † S 2597 ES (b) APPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEES 1 DEFINED.—In this section, the term ‘‘appropriate con- 2 gressional committees’’ means— 3 (1) the Committee on Commerce, Science, and 4 Transportation and the Committee on Appropria- 5 tions of the Senate; and 6 (2) the Committee on Science, Space, and 7 Technology and the Committee on Appropriations of 8 the House of Representatives. 9 SEC. 7. PROTECTION OF NATIONAL SECURITY INTERESTS. 10 (a) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other provi- 11 sion of this Act, the Administrator, in consultation with 12 the Secretary of Defense, as appropriate, may withhold 13 any model or data if the Administrator determines doing 14 so to be necessary to protect the national security interests 15 of the United States. 16 (b) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this Act 17 shall be construed to supersede any other provision of law 18 governing the protection of the national security interests 19 of the United States. 20 Passed the Senate December 14, 2020. Attest: Secretary. 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION S. 2597 AN ACT To require the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to make certain operational mod- els available to the public, and for other pur- poses.