Improving Drought Monitoring Act
The Improving Drought Monitoring Act would extend the program for improving the United States Drought Monitor (USDM) through 2030, up from 2023. It creates a new interagency Drought Monitor Working Group that includes key representatives from the Department of Agriculture (USDA), NOAA, the Department of the Interior, a university research center, and multiple state mesonet programs. The group’s job is to improve data quality, availability, and methods used to produce the USDM, including integrating more on-the-ground (in-situ) data, identifying data gaps, reducing barriers to existing datasets, and establishing an open, transparent process for vetting data products derived from remote sensing or modeling. The bill also requires the group to issue a report with policy or regulatory recommendations within a year, and for the Agriculture, Commerce, and Interior Secretaries to implement those recommendations as practicable within 180 days of the report. Finally, the act requires a memorandum of understanding between the Farm Service Agency (FSA) and the Forest Service to better align drought response and ensure consistent drought determinations, largely using the USDM as a reference.
Key Points
- 1Extends the USDM improvement program to 2030 (replacing the prior 2023 date).
- 2Establishes an interagency Drought Monitor Working Group within 180 days of enactment, with broad representation from USDA (including the Chief Economist, the Forest Service, and the Farm Service Agency), NOAA (including the Climate Prediction Center and other NOAA units), Interior, a university-based drought center, and 3 state-based mesonet program representatives from drought-prone and frontier/remote areas.
- 3Mandates the working group to expand data inputs for USDM (including on-site data, data from multiple federal sources, and identifying coverage gaps and solutions) and to address data access barriers, open up methodology for vetting data products, and consider including shorter-record data if appropriate.
- 4Requires a one-year report with recommendations on policy, regulatory, guidance, or law changes to meet the working group’s objectives, to be sent to Congress and key federal agencies. The Agriculture, Commerce, and Interior Secretaries must consider and, where practicable, implement these recommendations within 180 days of the report.
- 5Terminates the working group 90 days after the report is submitted.
- 6Sets a separate requirement for a memorandum of understanding (MOU) within 60 days after the report to align drought response between the FSA and the Forest Service, including: aligning drought severity determinations, addressing inconsistencies across agencies, using USDM when possible, and providing consistent information to grazing permittees and other stakeholders.
- 7Overall aim: improve accuracy, consistency, and availability of drought data and decisions across federal agencies and stakeholders.