Protect Americans from Climate Disasters Act
The Protect Americans from Climate Disasters Act would reverse recent NOAA staffing and program reductions by requiring the Secretary of Commerce to restore NOAA’s capacity to help communities prepare for and mitigate extreme weather. Within 30 days of enactment, using funds already appropriated, the bill requires NOAA to rehire or reinstate staff who were involuntarily terminated between January 20, 2025 and enactment and to ensure the National Weather Service and related NOAA programs are fully staffed to provide timely data, forecasts, alerts, and resiliency resources. It also mandates that certain congressionally supported programs continue without reductions and directs immediate reinstatement of specific NOAA data products—namely the Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters product, the Marine Environmental Buoy Database, and the Global Ocean Currents Database. The bill further appropriates about $6.76 billion for NOAA for fiscal year 2026 to support these efforts. Overall, it aims to restore NOAA’s capacity to forecast extreme events, improve data access, and bolster climate-resilience activities.
Key Points
- 1Reinstatement of NOAA staffing and operations: Within 30 days, the Secretary of Commerce must restore NOAA staffing levels (including the National Weather Service) to ensure timely data, forecasts, alerts, and resiliency resources for extreme weather events; also reinstate employees involuntarily removed between Jan 20, 2025 and enactment who elect to be reinstated.
- 2Continuation of existing programs: The Secretary must continue funding and operating programs that support state and local preparations and responses to extreme weather and may not reduce access to congressionally mandated extreme weather resources.
- 3Immediate reinstatement of key data products/databases: The Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters product, the NOAA Marine Environmental Buoy Database, and the NOAA Global Ocean Currents Database must be immediately reinstated and used for any related projects funded by these programs.
- 4Funding authorization: The bill provides a specific appropriation of $6,756,300,000 to NOAA for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2026, from available, unobligated funds in the Treasury to cover necessary NOAA expenses.
- 5Policy purpose and findings: The bill cites rising disaster costs, increased frequency of extreme weather, and concerns about public safety and data availability to justify restoring staffing and programmatic capacity at NOAA.