A bipartisan House bill would protect against lost public access to NOAA weather, oceans and fisheries data stored by the federal government on privately owned cloud storage systems.
H.R. 6184, introduced by Reps. Sarah Elfreth (D-Md.) and Nick Begich (R-Alaska), would prohibit the Commerce secretary from canceling a contract with a cloud service provider without first providing a plan “for the uninterrupted storage of the data.”
The “NOAA Data Preservation Act” further stipulates that the government “have a new cloud data storage contract in place to take effect immediately following the conclusion of the prior contract,” according to Elfreth’s office.
The Commerce secretary would have to consult with the NOAA administrator on any cloud service changes and inform NOAA employees when disruptions would occur and where the information could be accessed during the interim period.
