As a follow-up to my earlier post on the bill Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA) introduced to get the National Weather Service out of competition with commercial weather providers, a good friend of mine emailed some questions to the Senator, and received the following response:

Senator Santorum asked me to respond to your questions about S. 786, the National Weather Service Duties Act of 2005. I understand that there is some confusion about the bill, Senator Santorum's motivation for introducing it, and its intended consequences.

Let me first assure you that in no way does Senator Santorum wish to "do away" with the National Weather Service. To the contrary, he wishes to strengthen the NWS and focus the agency on its core mission -- (1) maintaining a modern and effective meteorological infrastructure; (2) collecting comprehensive observational data; and (3) issuing warnings and forecasts of severe weather that imperils life and property. He also recognizes that there is a robust commercial enterprise in the United States that employs hundreds of Pennsylvanians, and that it would be nearly impossible for a business to attract advertisers, subscribers, or investors when the government is providing similar products and services for free.

Last year, NWS pulled the plug on the non-competition and non-duplication policy with the private sector. This indicates that NWS might want to expand its services into other areas already provided by the private sector. S. 786 simply restores the NWS' non-competition policy that was in effect from 1991 to December 2004. However, the legislation leaves NWS with complete and unfettered freedom to carry out its critical role of preparing and issuing severe weather warnings and forecasts designed for the protection of life and property of the general public.

As stated in the bill, the National Weather Service shall be responsible for: (1) the preparation and issuance of severe weather forecasts and warnings designed for the protection of life and property of the general public; (2) the preparation and issuance of hydrometeorological guidance and core forecast information; and (3) the collection and exchange of meteorological, hydrological, climatic, and oceanographic data and information.

This bill makes clear that severe weather information that imperils life and property is to be handled by NWS. Amateur radio operators will continue to get this information from NWS. In addition, the computer program that you use as a SKYWARN coordinator would likely continue to be available to you, as we know of no similar service offered by the commercial weather industry.

You ask if this bill calls for the NWS to cease dissemination of regular daily forecasts, weather information and climatalogical data. The NWS has always provided daily forecasts in a simple, text format. Under Senator Santorum's legislation, they should still be able to do so. What we are trying to prevent is the NWS providing more consumer friendly formats that compete with private sector offerings, for instance a "golf forecast." The simple answer is that it would require the NWS to stop disseminating regular daily forecasts, as several commercial weather services currently provide this information to the public, in most cases free of charge. However, the more detailed and specific information will continue to be distributed at taxpayer expense.

I hope this helps.

Zack Moore
Legislative Director
U.S. Senator Rick Santorum

I'm sure my friend's position as an Archbishop in the Episcopalian Church didn't hurt his chances of getting a prompt reply. But since Mr Moore's response already makes this post fairly lengthy, I'll examine it in closer detail in a follow-up post.