Democratic senators aim to reinstate a NOAA database that logs major financial devastation caused by natural disasters with a value of billions of dollars.
NOAA Bill Introduced to Restore Disaster Database
Senate Democrats have taken a step towards reviving a database that tracked billion-dollar climate and weather disasters, which was halted this spring as part of the Trump administration's cuts to climate science research at government agencies.
The bill, introduced last Thursday, requires the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to restore the database and update it at least twice a year. More than a dozen senators, including Angela Alsobrooks and Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, where NOAA is headquartered, are co-sponsoring the bill.
The NOAA database, which tallied 403 billion-dollar disasters from 1980 to 2024, offered useful illustrations of how climate change is shifting patterns of extreme weather. Last year, NOAA counted 27 billion-dollar disasters, which cost about $182.7 billion.
The decision to end the database was made 'in alignment with evolving priorities and staffing changes,' according to a NOAA spokesperson. However, the Congressional Research Service reported this year that the NOAA analysis did not factor in other considerations like loss of life, health-related costs, or economic losses to 'natural capital' like forests or wetlands.
Climate Central, a nonprofit research group focused on climate change, plans to continue developing a billion-dollar disaster dataset in-house. Adam Smith, a key scientist leading work on NOAA's billion-dollar data, left the agency in May over plans to shutter the database and has been hired by Climate Central.
The bill most likely stands a slim chance as stand-alone legislation, as Republicans control the Senate and none of them are listed as co-sponsors. However, growing concerns and protests against funding cuts at NOAA and other climate-focused agencies may influence the bill's progress.
Extreme weather is becoming more frequent, according to climate scientists, due to climate change increasing the risk of heat waves, extreme precipitation, and rapidly intensifying hurricanes. The bill's introduction comes as the year 2021 had the second most billion-dollar disasters in the report's history, after 2023.
NOAA used private and public data from various sources such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Agriculture Department, the National Interagency Fire Center, and private insurance information to make its estimates. Other agencies affected by cuts, like NOAA, have also been impacted.
Tom Di Liberto, a spokesman for Climate Central, has stated that the organization does not comment on policy or legislation under consideration. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand participated alongside Senator Peter Welch of Vermont in the effort to restore the NOAA billion-dollar disaster databases. The NOAA analysis adjusted its data each year to account for inflation.
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