Title 15 — Commerce and TradeRelease 119-73
§2904 National Climate Program
Title 15 › Chapter CHAPTER 56— - NATIONAL CLIMATE PROGRAM › § 2904
Summary
The President must create a National Climate Program. The President must write and publish 5-year plans for the program, spell out the roles of Federal officers, departments, and agencies (including Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Energy, Interior, State, Transportation; the Environmental Protection Agency; NASA; the Council on Environmental Quality; the National Science Foundation; and the Office of Science and Technology Policy), and make sure the program is coordinated across the government. The Secretary of Commerce must set up a National Climate Program Office within 30 days after September 17, 1978. That Office is the program’s lead office. It must have a Director, support the program’s policy board, review agency budget requests and report on them, help coordinate U.S. participation in international climate activities, work with the National Academy of Sciences and others on the 5-year plan, and can give grants or contracts if needed to meet plan goals. A Climate Program Policy Board made of agency representatives must be created to plan, review progress, look at budgets and report to OMB, form interagency groups, and consult users of climate data. The program must include climate impact assessments, research, better forecasts, global data collection and sharing, international cooperation, state and regional services (including possible grants), and experimental forecast centers. A preliminary 5-year plan must be sent to Congress within 180 days after September 17, 1978, a final plan within 1 year, and plans must be revised and extended at least once every four years. Each agency must send an annual program funding request to OMB and to the National Climate Program Office; OMB will review these requests as a single, multiagency request.
Full Legal Text
Title 15, §2904
Commerce and Trade — Source: USLM XML via OLRC
(a)The President shall establish a National Climate Program in accordance with the provisions, findings and purposes of this chapter.
(b)The President shall—
(1)promulgate the 5-year plans described in subsection (d)(9);
(2)define the roles in the Program of Federal officers, departments, and agencies, including the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Energy, Interior, State, and Transportation; the Environmental Protection Agency; the National Aeronautics and Space Administration; the Council on Environmental Quality; the National Science Foundation; and the Office of Science and Technology Policy; and
(3)provide for Program coordination.
(c)(1)The Secretary shall establish within the Department of Commerce a National Climate Program Office not later than 30 days after September 17, 1978.
(2)The Office shall—
(A)serve as the lead entity responsible for administering the program;
(B)be headed by a Director who shall represent the Climate Program Policy Board and shall be spokesperson for the program;
(C)serve as the staff for the Board and its supporting committees and working groups;
(D)review each agency budget request transmitted under subsection (g)(1) and submit an analysis of the requests to the Board for its review;
(E)be responsible for coordinating interagency participation in international climate-related activities; and
(F)work with the National Academy of Sciences and other private, academic, State, and local groups in preparing and implementing the 5-year plan (described in subsection (d)(9)) and the program.
(3)The Secretary may provide, through the Office, financial assistance, in the form of contracts or grants or cooperative agreements, for climate-related activities which are needed to meet the goals and priorities of the program set forth in the 5-year plan pursuant to subsection (d)(9), if such goals and priorities are not being adequately addressed by any Federal department, agency, or instrumentality.
(4)Each Federal officer, employee, department and agency involved in the Program shall cooperate with the Secretary in carrying out the provisions of this chapter.
(d)The Program shall include, but not be limited to, the following elements:
(1)assessments of the effect of climate on the natural environment, agricultural production, energy supply and demand, land and water resources, transportation, human health and national security. Such assessments shall be conducted to the maximum extent possible by those Federal agencies having national programs in food, fiber, raw materials, energy, transportation, land and water management, and other such responsibilities, in accordance with existing laws and regulations. Where appropriate such assessments may include recommendations for action;
(2)basic and applied research to improve the understanding of climate processes, natural and man induced, and the social, economic, and political implications of climate change;
(3)methods for improving climate forecasts on a monthly, seasonal, yearly, and longer basis;
(4)global data collection, and monitoring and analysis activities to provide reliable, useful and readily available information on a continuing basis;
(5)systems for the management and active dissemination of climatological data, information and assessments, including mechanisms for consultation with current and potential users;
(6)measures for increasing international cooperation in climate research, monitoring, analysis and data dissemination;
(7)mechanisms for intergovernmental climate-related studies and services including participation by universities, the private sector and others concerned with applied research and advisory services. Such mechanisms may provide, among others, for the following State and regional services and functions: (A) studies relating to and analyses of climatic effects on agricultural production, water resources, energy needs, and other critical sectors of the economy; (B) atmospheric data collection and monitoring on a statewide and regional basis; (C) advice to regional, State, and local government agencies regarding climate-related issues; (D) information to users within the State regarding climate and climatic effects; and (E) information to the Secretary regarding the needs of persons within the States for climate-related services, information, and data. The Secretary may make annual grants to any State or group of States, which grants shall be made available to public or private educational institutions, to State agencies, and to other persons or institutions qualified to conduct climate-related studies or provide climate-related services;
(8)experimental climate forecast centers, which shall (A) be responsible for making and routinely updating experimental climate forecasts of a monthly, seasonal, annual, and longer nature, based on a variety of experimental techniques; (B) establish procedures to have forecasts reviewed and their accuracy evaluated; and (C) protect against premature reliance on such experimental forecasts; and
(9)a preliminary 5-year plan, to be submitted to the Congress for review and comment, not later than 180 days after September 17, 1978, and a final 5-year plan to be submitted to the Congress not later than 1 year after September 17, 1978, that shall be revised and extended at least once every four years. Each plan shall establish the goals and priorities for the Program, including the intergovernmental program described in paragraph (7), over the subsequent 5-year period, and shall contain details regarding (A) the role of Federal agencies in the programs, (B) Federal funding required to enable the Program to achieve such goals, and (C) Program accomplishments that must be achieved to ensure that Program goals are met within the time frame established by the plan.
(e)(1)The Secretary shall establish and maintain an interagency Climate Program Policy Board, consisting of representatives of the Federal agencies specified in subsection (b)(2) and any other agency which the Secretary determines should participate in the Program.
(2)The Board shall—
(A)be responsible for coordinated planning and progress review for the Program;
(B)review all agency and department budget requests related to climate transmitted under subsection (g)(1) and submit a report to the Office of Management and Budget concerning such budget requests;
(C)establish and maintain such interagency groups as the Board determines to be necessary to carry out its activities; and
(D)consult with and seek the advice of users and producers of climate data, information, and services to guide the Board’s efforts, keeping the Director and the Congress advised of such contacts.
(3)The Board biennially shall select a Chair from among its members. A Board member who is a representative of an agency may not serve as Chair of the Board for a term if an individual who represented that same agency on the Board served as the Board’s Chair for the previous term.
(f)(1)The Program shall be conducted so as to encourage cooperation with, and participation in the Program by, other organizations or agencies involved in related activities. For this purpose the Secretary shall cooperate and participate with other Federal agencies, and foreign, international, and domestic organizations and agencies involved in international or domestic climate-related programs.
(2)The Secretary and the Secretary of State shall cooperate with the Office in (A) providing representation at climate-related international meetings and conferences in which the United States participates, and (B) coordinating the activities of the Program with the climate programs of other nations and international agencies and organizations, including the World Meteorological Organization, the International Council of Scientific Unions, the United Nations Environmental Program, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, the World Health Organization, and Food and Agriculture Organization.
(g)Each Federal agency and department participating in the Program, shall prepare and submit to the Office of Management and Budget, on or before the date of submission of departmental requests for appropriations to the Office of Management and Budget, an annual request for appropriations for the Program for the subsequent fiscal year and shall transmit a copy of such request to the National Climate Program Office. The Office of Management and Budget shall review the request for appropriations as an integrated, coherent, multiagency request.
Legislative History
Notes & Related Subsidiaries
Editorial Notes
Codification Subsec. (g) of this section in the original was par. (1) of section 5(g) of Pub. L. 95–367 and has been set out without such par. (1) designation for purposes of codification. For classification of par. (2) of section 5(g) to the Code, see Tables.
Amendments
1986—Subsec. (c). Pub. L. 99–272, § 6084(b), designated first sentence as par. (1), substituted pars. (2) and (3) for second sentence which provided that “The Office shall be the lead entity responsible for administering the Program”, and designated third sentence as par. (4). Subsec. (d)(7). Pub. L. 99–272, § 6084(c)(1), inserted provision that such mechanisms may provide, among others, for certain enumerated State and regional services and functions. Subsec. (d)(9). Pub. L. 99–272, § 6084(c)(2), (3), substituted “at least once every four years” for “biennially” and “described in paragraph (7)” for “under section 2905 of this title”. Subsec. (e). Pub. L. 99–272, § 6084(d), substituted provisions relating to the establishment and maintenance of the Climate Program Policy Board for provisions relating to the establishment and maintenance of an advisory committee and interagency groups. Subsec. (f)(2). Pub. L. 99–272, § 6084(e), substituted “shall cooperate with the Office in” for “shall cooperate in”. Subsec. (g). Pub. L. 99–272, § 6084(f), inserted provision requiring each Federal agency and department participating in the Program to transmit a copy of such request to the National Climate Program Office.
Reference
Citations & Metadata
Citation
15 U.S.C. § 2904
Title 15 — Commerce and Trade
Last Updated
Apr 6, 2026
Release point: 119-73