Title 15, Commerce and TradeRelease 119-102

§1537 Needs Assessment for Data Management, Archival, and Distribution

Title 15 › CHAPTER 40 — DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE › § 1537

Last updated Aug 21, 2026|Official source

Summary

The Secretary of Commerce must, within 12 months after October 29, 1992 and every two years after that, review whether NOAA’s environmental data and information systems are good enough. The review must look at needs like having enough capacity to manage, archive, and share data; building and keeping information systems that let data move and be used consistently; making NOAA systems work with other agencies’ systems; using national data formats and standards; and combining different data so leaders can make policy decisions. At the same schedule, the Secretary must send the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology a plan based on that review. The plan must give 10-year goals starting the year the plan is sent, list needed facilities and key new technologies, describe specific programs to reach the goals, explain NOAA’s data roles with other federal and international groups (including systems like the Earth Observing System Data and Information System), and provide a schedule and funding estimates to do the work.

Full Legal Text

Title 15, §1537

Commerce and Trade, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(1)Not later than 12 months after October 29, 1992, and at least biennially thereafter, the Secretary of Commerce shall complete an assessment of the adequacy of the environmental data and information systems of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. In conducting such an assessment, the Secretary shall take into consideration the need to—

(A)provide adequate capacity to manage, archive, and disseminate environmental data and information collected and processed, or expected to be collected and processed, by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other appropriate departments and agencies;

(B)establish, develop, and maintain information bases, including necessary management systems, which will promote consistent, efficient, and compatible transfer and use of data;

(C)develop effective interfaces among the environmental data and information systems of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other appropriate departments and agencies;

(D)develop and use nationally accepted formats and standards for data collected by various national and international sources; and

(E)integrate and interpret data from different sources to produce information that can be used by decisionmakers in developing policies that effectively respond to national and global environmental concerns.

(2)Not later than 12 months after October 29, 1992, and biennially thereafter, the Secretary of Commerce shall develop and submit to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate and the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology of the House of Representatives a comprehensive plan, based on the assessment under paragraph (1), to modernize and improve the environmental data and information systems of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The report shall—

(A)set forth modernization and improvement objectives for the 10-year period beginning with the year in which the plan is submitted, including facility requirements and critical new technological components that would be necessary to meet the objectives set forth;

(B)propose specific agency programs and activities for implementing the plan;

(C)identify the data and information management, archival, and distribution responsibilities of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration with respect to other Federal departments and agencies and international organizations, including the role of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration with respect to large data systems like the Earth Observing System Data and Information System; and

(D)provide an implementation schedule and estimate funding levels necessary to achieve modernization and improvement objectives.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

15 U.S.C. § 1537

Title 15, Commerce and Trade

Last Updated

Aug 21, 2026

Release point: 119-102