Senator Bill Nelson responds to the NOAA Bill

[Aquawind]

Dear Mr. Johnson:

Thank you for contacting me regarding the National Weather
Service.
The weather information provided on its website is invaluable and
should
not be limited.

The National Weather service is a branch of the National
Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). It is the primary
source of weather data, forecasts, and warnings to the United States,
and
provides information to television broadcasters and private meteorology
companies to prepare their forecasts. During the hurricane season of
2004,
when Florida was being battered by Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan
and
Jeanne, the National Weather Service provided valuable information
through
its website to the people of Florida to help them prepare for the
disaster.
During these hurricanes, The National Weather Service website received
billions of hits, breaking a government record previously held by NASA
sites after the Mars rover landing last spring.

Legislation has been introduced that would limit the ability of
the
National Weather Service to offer its information to the general
public.
S. 786, the National Weather Service Duties Act, introduced on April
14,
2005, would, among other things, prevent the National Weather Service
from
providing weather forecasts (with the exception of severe weather
warnings)
to the public on its website if a private company also is capable
providing
this information.

I oppose the National Weather Service Duties Act because it has a
variety of negative effects. This legislation would force consumers to
get
on-line weather information from commercial websites that are cluttered
with pop-up ads and invasive solicitations, even though the consumer
has
already paid for the taxpayer-funded National Weather Service. It
would
prevent any National Weather Service forecaster from doing a one-on-one
interview with a news reporter, and could even prevent the National
Weather
Service from providing any service on-line that is provided by a
private
vendor. I have written a letter to President Bush asking that he
publicly
oppose this attempt to push the weather service back to its
pre-Internet
era and limit the public's right to access government information.

I appreciate your informed policy suggestions. Please do not
hesitate to contact me again in the future.




P.S. From time to time, I compile electronic news briefs highlighting
key
issues and hot topics of particular importance to Floridians. If you'd
like to receive these e-briefs, visit my Web site and sign up for them
at
http://billnelson.senate.gov/newpages/newsletter.cfm .

[Rainband]

I got the same thing

[Aquawind]

I figured it was a mass email respond, but it's always nice to see politicians respond to their constituents even when we are in agreement..

Paul

[Rainband]

I agree Paul