Executive Summary EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Introduction The Department of Commerce's (DOC's) three strategic themes are: 1. Build for the future and promote U.S. competitiveness in the 2. Keep America competitive with cutting-edge science and 3. Provide effective management and stewardship of our Nation's The mission of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is to describe and predict changes in the Earth's environment, and conserve and manage the nation's coastal and marine resources to ensure sustainable economic opportunities. NOAA conducts research to develop new technologies, improve operations, and supply the scientific basis for managing natural resources and solving environmental problems. NOAA's comprehensive system for acquiring observations -- from satellites and radars to ships and submersibles -provides the quality data and information needed for the safe conduct of daily life and the basic functioning of a modern society. Common end products and services include weather warnings and forecasts, climate observations and predictions, environmental technologies, marine fisheries statistics, nautical charts, assessments of environmental changes, and hazardous materials response information. These capabilities, products and services support the domestic security and global competitiveness of the United States, and affect the lives of nearly every citizen every day. With its public and private partners, NOAA is a leader in climate diagnostic research and forecasts, environmental monitoring and research, fisheries management, and sustainable use of the coast. Most recently, NOAA demonstrated its scientific preeminence by the successful advance forecast of the 1997/1998 El Niño and the provision of global climate change information to policymakers at the U.N. climate conference in Kyoto, Japan. In fulfilling NOAA's key trustee responsibilities for marine resources, NOAA has taken a number of important steps to ensure the recovery of NOAA's strategic mission is to describe and predict changes in the Earth's environment, and conserve and manage the Nation's coastal and marine resources to ensure sustainable economic opportunities. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Highlights of the FY 1999 Request NOAA's budget request of $2.1 billion in budget authority for FY 1999 is predicated on the need to ensure the continued delivery of essential science, technology and services to the Nation. This request is represented at the highest level on the previous two pages and at an overview level in Section I - Executive Summary. The rest of this document summarizes the NOAA budget in the context of the Strategic Plan and the traditional budget structure, with an emphasis on the major operational units and programs contributing to the strategic goals. Section II - The traditional budget structure, includes NOAA's request by budget activity and summarizes NOAA's budget down to the line item level. Section III - The Strategic Plan establishes the seven major goals of the agency, and guides the most effective combined application of the entire suite of agency assets for attaining these goals which are grouped into two missions -- Environmental Stewardship, and Environmental Assessment and Prediction. Resources for program administration, marine and aircraft services, and supporting infrastructure are included in the total request for each strategic goal, and are described in greater detail in Section II of this Budget Summary. These objectives will be accomplished primarily through the efforts of the National For the NWS, the request provides $489.3 million for operations and research, including a net increase of $34.8 million from 1998 to implement the budgets and associated program activities recommended in the study conducted by John J. Kelly, BGD/Gen (Ret), An Assessment of the Fiscal Requirements to Operate the Modernized National Weather Service during Fiscal Years 1998 and 1999, and $152.8 million for major systems acquisition supporting the modernization, a net decrease of $32.9 million. Within the total amount for NWS operations, an increase of $4.2 million is requested to initiate the national implementation of Advanced Hydrologic Prediction System, a real time modeling and data analysis system which will significantly improve flood forecasting and water management in the U.S. Within the total amount for systems acquisition in the Procurement, Acquisition and Construction (PAC) account, the NWS requests $67.7 million for continued deployment of the Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS), a decrease of $49.2 million over the 1999 base. |