What Happened?
When the water rises, the alert on your phone is the difference between getting out and getting caught, and Congress is asking whether new tech can get that warning to you faster. In July 2025, a Central Texas floods killed 136 people, including 28 at a sleepaway camp, and a post-disaster investigation found that state and local agencies missed opportunities to install flood warning systems along the Guadalupe River. The House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology held a Sept. 15 hearing on whether artificial intelligence, satellites, and other emerging technologies can improve disaster prediction and get warnings to people faster.
The hearing unfolded as the Trump administration's fiscal 2027 budget proposes eliminating the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research and funding for its laboratories and cooperative institutes, though congressional budget writers have moved to retain the office and its programs.
Why Does it Matter to Me?
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) runs the systems behind the flood watches on local news, the alerts on your phone, and the hurricane maps that tell coastal communities when to evacuate. Boston University public health researchers warned that cutting forecast staff while also reducing the agency that helps communities recover is "a recipe for a really tough hurricane season."
The FEMA Review Council recommended raising the bar for disaster aid declarations, estimating that if its proposed threshold had been in place from 2012 to 2025, 29 percent of declared disasters would not have met the indicator, representing $1.5 billion in federal outlays. Fewer communities would receive federal help after a flood, fire, or storm under that change.
Both Sides, Now
The hearing highlighted private-sector innovation, including AI-enabled cameras in California that detected more than 900 fires before 911 calls came in, and the committee has separately advanced the Weather Act Reauthorization Act to expand the use of commercial data in forecasting.
Ranking Member Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) criticized the administration for withholding wildfire funding from Los Angeles and for denying hundreds of millions of dollars in disaster aid to New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reported that at least 12 state disaster aid requests had been denied since the start of the Trump administration as of October 2025.
In June 2025, President Trump signed an executive order directing the secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture to develop a technology roadmap for wildfire response that includes artificial intelligence, data sharing, and predictive mapping.
What Happens Next?
The committee has separately advanced legislation addressing weather forecasting and earthquake monitoring.
The Trump administration's fiscal 2027 budget request proposes eliminating the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, though congressional appropriators have moved to retain the office and its programs. Government Executive reported in September that experts said the biggest challenge for emergency managers was the lack of clarity around the administration's disaster approvals.
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