Text of Senate Amendment 6295

On 2026-06-24, Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) delivered a floor speech titled "Text Of Senate Amendment 6295" in the Senate.

Text of Senate Amendment 6295

Congressional Record, Volume 172 Issue 106 (Wednesday, June 24, 2026) [Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 106 (Wednesday, June 24, 2026)] [Senate] [Page S3437] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] SA 6295. Mr. VAN HOLLEN submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by him to the bill S. 4784, to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2027 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy, to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows: At the end of subtitle D of title XXVIII, add the following: SEC. 2873. REPORT ON DETECTION AND ALERT SYSTEMS FOR SEVERE WEATHER THREATS AT MILITARY INSTALLATIONS. (a) Purpose.--The purpose of this section is to require that, as part of military installations resilience planning, the Secretary of Defense and the commander of any major military installation study the benefits of investing in more comprehensive, sustained severe weather, wildfire, and flood detection and early warning, forecasting, and alerting systems to improve preparedness, reduce risk to personnel and property, and strengthen installation and mission resiliency. (b) Report on Detention and Alert Systems at Military Installations.-- (1) In general.-- Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall submit to the Committee on Armed Services of the Senate and the House of Representatives a report that assesses the detection, warning, forecasting, and alert systems for severe weather threats at certain military installations. (2) Contents.--The report submitted under paragraph (1) shall-- (A) identify at-risk installations, including any installation that-- (i) faces multi-hazard risks, such as concurrent elevated risk of severe weather, lightning, wildfire, and flooding; (ii) hosts critical mission capabilities, high-value infrastructure, or population concentrations the loss of which would have a disproportionate impact on national security; (iii) has a demonstrated historic or modeled vulnerability to severe weather, wildfire, or flood events; or (iv) would benefit most from near-term enhancements to lifesaving alerting and collaborative incident management; (B) assess the technical requirements and desired core capabilities of detection, warning, forecasting, and alert systems, including-- (i) real-time multi-hazard detection (severe weather, wildfire, flood) using on-site sensors and data streams from commercial sources and civil and Federal agencies; (ii) advanced short- and medium-range forecasting and predictive modeling leveraging commercial and government data; (iii) automated, geospatial, and role-based alerting to installation commanders, emergency managers, first responders, shelter managers, and alert personnel via SMS, email, voice, common alerting protocols, and other modalities; (iv) a singular, authoritative dashboard that displays real-time conditions, forecasts, alerts, and recommended actions, and supports collaborative incident management across stakeholders; (v) configurable alert thresholds, layered notification lists, and two-way acknowledgment and status reporting; (vi) hardened communications, cybersecurity protections, and redundancy appropriate to military installation standards; and (vii) enhanced actionable alerting capabilities or equivalent functionality that enables prioritized, actionable, and location-specific warnings and guidance; (C) describe available commercial solutions and potential costs associated with such solutions; and (D) provide recommendations for additional legislative actions to facilitate the improvement of severe weather observations and warnings on military installations. ______