National Weather Service Duties Act of 2005

The National Weather Service Duties Act of 2005 (S. 786) sought to redefine and limit the scope of the National Weather Service (NWS). Under this bill, the NWS would have been required to focus primarily on issuing severe weather warnings and collecting atmospheric data, while being prohibited from providing general weather forecasts or services that could be provided by private companies. For the average citizen, this would have meant that routine weather information—such as daily local forecasts or specialized agricultural data—would no longer be available directly from the government and would instead be accessed through private-sector providers. Additionally, the bill aimed to prevent government employees from releasing weather data that could unfairly influence financial markets or commodity prices.