Improving Drought Monitoring Act

Improving Drought Monitoring Act

This bill requires increased interagency cooperation in drought monitoring and response activities and reauthorizes the Improvements to the U.S. Drought Monitor (USDM) program through FY2030. 

Specifically, the Department of Agriculture (USDA) must establish an interagency working group to improve the availability of consistent, accurate, and reliable data for use in producing the USDM. (The USDM uses multiple indicators and indexes together with expert opinions and stakeholder information to estimate the intensity and effects of ongoing drought conditions across the United States. Using this data, the USDM map shows the location and intensity of drought across the United States.)

The interagency working group must submit a report to Congress and the Secretaries of Agriculture, Commerce, and the Interior that contains recommendations for changes in policies, regulations, guidance documents, or existing law related to USDM data. USDA, in coordination with the Departments of Commerce and the Interior, must incorporate, to the extent practicable, the recommendations of the working group to improve USDM data.

The bill also reauthorizes through FY2030 the Improvements to the USDM program, which requires USDA to coordinate with the National Drought Mitigation Center and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to enhance the collection of data to improve the accuracy of the USDM.

Further, the Farm Service Agency and the Forest Service must enter into a memorandum of understanding to better align their drought response activities.