Snow Water Supply Forecasting Program Reauthorization Act of 2026

This Act may be cited as the “Snow Water Supply Forecasting Program Reauthorization Act of 2026”.

The Snow Water Supply Forecasting Program Authorization Act (43 U.S.C. 1477) is amended—

(1) in subsection (c)(2)—

(A) in subparagraph (A)—

(i) by striking “develop” and inserting “continue developing”; and

(ii) by striking “culminating in the report required under subsection (d)(3)” and inserting “with an emphasis on development and deployment of more accurate, timely, and cost-effective snow monitoring technologies and water supply forecasting, including technologies that integrate snowpack measuring and modeling”; and

(B) in subparagraph (B)—

(i) by striking “after submitting the report required by subsection (d)(3),”; and

(ii) by inserting “and to improve water supply forecasting” after “watersheds”;

(2) in subsection (d)—

(A) in paragraph (1)—

(i) in the paragraph heading, by inserting “and water supply forecasting” after “data”;

(ii) in the matter preceding subparagraph (A), by striking “emerging technologies for snowpack measurement, such as” and inserting “technologies for snowpack measurements and methods to forecast water supply, including”;

(iii) in subparagraph (B), by striking “and” at the end; and

(iv) by striking subparagraph (C) and inserting the following:

“(C) imaging spectroscopy;

(D) machine learning;

(E) snowpack and hydrologic modeling; and

(F) other technologies that the Secretary determines are likely to provide more accurate or timely snowpack measurement data or analytical methods utilizing snowpack data that can improve water supply forecasting to inform water management and reservoir operations.”;

(B) in paragraph (2), by striking “emerging technologies for snowpack measurement” and inserting “technologies for snowpack measurement and models, including the Department of Agriculture and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration”; and

(C) by striking paragraph (3);

(3) in subsection (e)—

(A) in paragraph (1)—

(i) by striking “After submitting the report required under subsection (d)(3), the” and inserting “The”; and

(ii) by striking “in particular watersheds” and inserting “and water supply forecasts in particular watersheds and to explore new statistical, machine learning, or physical models to generate improved water supply forecasts utilizing snowpack data”; and

(B) by striking paragraph (2) and inserting the following:

“(2) Focus.— The program shall focus on activities that will maintain, establish, expand, or advance snowpack measurement and modeling projected water supply, with an emphasis on—

(A) enhancing activities to achieve improved snow and water supply forecasting results that are more responsive to changing weather and watershed conditions;

(B) activities in river basins where activities described in this section relating to snowpack measurement and water supply forecasting can inform water management decisions or models at a multi-water user, multi-basin, or multi-State scale, including interstate water management decisions; and

(C) building the capacity of program partners to implement and adapt to the new measurement and forecasting capabilities enabled under the program.”;

(4) in subsection (f)—

(A) in the matter preceding paragraph (1), by striking “this Act” and inserting “the Snow Water Supply Forecasting Program Reauthorization Act of 2026”;

(B) in paragraph (2), by striking “or sub-basin”;

(C) by redesignating paragraph (2) as paragraph (4); and

(D) by striking paragraph (1) and inserting the following:

“(1) a list of basins for which snowpack measurement and integrated modeling technologies are being used under the program, including a description of each application, outcome, and data resource used;

(2) an assessment of which technologies best inform water supply forecasting for multiple water districts, communities, or States;

(3) an assessment of forecasts generated using new technologies authorized under this Act compared against water supply forecast benchmarks from the Department of Agriculture and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; and”; and

(5) in subsection (g), by striking “$15,000,000, in the aggregate, for fiscal years 2022 through 2026” and inserting “$3,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2027 through 2031”.