Here are some key things from this doozy of a proposal:
(b) COMPETITION WITH PRIVATE SECTOR- The Secretary of Commerce shall not provide, or assist other entities in providing, a product or service (other than a product or service described in subsection (a)(1)) that is or could be provided by the private sector unless--
(1) the Secretary determines that the private sector is unwilling or unable to provide such product or service; or
(2) the United States Government is obligated to provide such product or service under international aviation agreements to provide meteorological services and exchange meteorological information.
(c) ISSUANCE OF DATA, FORECASTS, AND WARNINGS-
(1) IN GENERAL- All data, information, guidance, forecasts, and warnings received, collected, created, or prepared by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or the National Weather Service shall, to the maximum extent practicable, be issued in real time, and without delay for internal use, in a manner that ensures that all members of the public have the opportunity for simultaneous and equal access to such data, information, guidance, forecasts, and warnings.
(2) MODE OF ISSUANCE- Data, information, guidance, forecasts, and warnings shall be issued under paragraph (1) through a set of data portals designed for volume access by commercial providers of products or services and by such other mechanisms as the Secretary of Commerce considers appropriate for purposes of that paragraph.
(d) PROHIBITION ON CERTAIN DISCLOSURES- An officer, employee, or agent of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Weather Service, or any other department or agency of the United States who by reason of that status comes into possession of any weather data, information, guidance, forecast, or warning that might influence or affect the market value of any product, service, commodity, tradable, or business may not--
(1) willfully impart, whether directly or indirectly, such weather data, information, guidance, forecast, or warning, or any part thereof, before the issuance of such weather data, information, guidance, forecast, or warning to the public under subsection (c); or
(2) after the issuance of such weather data, information, guidance, forecast, or warning to the public under subsection (c), willfully impart comments or qualifications on such weather data, information, guidance, forecast, or warning, or any part thereof, to the public, except pursuant to an issuance that complies with that subsection.
So if I am understanding this correctly:
1) The weather service will not be allowed to provide the weather to private citizens directly for free, well, not free, our taxes pay for it the first time; but instead must provide the data through "through a set of data portals designed for volume access by commercial providers of products or services ". Commercial providers. Got that.
2) You may not tell anyone about the weather especially if your report could hurt some big money folks finacially. You see, it has to be filtered through a COMMERCIAL vendor first. After the weather is released publicly by them, as an employee of the NWS, you may still not offer any qualifiers or warnings, say for example, if the COMMERCIAL vendors happen to leave something out, because, well, you know, that could be like bad for the economy and stuff.
In other words...PISS OFF AMERICAN CITIZENS, UNLESS YOU ARE A RICH CORPORATE ELITIST LOOKING TO MAKE A BUCK BY FUCKING THE LITLE GUY.
Can't breathe...rage taking over...
Link Added (PDF):
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=109_cong_bills&docid=f:s786is.txt.pdfOlafr