H.R. 5610 — Improving Drought Monitoring Act

This section directs the Secretary of Agriculture to establish, not later than 180 days after the date of enactment, an interagency working group to improve the availability of consistent, accurate, and reliable data for producing the United States Drought Monitor, as required under current law (7 U.S.C. 5856). (The United States Drought Monitor is a weekly map depicting drought conditions nationwide that informs federal programs providing disaster assistance to agriculture and natural resources, such as the Livestock Forage Disaster Program.) The working group consists of specified representatives from the Department of Agriculture (including the Office of the Chief Economist as chair), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Drought Mitigation Center, Department of the Interior, Cooperative Institute for Research to Operations in Hydrology, and certain state mesonet programs. The working group must (1) develop means to include additional in-situ data by setting minimum requirements, identifying sources and gaps, and addressing solutions; (2) identify and address barriers to existing data use, including restricted federal datasets and needed agreement modifications; (3) develop a methodology for vetting remote sensing or modeling data products; (4) if appropriate, develop a methodology for data with shorter periods of record; and (5) address other data availability and quality issues. Not later than one year after enactment, the working group must submit a report with policy, regulatory, guidance, or legislative recommendations to the Secretaries of Agriculture, Commerce, and the Interior and specified congressional committees. Not later than 180 days after report submission, the Secretary of Agriculture, in coordination with the Secretaries of Commerce and the Interior, must incorporate the recommendations to the extent practicable. The working group terminates 90 days after report submission.

This section directs the Administrator of the Farm Service Agency and the Chief of the Forest Service to enter into a memorandum of understanding (MOU), not later than 60 days after submission of the report required under section 3(d), to better align their drought response activities. The MOU must include (1) a commitment to align practices for determining regional drought severity; (2) a strategy to amend inconsistent determinations within the same spatial scale for consistent policy; (3) an agreement to use the U.S. Drought Monitor to the extent practicable; and (4) an agreement to provide consistent information to affected grazing permittees, operators, and stakeholders.