Lawmakers Weigh Disaster Tech Amid Federal Weather Research Cuts

Yet even newly installed systems have proven inadequate. A July test of flood warning systems in the Texas Hill Country region showed they could not prevent at least two deaths. The disconnect between technology and outcome has fueled calls for innovation, but at what cost.

The Trump administration's fiscal 2027 budget request proposes eliminating the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research and funding for its laboratories and cooperative institutes, although congressional appropriators have moved to retain the office and its programs. The Center for American Progress previously warned that experts believed a 40 percent funding decrease to NOAA could worsen future flood predictions. Boston University public health researchers said that reducing the staff working to make weather forecasts more accurate, while also cutting the agency charged with helping people recover from disasters, is "a recipe for a really tough hurricane season."

The hearing also came as the administration considers major structural changes to disaster aid. The FEMA Review Council submitted its final report in May, recommending raising the threshold for federal disaster aid declarations. The council estimated that if its proposed threshold had been in place earlier, 29 percent of disasters declared between 2012 and 2025 would not have met the indicator, representing $1.5 billion in federal outlays.

As the Trump administration seeks changes to NOAA research funding and federal disaster policy, the hearing underscored congressional interest in whether emerging technologies can strengthen disaster prediction and response.

What They're Saying

The hearing exposed a fundamental divide. Texas invested millions of dollars in new flood-warning infrastructure, including river gauges, outdoor sirens and a real-time warning system. AI-enabled camera systems in California have detected more than 900 fires on state lands before 911 calls. Babin said gaps remain in message clarity, geographic precision, connectivity, and the ability to turn warnings into timely protective actions.

Lofgren criticized the administration's approach. She blasted the Trump administration for withholding wildfire funding from Los Angeles after the most destructive wildfire in the city's history. She also attacked the administration for denying hundreds of millions of dollars in major disaster aid to four Democratic-led states: New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

Lofgren described the stakes vividly. An atmospheric river hit her district in February at the end of a severe fire season, causing landslides, debris flows and flash flooding. She said NOAA had announced that the nation had just experienced the hottest summer on record and that a "super El Niño" was expected to bring more extreme weather events in the fall.

Four witnesses testified about their technologies. John Gale, federal affairs director at Pano AI, testified at the hearing. Pano AI technology has been deployed in Australia, Canada, and 17 U.S. states. On June 20, Pano AI technology helped detect the Log Jumper Fire near Castle Rock, Colorado, allowing emergency crews to respond before the fire grew beyond about an acre.

Melissa Roberts, founder and executive director of the American Flood Coalition, testified about local adaptation solutions. The American Flood Coalition is a bipartisan, member-driven coalition of more than 500 cities, elected officials, military leaders, businesses and community groups. Roberts previously served as Director of Strategy at First Street Foundation, a research nonprofit specializing in quantifying America's changing flood risk.

Dr. Ali Mostafavidarani, founder and CEO of Resilitix AI and a Texas A&M engineering professor, presented Resilitix AI's flagship product, EmergenCITY AI, a geospatial reasoning engine designed for pre-emergency and developing-threat assessment. The platform brings publicly available data into AI algorithms to provide partners near-real-time information in storm settings. It was stress-tested during Hurricane Beryl.

Dr. Mike Falkowski, lead scientist at Earth Fire Alliance, testified about FireSat, a satellite constellation designed to detect fires as small as 5 meters by 5 meters, whereas most existing satellite systems detect fires several hundred meters in size. Earth Fire Alliance secured $69 million in grants from the Bezos Earth Fund, Google, and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to launch the FireSat program. The Bezos Earth Fund committed $26 million to the FireSat satellite constellation. Falkowski previously led the FireSense Project at NASA Ames, a program that leverages research agencies' technical capabilities to directly support operational decision-making by federal and state wildfire management agencies.

The gap between data collection and getting actionable information to the public remains a weak link in the disaster response system. Babin noted that the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology previously advanced the Weather Act Reauthorization Act to strengthen weather research and forecasting, expand the use of commercial data, and improve how critical weather and flood alerts reach the public. The committee also advanced legislation to modernize the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program, including efforts to improve earthquake monitoring, early warning, hazard mapping, and resilience.

Political Stakes

For the witnesses, the hearing offered a platform to present their technologies to policymakers at a pivotal moment. Pano AI expanded its capabilities for electric utilities and emergency managers as recently as June. The company's recent expansion signals that it is seeking additional utility and government partnerships. Fast Company recognized Pano AI as one of its Most Innovative Companies.

For the administration, the hearing highlighted questions about federal disaster preparedness amid proposed changes to NOAA and FEMA. The Council on Foreign Relations reported that the extreme costs and death toll of recent flooding across Texas, New Mexico and the Northeast have raised questions about the future of U.S. emergency preparedness amid budget and staffing cuts to risk-reduction agencies and programs. Boston University researchers warned that losing NOAA and FEMA expertise "will be really difficult to rebuild."

For Democrats, the hearing provided an opportunity to criticize the administration's disaster response record. Lofgren's criticism of withheld funding reflects broader frustration among Democratic-led states facing aid denials. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities noted that as of October 2025, at least 12 state requests for aid had been denied since the beginning of the Trump administration. Government Executive reported in September that experts said the biggest challenge for emergency managers was the lack of clarity around Trump's disaster approvals.

States across the wildfire-prone Western U.S. are using AI for early detection. Researchers in Switzerland are training AI models on vast troves of NASA climate data to produce potentially lifesaving forecasts more quickly. The Union of Concerned Scientists warned in May that the U.S. faced triple the danger during the year's "Danger Season," with heat, drought, wildfires, and hurricanes all elevated.

The Other Side

The Trump administration has framed its approach as pro-innovation. In June 2025, President Trump issued an Executive Order on wildfires directing the secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture to develop a comprehensive technology roadmap to increase wildfire-fighting capabilities at the state and local levels, including through artificial intelligence, data sharing and innovative modeling and mapping capabilities. The Firefighters and EMS Fund summarized Trump's wildfire executive order's vision as the new Federal Wildland Fire Service guiding its actions through a combination of artificial intelligence, predictive mapping, ignition detection systems, and weather forecasting models.

Politico reported in July that companies peddling smoke-spotting cameras, firefighting drones and forest-clearing robots were taking their pitch from California to the Capitol after advising Trump on policies directing agencies to use technology including artificial intelligence, data sharing, mapping and weather forecasting to improve wildfire detection and response. An unusual lobbying blitz underway in Washington seeks to secure federal money for drones, AI-powered cameras, satellites and other tools meant to prevent, detect and manage wildfires.

The gap between data collection and getting actionable information to the public remains a weak link in the disaster response system. Lengthy contracting processes, fragmented funding streams and difficulty integrating new technologies into existing systems can slow disaster technology deployment. Cal Fire is adopting next-generation wildfire technology, including AI-powered camera networks, to enhance wildfire detection and response.

The Bottom Line

No legislation was directly associated with the hearing. The Committee on Science, Space, and Technology has separately advanced legislation addressing weather forecasting, earthquake monitoring and artificial intelligence.

The hearing also reflects a broader shift in how the Trump administration approaches disaster response. On Jan. 24, 2025, President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14180 establishing the FEMA Review Council, citing the need to review FEMA's efficacy, priorities, and competence. Stanford HAI's analysis of the Trump AI Action Plan notes that it leans into market-driven approaches, including promoting open models and accelerating infrastructure, rather than the previous administration's emphasis on whole-of-government coordination and safeguards against AI-enabled harms.

The Sept. 15 hearing reflected congressional debate over whether emerging technologies can strengthen disaster prediction and response as policymakers consider federal funding for NOAA research and changes to the nation's disaster-response system.

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