Senate Democrats are seeking to revive a database that had tracked billion-dollar climate and weather disasters for decades, until it was retired by the Trump administration this May.
NOAA had kept a database of disasters that exceeded $1 billion in damage in the U.S. since 1980, but the agency halted the project this spring, as the Trump administration cut back climate science research at government agencies.
The database, and annual reports drawn from it, offered useful illustrations of how climate change is shifting patterns of extreme weather at the same time people are increasingly moving into areas prone to disasters like flooding and wildfires. The reports were used by lawmakers in disaster funding decisions and for public awareness of the costs of natural disasters.
In May, a NOAA spokesperson for the agency told NBC News the decision to end the database was “in alignment with evolving priorities and staffing changes.”
Now, Senate Democrats, led by Peter Welch, D-Vt., have introduced a bill Thursday that would require NOAA to restore the database and update it at least twice a year with a new accounting of billion dollar disasters using much the same methodology the agency has used in the past. Congress determines NOAA’s budget and can outline the executive branch agency’s duties.
“Our legislation will reverse the Trump Administration’s reckless decision and restore this database so crucial to emergency preparedness and reducing costs of natural disasters,” Welch said in a statement. “This database has been absolutely essential in providing information about the cost of building back homes, businesses, and towns across the country after major weather disasters.”
Neither the White House nor NOAA responded to a request for comment.
More than a dozen Senators are co-sponsoring the bill, including Sens. Angela Alsobrooks and Chris Van Hollen, who represent Maryland, where NOAA is headquartered.
The bill likely stands a slim chance as standalone legislation; Republicans control the Senate and none of them are listed as a co-sponsor of the legislation.
The introduction of the new bill follows growing concerns and protests against funding cuts at NOAA and other climate-focused agencies, including the departure of a key scientist leading work on NOAA’s billion-dollar data, Adam Smith. He left the agency in May over plans to shutter the database. Since then, Smith has been hired by Climate Central, a nonprofit research group focused on climate change, to re-develop the work he was doing at NOAA.
Tom Di Liberto, a spokesman for Climate Central, said the organization does not comment on policy or legislation that is under consideration.
“We look forward to continuing to develop a billion dollar disaster dataset in-house,” Di Liberto said in an email.
From 1980 to 2024, the NOAA database tallied a total of 403 billion-dollar disasters. Last year, NOAA counted 27 billion-dollar disasters, which cost about $182.7 billion. The year saw the second most billion-dollar disasters in the report’s history, after 2023.
The analyses captured the “direct costs” of disasters, like damage to buildings, infrastructure and crops. But, it didn’t factor in other considerations like loss of life, the health-related costs of disasters or the economic losses to “natural capital’ like forests or wetlands according to a 2025 report from the Congressional Research Service.
NOAA’s analysis adjusted its data each year to account for inflation.
Previous reports noted that the number and cost of weather and climate disasters had increased over time because development in areas prone to flooding, wildfires and other natural disasters was increasing the number of assets at risk.
Plus, extreme weather is becoming more frequent, according to climate scientists. Climate change is driving temperatures higher, increasing the risk of heat waves, extreme precipitation and rapidly-intensifying hurricanes.
NOAA used private and public data to make its estimates, including data from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, U.S. Department of Agriculture and National Interagency Fire Center, as well as private insurance information.
Like NOAA, these agencies have been affected by cuts.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
