Bonamici Introduces Bipartisan Bill to Improve Tsunami Detection, Forecasting, Warnings

WASHINGTON, DC [06/27/25] – This week Representative Suzanne Bonamici introduced bipartisan legislation to improve tsunami detection, forecasting, warning coordination, and community mitigation programs.

The Tsunami Warning, Research, and Education Act of 2025 expands tsunami research and updates crucial warning and detection technology. It improves response and resiliency efforts to better protect, educate, and equip communities vulnerable to tsunamis. This bipartisan bill reauthorizes and modernizes the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration’s National Tsunami Warning program, which expired in 2023.  

“Tsunami can devastate a coastline in minutes, taking lives, destroying homes, crushing critical infrastructure,” said Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici. “More than five million Americans live in coastal communities vulnerable to tsunamis, including thousands in Oregon. These disasters can’t be prevented, so lives depend on our ability to detect, prepare for, and respond to them. We must update our critical tsunami warning systems and invest in research to make coastal communities safer.”

Updating the National Tsunami Warning Program will continue to protect lives, advance scientific innovation, and provide communities with the tools they need to prepare for and recover from tsunamis through 2030. The Tsunami Warning, Research, and Education Act of 2025 would:

• Enhance interagency and international coordination for tsunami alerts and response, including by integrating U.S. Geological Survey earthquake data with tsunami research.
• Streamline and modernize the Tsunami Warning System and expand the use of emergency alert tools, including the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS).
• Strengthen community hazard mitigation programs, including updated digital elevation models and behavioral science integration.
• Require the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administrationto develop and update a tsunami research and development plan every three years.
• Authorize $32 million annually, with targeted funding for state-level mitigation and research.

Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) is an original cosponsor.

A summary of the legislation can be found here, and the text of the legislation can be found here.

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