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The Issue
On April 14, 2005, Senator Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) introduced the National Weather Service Duties Act of 2005 to the 109th Congress to limit the duties and responsibilities of the National Weather Service (NWS). If enacted, this legislation prohibits the NWS from providing weather products and services that are or could be provided by the private sector. The bill appears to be an effort by the commercial weather vendors to remove NWS as a "competitor" in the production of weather products.
This legislation could result in the NWS no longer being permitted to provide the aviation weather products used by pilots, the DUAT system, and the flight service station system. Instead, the FAA would have to purchase these products from private companies.<snip>
This sure looks like Tricky Ricky is trying to privatize the weather.
Full article:
http://www.aopa.org/whatsnew/air_traffic/nws.html