The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation has approved the Tsunami Warning, Research and Education Act of 2026. This legislation would reauthorize the Tsunami Warning and Education Act through 2030. The bill was led by Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and was passed as part of Senator Cantwell’s Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Reauthorization Act of 2026.
“The State of Washington faces one of the greatest tsunami threats in the world, putting coastal communities, critical infrastructure, and thousands of families at serious risk,” said Sen. Cantwell. “Preparation will save lives, so this bill develops a comprehensive national readiness strategy for a Cascadia event, strengthens our nation’s tsunami warning systems, and improves coordination between federal, state, local, and tribal partners.”
Washington state is considered to be at risk from several tsunami sources including the Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake potential, offshore seismic events in Puget Sound, submarine landslides, and distant earthquakes in the Pacific Ocean. These hazards can generate waves that threaten coastal areas.
The Cascadia Subduction Zone is a fault line stretching about 600 miles off Washington’s coast. It could produce a magnitude 9.0 earthquake resulting in a tsunami that could reach nearby communities within minutes. Such an event occurs roughly every 300 to 500 years; the last major quake was recorded on January 26th, 1700. Evidence suggests that tsunami waves from that event destroyed some Indigenous coastal communities in Cascadia and caused flooding as far away as Japan.
Under the proposed act:
- Appropriations for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) tsunami programs would be set at $30 million annually from fiscal year 2027 through 2030.
- NOAA would need to evaluate alert communications systems for tsunamis, maintain fail-safe warning capabilities, and conduct annual drills with various governmental partners.
- Coordination efforts by NOAA would expand to include tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations.
- The Government Accountability Office (GAO) would review national emergency preparedness for a Cascadia event; based on this review NOAA and FEMA would implement improvements.
- NOAA’s access to seismic data from the Alaska Earthquake Center would be protected.
- Each Tsunami Warning Center would hire a coordinator to work with emergency managers at all government levels.
In November 2025 Senator Cantwell wrote to NOAA Administrator Dr. Jacobs asking for protection of real-time seismic data access after funding cuts threatened its availability.
Senator Cantwell has previously worked on similar issues including co-authoring earlier versions of this legislation such as the Tsunami Warning, Education and Research Act of 2017 which became law as part of broader weather research efforts in that year. She also supported actions after the 2011 Japan tsunami aimed at dealing with debris reaching U.S. shores.
The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee is responsible for reviewing legislation related to commerce, science and transportation during congressional sessions (official website). The committee includes senators from both parties (official website) and operates out of its main office in Washington D.C.’s Russell Senate Office Building (official website). It addresses policy matters involving interstate commerce as well as science initiatives within Congress (official website).
