Saving the OOI Act of 2026

This section would give the Act a short title: the Saving the OOI Act of 2026.

This section would bar the National Science Foundation from using any federal funds to decommission or descope the instruments of the Ocean Observatories Initiative that are anchored off the states of Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and North Carolina, and in the Irminger Sea. This bar would apply notwithstanding any other provision of law, meaning it would override other laws that might otherwise allow the funding to be used that way. The bar would stay in place until the National Science Foundation completes a thorough review of the initiative and of the national assets it provides, and that review would have to include robust stakeholder engagement from the scientific and coastal communities. Separately, the Director of the National Science Foundation would have to maintain the Ocean Observatories Initiative with full and consistent operations, including monitoring, in all states that had instruments decommissioned, and this requirement would last until the full review described above has been completed.