Contact
John Sokich
john.sokich@noaa.gov
301-427-9064

The Congressional Affairs Division regularly and proactively communicates with Congressional staff to build strong working relationships with a goal of advancing the agency's legislative priorities. CAD is the primary point of contact for all non-budgetary Congressional communication, both incoming and outgoing, including information regarding NWS programs, services, and policies. Staff facilitates NWS’ participation in Congressional hearings, including the preparation of Congressional testimony, position statements, and the response to general, non-budgetary Congressional inquiries; assists Congressional offices in responding to constituent inquiries regarding NWS’ programs and policies; tracks legislation and legislative processes and develops policy positions for proposal and legislation. Staff provides guidance to and advises the AA and DAA on strategic interactions with Congress, and lead the preparation of briefing materials, talking points, and memos, and provide on-site support during meeting or briefings on Capitol Hill. CAD Staff coordinate with NWS CFO staff on briefing materials, reports, and memos for interactions with budget and appropriations committees staff or members. Staff also provides oversight and guidance to NWS local and regional offices, and headquarters related to effective ways to interact with Congressional members and staff. CAD also coordinates with the NOAA Office of Legislative Affairs to ensure consistent messaging and that the Department, NOAA, and NWS priorities and budgets are clearly articulated in correspondence with Congressional members and staff.

Contact
Chris Vaccaro
christopher.vaccaro@noaa.gov
202-536-8911

The Communications Division provides comprehensive and proactive strategic and tactical communications, including the development and coordination of communication policies, strategies and activities. The Division advises senior management, develops NWS-wide strategic communication objectives and provides guidance and strategies on all communication issues including complex and politically sensitive aspects of the agency's programs, policies or positions to program offices, regional offices, national centers and WFOs to engage partners and stakeholders. The Division builds and fosters relationships with external constituency groups, including the Weather, Water and Climate Enterprise, other Federal agencies, and state, local, tribal and territorial offices/officials. The Division creates awareness and preparedness materials for field and headquarters personnel to support outreach and education efforts to better prepare emergency management officials, the public and other stakeholders to respond to weather and water events. The Division ensures all outreach and educational materials are consistent and thorough when communicating the programs, services and priorities of the agency to enhance the understanding of, and support for, the NWS mission. The Division determines a strategic approach, standards and guidelines, and ensures consistency in the development and dissemination of NWS digital content and social media messages and NWS web content, and provides guidance regarding the use of emerging communications technologies, and complies with Department of Commerce and NOAA policies. The Division collaborates with the Communication Offices across all NOAA lines and in coordination with NOAA Communications and NOAA Legislative Affairs. Internal Communications includes “executive affairs” responsibilities that assign, track, and archive NWS senior management correspondence and actions including quality control for content and consistency. The staff serves as NWS’ liaison for records management functions, including Memorandums of Agreements, Understanding, and Interagency Agreements.