In 1996, the Western Governors' Association (WGA) sought to change the way the U.S. prepared for and responded to droughts. Their efforts paved the way for Congress to enact Public Law 105–199, the National Drought Policy Act, in July 1998. This law established “an advisory commission to provide advice and recommendations on the creation of an integrated, coordinated Federal policy designed to prepare for and respond to serious drought emergencies.” The law established the National Drought Policy Commission and directed them to “conduct a thorough study and submit a report on national drought policy.”

The report, Preparing for Drought in the 21st Century, published in 2000, concluded that the U.S. would benefit from the development of a policy with preparedness as its core. Furthermore, the report encouraged partnerships among federal as well as non-federal governments and private interests to develop tools and strategies for formulating and carrying out appropriate drought preparedness strategies. The commission concluded that, at the time, federal programs lacked a coordinated approach to delivery of drought-related services. They called for more efficient, effective, and timely practices to be put in place.

Beginning in 2003, the WGA and NOAA partnered to develop a vision and recommendations for establishing an improved drought monitoring and forecasting system. Through this partnership, a team of more than 80 scientists, researchers, policymakers, and resource managers worked together to produce Creating A Drought Early Warning System for the 21st Century: The National Integrated Drought Information System. Recommendations from that report were key to the creation of Public Law 109–430, the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) Act, authorized by Congress in December of 2006.

Meanwhile, the NIDIS Implementation Team had been conducting workshops and meetings with federal, state, and local agencies, academic researchers, and other stakeholders, including a conference in Colorado, Managing Drought and Water Scarcity in Vulnerable Environments: Creating a Roadmap for Change in the United States, sponsored by the Geological Society of America and 20 other scientific and technical organizations. The original NIDIS Implementation Plan grew out of information gleaned from these activities. The plan outlined how NIDIS would:

• Develop the leadership and networks to implement an integrated drought monitoring and forecasting system at federal, state, and local levels
• Foster and support a research environment focusing on risk assessment, forecasting, and management
• Create an early warning system for drought to provide accurate, timely, and integrated information
• Develop interactive systems, such as Drought.gov, as part of the early warning system
• Provide a framework for public awareness and education about droughts.

In 2014, Congress passed the NIDIS Reauthorization Act of 2014. This bill revises NIDIS's functions to require NIDIS to, among other things: (1) provide an effective drought early warning system consisting of certain information, forecasts, and assessments on both national and regional levels; (2) build upon existing forecasting and assessment programs and partnerships through designation of one or more cooperative institutes to assist with NIDIS functions; and (3) continue ongoing research and monitoring activities related to drought and the role of extreme weather events and climate variability in drought.

As of December 2016, NIDIS updated its Implementation Plan to reflect a second phase of NIDIS development and reauthorization by Congress in 2014.

The plan details NIDIS’s evolution and lessons learned in moving towards a national drought early warning information system, and reflects the thoughtful feedback and participation of NIDIS’s partners.

On January 7, 2019, Congress passed Public Law 115–423, the NIDIS Reauthorization Act of 2018, reauthorizing the program through FY 2023. The law calls upon NIDIS to engage with the private sector to improve drought monitoring, forecasting, and communication; to utilize monitoring by citizen scientists; to support improvements in seasonal and subseasonal forecasting; to disseminate information products that show watershed differences in drought conditions; and to develop a strategy for a national coordinated soil moisture monitoring network.

In October 2022, NIDIS released the 2022–2026 NIDIS Strategic Action Plan, which presents an expanded set of priorities for the next five years, identified through consultative engagement with Federal, tribal, state, and local partners.

The Plan reflects the need to better understand drought impacts to the economy, ecosystems, public health, and the interactions of drought and wildland fire in specific locations and how these may be connected across regions. 

This Plan builds upon the 2016 Implementation Plan Update, Regional DEWS Strategic Plans, and the strategic documents that accompany national-level NIDIS initiatives.