Us Congress 2025-2026 Regular Session

Us Congress House Bill HB403 Compare Versions

Only one version of the bill is available at this time.

Old	New	Differences
1	1	I
2	2	119THCONGRESS
3	3	1
4	4	STSESSION H. R. 403
5	5	To enhance predisaster mitigation to prevent future natural disasters, and
6	6	for other purposes.
7	7	IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
8	8	JANUARY14, 2025
9	9	Mr. S
10	10	WALWELLintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the
11	11	Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
12	12	A BILL
13	13	To enhance predisaster mitigation to prevent future natural
14	14	disasters, and for other purposes.
15	15	Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
16	16	tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
17	17	SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
18	18	This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Preventing Our Next 4
19	19	Natural Disaster Act’’. 5
20	20	SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 6
21	21	Section 203(a) of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Re-7
22	22	lief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5133(a)) 8
23	23	is amended to read as follows: 9
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27	27	‘‘(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section, the following 1
28	28	definitions apply: 2
29	29	‘‘(1) H
30	30	IGH HAZARD RISK.—The term ‘high haz-3
31	31	ard risk’ means high rating of a natural hazard risk 4
32	32	according to a tool such as the National Risk Index 5
33	33	or another tool developed by the Federal Emergency 6
34	34	Management Agency. 7
35	35	‘‘(2) E
36	36	NVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE COMMUNITY .— 8
37	37	The term ‘environmental justice community’ means 9
38	38	a community primarily composed of communities of 10
39	39	color, low-income communities, or Tribal and indige-11
40	40	nous communities, that experiences, or is at risk of 12
41	41	experiencing, higher or more adverse human health 13
42	42	or environmental effects than most communities. 14
43	43	‘‘(3) S
44	44	MALL IMPOVERISHED COMMUNITY .—The 15
45	45	term ‘small impoverished community’ means a com-16
46	46	munity that is comprised of 50,000 or fewer individ-17
47	47	uals and that is economically disadvantaged, as de-18
48	48	termined by the State in which the community is lo-19
49	49	cated and based on criteria established by the Presi-20
50	50	dent.’’. 21
51	51	SEC. 3. TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE. 22
52	52	Section 203(e) of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Re-23
53	53	lief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5133(e)) 24
54	54	is amended by adding at the end the following: 25
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58	58	‘‘(3) GUIDANCE.—The Administrator may de-1
59	59	velop guidance regarding how to incorporate climate 2
60	60	change into— 3
61	61	‘‘(A) the National Risk Index; 4
62	62	‘‘(B) cost-benefit analyses; and 5
63	63	‘‘(C) adopting improved relevant con-6
64	64	sensus-based codes, specifications, and stand-7
65	65	ards to address natural hazards. 8
66	66	‘‘(4) B
67	67	UILDING, RESTORATION, OR REHABILITA-9
68	68	TION.—The Administrator may issue guidance to en-10
69	69	sure that funds provided under this section are used 11
70	70	to support the building, restoration, or rehabilitation 12
71	71	of hazard mitigation projects that are— 13
72	72	‘‘(A) planned and designed around the fu-14
73	73	ture projections of climate change over the life 15
74	74	cycle of the project; and 16
75	75	‘‘(B) built to withstand future flooding, 17
76	76	wildfires, or other natural disasters.’’. 18
77	77	SEC. 4. CRITERIA FOR ASSISTANCE AWARDS. 19
78	78	Section 203(g) of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Re-20
79	79	lief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5133(g)) 21
80	80	is amended— 22
81	81	(1) by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end of paragraph 23
82	82	(11); 24
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85	85	•HR 403 IH
86	86	(2) by redesignating paragraph (12) as para-1
87	87	graph (13); and 2
88	88	(3) by inserting after paragraph (11) the fol-3
89	89	lowing: 4
90	90	‘‘(12) and prioritize communities that are in 5
91	91	high hazard risk communities, environmental justice 6
92	92	communities, communities with low tax revenue base 7
93	93	per capita, and communities with a low rate of code 8
94	94	adoption and enforcement and infrastructure main-9
95	95	tenance expenditures (the Administrator of the Fed-10
96	96	eral Emergency Management Agency shall establish 11
97	97	guidelines to develop measurable criteria to deter-12
98	98	mine such priority for high hazard risk communities 13
99	99	and integrate the data into a tool such as the Na-14
100	100	tional Risk Index and use the Resilience Analysis 15
101	101	and Planning Tool to help target the communities 16
102	102	with the greatest need of assistance); and’’. 17
103	103	SEC. 5. FEDERAL SHARE. 18
104	104	Section 203(h)(2)) of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster 19
105	105	Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 20
106	106	5133(h)(2)) is amended to read as follows: 21
107	107	‘‘(2) S
108	108	MALL IMPOVERISHED COMMUNITIES AND 22
109	109	ENVIRONMENT JUSTICE COMMUNITIES .—Notwith-23
110	110	standing paragraph (1), the President may con-24
111	111	tribute up to 90 percent of the total cost of a miti-25
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114	114	•HR 403 IH
115	115	gation activity carried out in a small impoverished 1
116	116	community or an environmental justice commu-2
117	117	nity.’’. 3
118	118	SEC. 6. NATIONAL PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE 4
119	119	PREDISASTER MITIGATION ASSISTANCE. 5
120	120	Section 203(i)(1) of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster 6
121	121	Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 7
122	122	5133(i)(1)) is amended— 8
123	123	(1) by striking ‘‘6 percent’’ and inserting ‘‘15 9
124	124	percent’’; and 10
125	125	(2) by adding at the end the following: ‘‘From 11
126	126	such total amount made available from the Disaster 12
127	127	Relief Fund, with respect to each major disaster, the 13
128	128	President may set aside 2 percent of the estimated 14
129	129	aggregate amount of the grants to be made pursu-15
130	130	ant to sections 403, 406, 407, 408, 410, 416, and 16
131	131	428 for the major disaster for community planning 17
132	132	and capacity building assistance.’’. 18
133	133	SEC. 7. COMMUNITY OUTREACH. 19
134	134	Section 203 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief 20
135	135	and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5133) is 21
136	136	amended by adding at the end the following: 22
137	137	‘‘(m) C
138	138	OMMUNITY OUTREACHASSISTANCE.—The 23
139	139	Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management 24
140	140	Agency, in collaboration with organizations, such as the 25
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143	143	•HR 403 IH
144	144	United States Cooperative Extension System and the Ex-1
145	145	tension Disaster Education Network, shall provide com-2
146	146	munity outreach to communities under this section, with 3
147	147	a goal of increasing applications from communities with 4
148	148	high hazard risk, environmental justice communities, com-5
149	149	munities with low tax revenue base per capita, and com-6
150	150	munities with a low rate of code adoption and enforcement 7
151	151	and infrastructure maintenance expenditures, regarding 8
152	152	how to plan and prioritize projects based on current cli-9
153	153	mate conditions, future hazard risk, and social vulner-10
154	154	ability assessments as well as how to successfully develop, 11
155	155	submit, and administer a grant under this section.’’. 12
156	156	SEC. 8. IMPROVED DATA COLLECTION. 13
157	157	Not later than 3 years after the date of enactment 14
158	158	of this Act, the Administrator of the Federal Emergency 15
159	159	Management Agency shall establish a central Federal 16
160	160	database at the Agency, in coordination with the Depart-17
161	161	ment of Housing and Urban Development, the Environ-18
162	162	ment Protection Agency, the Economic Development Ad-19
163	163	ministration, the Small Business Administration, the 20
164	164	Army Corps of Engineers, and any other relevant agencies 21
165	165	the Administrator chooses to include, to consolidate fund-22
166	166	ing data collected by all local, State, and Federal agencies 23
167	167	involved in post-disaster response and predisaster mitiga-24
168	168	tion spending and categorize the data by type of project, 25
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171	171	•HR 403 IH
172	172	funding source, and hazard types using an user friendly 1
173	173	database and interactive map. Such database shall also in-2
174	174	clude— 3
175	175	(1) the collection and posting of census track 4
176	176	data and post aggregate demographic data, pursuant 5
177	177	to the Paperwork Reduction Act (44 U.S.C. 3501 et 6
178	178	seq.) as well as any future guidance by such office 7
179	179	on data equity on the impact of natural disaster and 8
180	180	Federal recovery efforts to better allocate and trace 9
181	181	funds; and 10
182	182	(2) post-project evaluations by the Agency to 11
183	183	analyze disaster spending and report findings on 12
184	184	what may have been saved by proper predisaster 13
185	185	mitigation. 14
186	186	Æ
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