Sponsors (62)
The bill expands financial incentives and tax relief to encourage household, farm, and business disaster mitigation and simplifies tax treatment of some disaster payments — but funding limits, eligibility rules, administrative complexity, revenue loss, and uneven distribution mean many at‑risk households may still face large unmet mitigation costs and delayed benefits.
Homeowners in designated high‑risk areas can receive up to $10,000 (CPI‑indexed) in pre‑disaster mitigation grants, with program rules that prioritize lower‑ and moderate‑income households via AGI limits.
State catastrophe mitigation grants and specified USDA disaster/food‑assistance related payments are excluded from taxable income, leaving recipients (homeowners, farmers, food‑assistance households) with more net recovery or support.
A federal 30% tax credit for qualifying disaster mitigation work reduces the after‑tax cost of hardening homes and buildings and allows businesses to claim their portion as a general business credit, encouraging private mitigation investment.
Many major mitigation projects (e.g., seismic retrofits, raising a home above flood level) will not be fully covered because the $10,000 grant cap is often insufficient, leaving homeowners to pay substantial remaining costs.
The program is limited to designated 'eligible disaster areas' and defined high‑risk zones, so a substantial number of at‑risk households may be ineligible if designations are narrow or not updated quickly.
States, tribes, local administrators and the IRS face increased administrative burden to prepare plans, update guidance, track reimbursements, and ensure compliance, which can delay grant availability and raise implementation costs.
Based on analysis of 5 sections of legislative text.
Creates a household mitigation grant program (up to $10,000/household), excludes certain mitigation payments from income, and adds a 30% tax credit for qualifying mitigation costs.
Official title: To amend the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act to require the President to establish an individual household disaster mitigation program, and for other purposes.
Introduced February 6, 2025 by Michael Thompson · Last progress February 6, 2025
Creates a new federal Individual Household Disaster Mitigation Program to fund pre-disaster mitigation work on private residences in high-risk, eligible disaster areas and makes several related tax-code changes. The bill authorizes grants to States and tribal governments (administered through FEMA and the Federal Insurance Office) with per-household caps, eligibility rules, and mitigation standards, and it adds new tax exclusions and a 30% tax credit to encourage household-level disaster resilience investments.