Sponsors (4)
The bill creates a centralized, public, and archived NCEI database that improves planning, research, and community preparedness but requires federal resources, may provoke disputes over standardized cost estimates, and its biannual update cadence could limit usefulness for immediate response.
Researchers, policymakers, emergency managers, state and local governments, and taxpayers gain a centralized, publicly accessible, and archived NCEI database of billion‑dollar disasters (with cost estimates and maps) that improves long‑term planning, research, insurance/recovery planning, and resource allocation.
Local communities (urban and rural) and local governments gain transparent public access to disaster cost estimates and maps, which helps community awareness and preparedness.
Emergency managers and local governments may find the biannual update schedule too slow for fast‑moving disaster assessments, reducing the database's usefulness for immediate response decisions.
Taxpayers and NOAA/federal employees may bear additional costs to build, host, and maintain the enhanced public database and visualization tools.
Standardizing damage costs based on NCEI determinations could produce disputes between local officials, insurers, and taxpayers over estimated losses.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Introduced October 28, 2025 by Joseph Neguse · Last progress October 28, 2025
Creates a public NOAA database and webpage that lists and describes each U.S. "billion‑dollar disaster," updated at least twice a year. The database must include estimated costs, disaster type, location, dates, and visual maps/graphs like the prior NCEI tools; NOAA may collaborate with federal and non‑federal partners and may include non‑billion‑dollar events at its discretion. NOAA must also maintain the earlier NCEI disaster archive for research and archiving.