Sponsors (14)
The bill creates a public, centralized billion-dollar disaster database that improves government coordination, public decision-making, and research, but it requires NOAA resources, can produce short-term confusion from revised estimates, and may underrepresent smaller yet harmful disasters.
State, local, and federal emergency managers and agencies can access a centralized, consistent billion-dollar disaster dataset (costs, locations, timing) to better plan mitigation, coordinate responses, and target recovery funding.
Homeowners, businesses, and insurers can view historical disaster trajectories and types to inform insurance decisions, preparedness actions, and property investments.
Researchers and scientists gain preserved, searchable archives and mapping tools useful for climate, risk, and economic research and policy analysis.
Smaller but cumulatively damaging disasters may be underrepresented because the database records only events meeting a $1 billion threshold, which could skew local planning and risk perception.
NOAA will need to allocate staff and resources to build and maintain the database, potentially increasing costs or diverting effort from other NOAA priorities.
Publicly posted preliminary cost estimates may be revised and are only updated biannually, creating temporary confusion for homeowners, businesses, insurers, and planners who rely on those figures.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Introduced September 11, 2025 by Peter Welch · Last progress September 11, 2025
Requires the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to create and maintain a publicly available database and webpage that documents every U.S. "billion-dollar disaster." The database must be updated at least twice a year and include estimated costs, disaster type, location, dates, maps, graphs, and any other information the NOAA Administrator finds appropriate, and NOAA must keep an archived copy of the prior NCEI database available for research. The measure lets NOAA use its own data and work with federal and non-federal partners, may optionally include non–billion-dollar disasters, and defines a "billion-dollar disaster" as a storm or severe weather event with $1,000,000,000 or more in combined direct and market costs as determined by NCEI.