Sponsors (2)
The bill targets limited federal grants and clearer technical standards to improve household resilience and reduce future disaster costs, but those benefits are constrained by funding limits, a temporary pilot, potential compliance costs for communities, and added administrative or legal uncertainty.
Homeowners — especially low-income households — can receive federal grants to retrofit homes against floods, wind, earthquakes, and wildfires, reducing future property damage, directing scarce funds to vulnerable households, and generating implementation data to improve future mitigation policy.
Local and state governments gain clearer, updated guidance by defining 'latest published editions' as the two most recent consensus-based code editions, letting states and grantees reference a specific recent standard when rebuilding and reducing ambiguity in compliance.
Removal of an outdated/conflicting paragraph simplifies FEMA program administration and statutory structure, which can streamline program implementation for state and local governments and eligible entities.
The pilot is limited to at most 10% of annual Stafford Act §203 funds, which reduces funds available for other hazard mitigation projects that communities rely on.
The pilot is temporary and sunsets on September 30, 2030, creating uncertainty about long-term continuity of assistance and program benefits after that date.
Grants are limited to amounts appropriated on or after enactment, so insufficient congressional appropriations could delay or restrict program scale and limit immediate help to households in need.
Based on analysis of 5 sections of legislative text.
Creates a FEMA pilot to fund residential resilience retrofits via State/local grants, adds definitions to the Stafford Act, deletes one revolving-loan paragraph, and caps pilot funds at 10% of predisaster mitigation dollars.
Official title: Amend the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act with respect to the implementation of building codes, and for other purposes.
Introduced February 4, 2025 by John Cornyn · Last progress February 4, 2025
Creates a FEMA pilot that funds residential resilience retrofits through the Stafford Act predisaster hazard mitigation program. The pilot lets States and local governments award grants to individuals to perform measures (e.g., elevation, floodproofing, safe rooms, seismic, wildfire, wind protections) that reduce damage from local natural hazards, prioritizing people with financial need and reporting results to Congress. Also updates Stafford Act definitions (adds a “latest published editions” term), removes one existing statutory paragraph from the hazard mitigation revolving loan fund authorities, limits pilot funding to at most 10% of annual predisaster hazard mitigation funds, requires FEMA to stand up the pilot within one year, and ends the pilot on September 30, 2030. The changes apply only to amounts appropriated on or after enactment.