This bill, the “Promoting Resilient Buildings Act”, aims to amend the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act. The amendments will enhance predisaster hazard mitigation, establish a hazard mitigation revolving loan fund program, and create a residential retrofit and resilience pilot program. The residential retrofit program seeks to improve home resilience against natural disasters through various measures, and the Administrator will provide grants to individuals for this purpose. The bill also includes a timeline and reporting requirements. It clarifies that the Act only applies to appropriations made after its enactment and does not affect other programs under the Stafford Act.
Promoting Resilient Buildings Act
This bill increases flexibility for predisaster mitigation assistance for building code activities, prohibits using certain loan funds for building code activities, and establishes a pilot program to fund residential resilience retrofits.
Under current law, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) may provide predisaster hazard mitigation assistance to government entities for implementing the latest published editions of relevant building codes and standards. Also, FEMA must consider a government entity’s adoption of such building codes when determining whether to award it predisaster hazard mitigation assistance. The bill specifies that the building codes applicable in such instances are the two most recently published editions (i.e., either the current edition or the previous one).
Also, currently, under FEMA's Safeguarding Tomorrow Revolving Loan Fund (STRLF) program, states and Indian tribal governments may provide loans to local governments for establishing and carrying out building codes and standards. The bill removes this authority, so STRLF loans may not be used for such building code-related activities.
Additionally, the bill establishes a pilot program for FEMA to provide grants to government entities that then provide the funding to individuals for residential resilience retrofits. The retrofit projects must reduce risk to homes from local natural hazards and individuals must demonstrate financial need. To implement the pilot program, FEMA may use up to 10% of the funds FEMA provides annually for predisaster hazard mitigation assistance. The pilot program terminates at the end of FY2030.
